Withered Arm

<![CDATA[The Withered Arm by Thomas Hardy is a short story that was first published anonymously in 1888. For many British people of a certain age, the story is remembered as an oddity of their school experience. It has often been included on English Literature syllabuses, but the short tale always stood out compared to the typical mix of Victorian novelists, Romantic Poets and William Shakespeare. It sits somewhere between an ambiguous moral tale and a surreal supernatural horror. The story is set sometime around 1820. It starts in the milking shed of a large farm in Dorset. The milk maids are gossiping about the new wife of the farm's owner Farmer Lodge. As they begin to talk about how one of the other maids, Rhoda Brook will feel about the impending nuptials, it quickly becomes apparent Lodge is the father of Rhoda's twelve year old son. Rhoda's initial curiosity quickly turns into an ominous obsession. She asks her son (who is never named) to spy on Lodge and his wife Gertrude, so she can learn more about who the farmer has chosen to marry. Her son stands by the roadside and gets a look at the couple. Later he goes to church on Sunday to gather more information about Gertrude. Rhoda avoids meeting Gertrude personally, but comes to learn a great deal about her through intensely questioning her son. Rhoda then has a vivid dream where she is tormented by a demon that she knows represents Gertrude. In the dream Rhoda grabs the demon by the arm and throws her to the floor. The following day Rhoda learns that Gertrude will visit her home to give her son some new shoes. Gertrude's persistent kindness allows the two women to slowly build a close friendship. Eventually, Rhoda discovers that Gertrude is suffering from a disfigurement of her arm that started the day after Rhoda's dream. When Rhoda takes a look at the arm, she notices finger marks on the spot where she had grabbed the demon. Rhoda immediately becomes consumed by guilt as she realises the connection with her dream. The rest of the short story concerns Rhoda and Gertrude's attempts to find a cure for the 'Withered Arm', ultimately resorting to asking a local Conjuror for advice, before the tale delivers a shocking twist at its end. Hardy himself was born in 1840 in rural Dorset. Although not from a particularly wealthy family, he went on to become well educated, training as an architect before becoming a writer. During his long life he lived through a great change in British culture - the rapid expansion of industrialisation alongside an equally rapid decline in rural life. Hardy claimed that the Withered Arm was in fact based on a true story he had heard, although this was most likely just a reference to rural folklore. Either way, the book depicts a rural world that was rapidly disappearing in Hardy's time. In addition, it reflects his well documented concern for the poor in society, and particularly the lack of opportunities offered to women. Rhoda's life is one of persistent hardship when compared to Gertrude's. Farmer Lodge has fathered a child, but will not support and raise him due to powerful class barriers. Rhoda has no chance of changing her plight, and is forced to continue the drudgery of difficult manual labour. Finally, Gertrude, despite being from a much higher social class than Rhoda, still resorts to the supernatural to solve her medical condition, reflecting the poor educational opportunities offered to women, and the unscrupulous men (the Conjuror) who were willing to take advantage. The Withered Arm is one of Hardy's most famous short stories, but is now usually only available in collections of his work. It is a short, surreal, supernatural story that also tells us a great deal about the complex changes and social hierarchies in nineteenth century society.

Related Books

---

Wessex Tales
That Is to Say an Imaginative Woman, the Three Strangers, the Withered Arm, Fellow-Townsmen, Interlopers at the Knap; And the Distracted Preacher by Thomas Hardy

[gap height="20"]]]>