The Withered Arm by Thomas Hardy and Farthing House by Susan Hill :: Thomas Hardy Farthing House Hill essays

The Withered Arm by Thomas Hardy and Farthing field of operations by Susan HillI am going to be comparing two short stories The withered arm byThomas Hardy, which was write before 1900 and Farthing house bySusan Hill which was written more recently. The themes in each of thetwo stories are quite similar. They are both establish around women, theirneeds and their wants and illegitimate children. Both stories haveobvious similarities curiously with the types of women in the story.The withered arm was a story written before 1900. At the time whenThe Withered Arm was written, there was a very elevated child mortalityrate. Babies died at an early age due to short(p) health care and repeatedpregnancies. Many women died during child yield. in that location were some formsof birth control but they were condemned by the church.Society believed that a womans main invention in life was marriage andmotherhood. For many, this was non possible. thither was a high gearmortality rate among st male babies, early death amongst adult malesand deportation among marriageable young men.There were hierarchies in society. Quite often, rich males would hand adultery with poor, working females. Once the woman gotpregnant, she would be left on her own as marriage was not possible.Single mothers would then get under ones skin outcasts in society. Generally,people knew what was happening. They were against elicit outside marriagebut they did zip to stop it.Now in the 21st century, the roles of women have changed. They are nolonger expected to just get married and have children. There is moreequality in todays society. Although women still get married, theyare interchangeablewise allowed a career and life of their own. They have morefreedom and independence. There is better health care and birthcontrol but sex outside marriage still continues. Today, there aremany adept mothers. Although they are no longer the outcasts theyonce were, they still have not been entirely accepte d by everyone andare sometimes treated as inferiors and thought of as sluts.In the Withered Arm, Rhoda Brook, a poor, once beautiful, milkmaid was employ by the rich farmer Lodge. After she became pregnant, she wastossed aside like some used toy. Lodge wanted postal code to do with her.He was rich, she was poor there was no way they could marry. Rhodahad a child without a husband. Everyone in their village knew aboutthe affair but did nothing to help. They knew that Rhoda had been usedand then discarded of but still continued to treat her as an outcastin society. She was the thing to gossip about when there was nothing