Thomas Hardy chooses to switch your attention in The Withered Arm, by not concentrating on one characters loneliness, but on four, this is of the main characters of Rhoda, Gertrude, the boy and Farmer Lodge. The first three chapters are mainly focused on Rhoda and you recognize how emotionally isolated she is, when the others chat to each other but as the paragraphs continue she doesn’t join in, you see how she is different …showed first 75 words of 299 total…

…showed last 75 words of 299 total…as well, He would speak to nobody. The boy has no affection given to him, but is only used to run errands. She takes no notice of him, like his father. The relationship with Gertrude and farmer lodge starts to go downhill when the disfigurement of her arm appears he doesn’t want her to leave the house and he is very curious to find out how here arm has got to become like this.