Withered Arm By Thomas Hardy How Does Hardy Create Sympathy For Rhoda Brook
Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 in Higher Brockhampton near Dorchester in Dorset. ... “The Withered Arm” was first published in the “Wessex Tales” in 1888. ... Hardy makes the reader feel sympathetic towards Rhoda in many ways, his descriptions of her, his presentation of the class divide and Rhoda’s separation from society are a few of Hardy’s methods of promoting sympathy for the ageing milkmaid. Her lover and left to bring up their child alone abandon Rhoda; She is poverty stricken and still in love with the man that put her in her awful position. To make matters even worse Farmer Lodge has a new, young bride, Gertrude, whose description contrasts greatly to that of the fading Rhoda Brook. The story ends sympathetically also as Rhoda is shown, as at the beginning milking alone, but left even lonelier as a result of the tragic death of her son. “A lorn milkmaid” is the title of the opening chapter of “The Withered Arm”. ... Rhoda, a “thin, fading” woman milk, “somewhat apart from the rest”. ... This opening scene shows Rhoda’s loneliness and Hardy promotes sympathy for the lonely Rhoda with his description of her as “thin and fading”. We discover why Rhoda is forlorn as the chapter goes on. Hardy makes the reader feel more sympathy for Rhoda by showing the other milkers gossiping. Rhoda had an affair with Farmer Lodge twelve years earlier and has since been outcast by the village. The title of chapter one sets the scene, showing Rhoda alone and forlorn. Farm Lodge is described by Hardy as being in “the prime of life.” He is fourty years old yet the “thin, fading” Rhoda is ten years younger, at the age of thirty. By these differing descriptions Hardy shows the sexist attitude to women in the 1800s. ... Rhoda Brook female and poor (a social outcast). Rhoda is thirty years old but is already fading, the strain of living inn the lower-class and the fact that she is a woman combine to make her seem much older than she really is. Rhoda and her son live “apart from the rest in a lonely spot”, not far from Egdon Heath – they are on the edge of civilized society. ... This effective simile conveys the poverty of Rhoda’s life, her own bones showing through the skin, as she is “thin” and “worn”.