An Essay on The Withered Arm, by Thomas Hardy -- English Literature

An Essay on The Withered limb, by Thomas fearlessThe past is a hostile country. They did things differently there.The Go Between by L.P. Hartley.Thomas Hardy, a prissy novelist, based his stories on experience ofgrowing up in inelegant Dorset. Growing up there, he became familiar withthe language, customs, practises and stories of the country folk.These stories draw up on his experiences enabling him to write WessexTales. Among many pieces of work is The Withered Arm. The WitheredArm is a well-crafted short story written in the prose format. Thequote above portrays what pre-twentieth century writings shouldembrace good books should be insightable, realistic andsignificant to all people from any era. In this essay I am going todescribe the ways in which Thomas Hardy has made his short story, TheWithered Arm provoke to the modern reader.The Withered Arm is about Rhoda Brook, a dark milkmaid whoretaliates on her lovers beautiful new wife, Gertrude, after herlover, Farmer confr ont abandons her and their illigimate son. Hardy hascarefully structured all the elements of a short story reservation TheWithered Arm evoke and perennial to the modern reader. FarmerLodges denial of the affair with Rhoda and the neglection of his soncauses Rhodas plotting revenge. Employing the character, ConjurorTrendle, brings the amour of witchcraft and supernatural powers,giving the plot a paranormal twist. The human beings execution of The Boyimmediately grasps the interest of the reader because we learn that inthe Victorian times, committing such a petty crime, there is a considerablepenalty. We also learn that the lives of the people were so habitual,that they thought of executio... ...led and brings out the outflank in his stories, yet his language maybea little firm to understand for a modern reader. I do not attain thecharacter in The Withered Arm a problem at all because although someof those characters no longer exist, Rhoda, Conjuror Trendle, Hangman,it is sti ll fire to read about their daily lives and how thingswere for them after all good literature should be giving the readerand insight on how things were. Even though the reader may not alwaysagree to the philosophies hidden in his themes, it is captivating toimagine how a Victorian writer can touch on to such things. I think thatThe Withered Arm is a savage example of pre-twentieth centuryliterature because not only is it interesting, but it gives us aninsight on the different lives of the different characters and yet isstill interesting to the modern reader.