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Hardy's Portrayal of Women in His Short Stories Essay

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Hardy's Portrayal of Women in His Short Stories Thomas Hardy was a major novelist and poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 'The Wessex tales' are a set of short stories, which are based in the 1830's - 1840's although Hardy wrote them many years later. They are very much based around where he grew up and the society he lived in. Egdon Heath is a moor land where he grew up but has been re-named, along with all the other areas mentioned, which are based on real places.

The three stories that I am writing about are:

· 'The Withered Arm'

· 'The Distracted Preacher'

· 'The Melancholy Hussar of …show more content…

Lodge does not suffer any condemnation from the local community for his treatment of Rhoda Brook.

Rhoda's life on the other hand has been completely altered not to say ruined by the fact that she is now a single mother. As a milk maid her past is often commented on particularly once Lodge returns with his new wife. She works separately from the other dairy maids and lives with her son. In 10 or 20 years time he will be hung for a crime he very possibly did not commit. This happens in virtual isolation from the rest of the community. She is stigmatised. Lodge is not.

Phyllis Grove from ' The Melancholy Hussar' is a very sheltered young woman, who has a father with high expectations of her. He is very dominant thus she was dependant on him. She is a very unusual girl as she kept well away from people. Is she saw someone she "walked awkwardly and blushed to her shoulders" especially if it was any admirers. I think that this had an awful lot to do with her sheltered ness.

With her father's contemporary expectations of that time, she had to marry into a good family, which had the right ideas about life and social status. Humphrey Gould seemed perfect. He was brought up in money but has none himself "poor as a crow"; however he does have power which is very desirable. He appears as a man of fashion and has social connections with the court. Hardy points out to us straightaway that

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