Comparison of The Withered Arm and The Rocking Horse Winner 1. From the title ‘The Withered Arm’ a visual image is conceived of a disfigured arm in our mind The main characters presented here are Rhoda brook and the young Mrs lodge, married to the farm owner where Rhoda brook works as a milkmaid. It’s basically a conflict of beauty which roda brrok envies and persistently uses her child to almost spy on Mrs. odge and report to her with feedback. The story is set in a rural atmosphere at a farm, the theme is governed by mrs lodge beauty. Rohda brook is so preoccupied about Mrs lodge features, qualities and her beauty, it drives her to such an extent that, that she haves a dream, a vision in which all the oppsite attributes associated with beauty appears to her in the form of miss lodge floating on top of roda as she sleeps in her room. ohda becomes so frighten that she grasps the figure of mrs lodge and imprints a mark on the figure, and strangely the same imprint appears on Mrs. lodge in reality. The imprint on mrs lodge arm gets worse,and mrs lodge goes to drastic measures to relive her pain, she assumes her husband does not love her as much,While Rhoda is in a constant battle with her self,that she has exercised a malignant deed against mrs,lodge. The conflicts raised here are of love and jealously.
The Essay on Farmer Lodge Arm Rhoda Withered
For this Essay I have to compare a pre 20 th century text with a 20 th century text. Both the texts must be short stories. The two pieces of text that I have chosen for this comparison are The Withered Arm, which is a pre-20 th century text written by Thomas Hardy & The Genius a 20 th century text written by Frank O'Connor. I have chosen these stories as they fit the category of which I have ...
However In ‘The Rocking horse Winner’ a total different perspective is presented in an almost superstitious tale, where a young boy gambles in horse race, but has an advantage of foreseeing the future of the winning horse each time he madly rocks in his rocking horse. The boy is trying to make his mother happy by winning and proving his luck. The boy mother’s who blames her husband for her unfortunate luck, both had a small income, but spent it unwisely for a social position they cannot keep support.
They are both together in a constant battle to get ‘’more money’’, It came to a point where the house becomes hunted by the phrase there must be more money, each time the children could here the phrase echo in a whisper tone. The story ‘s message is how greed for money could end up in serious consequences, even though the boy kept on winning on a cumulative scale. The boy wants to please his mum, in order for her to sustain her social status. The climax and upset raised here is that Rhod’s son and Mrs. odge die at the end of the story. Mrs lodge was chasing her beauty and was prepared to do so at all cost, she followed the advise of a conjuror, who advised her to place her withered arm on the neck of a corpse executed convict, as soon as he is killed, shockingly the corpse was of Rhoda’s son she faints on the scene as her husband and Rhoda were there to witness it. In the RHW a similar situation occurs where the young boy also dies at the end,in both cases the tragic loss is a result of their parents actions.
