Short Story
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I. Definitions:

1. The short story is a protean form. It may be very short indeed, or it may stretch until it approaches the short novel in length. It may be told in numerous ways, through various points of view; and it may unfold chronologically or jump blithely from present to past and back again.

2. It is always about something: usually about people or objects; it always entails conflict of one sort or another.

3. A good short story is more than a look into the world that an author sees. It is the product of craft and intelligence. Its shortness makes it hard to write because it must make its point with few words. Because of this limitation, most short stories confine themselves to one, two, or three characters and to one significant event or climatic segment in the lives of its characters.

4. A short story, too, is a product of creative arrangement, achieved by the writer through selection of the materials of real life and of the real world, which he has accumulated either directly or vicariously.

5. A good writer, since he is concerned with the real world, seeks to portray man as he is, neither ape nor angel - but man. We believe that a good short story is both a window into a segment of the human experience and an interpretive record of it by one who has either lived it himself or who has somehow understood and experienced it vicariously.

II. Types:

Short stories are of many types. In the more traditional stories plot and character are strongly marked and always make a ready appeal for we are all interested in other human beings and like to know what happened next. When the story deals less with action than with a mood or atmosphere a much greater demand is made on our attention and on our imagination.

1- The Mystery Story.
2- The Story of the Uncanny (Like some of Edgar Allan Poe's stories).
3- Detective Story (Edmund Clerihew Bentley's The Sweet Shot, Herbert George Wells's The Diamond Maker, Agatha Christie's stories.)
4- Scientific Fantasy.
5- The Romantic Story of Adventure. (Cecil Scott Forester's The Cargo of Rice, John Buchan's The Loathly Opposite, Norah Burke's The Blue Bead.) Such stories illuminate character as well as depict action.
6- The Humorous Story (Saki's (Hector Hugo Munro's) The Stalled Ox, I.A. Williams' The Man Who Stole the Pelican.)
7- Animal Stories and Fables (Liam O'Flaherty's The Conger Eel, Hemmingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Melville's Moby Dick)
8- Thrillers.
9- Stories of Miracles, Deeds of Saints and Devils.
10- Ghost Stories (Scott's Wandering Willie's Tale is a visit to a Scottish devil who seems to have an ancestral relationship to Stevenson's 'Thrawn Janet' and Buchan's 'A Journey of Little Profit.'
11- Tales of Terror (which are not usually connected with any moral or social teaching. They aim at intensity)





Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928)


- Poet and novelist. Born in Dorset 1840.  Son of builder. Educated at Dorchester Grammar School. Trained as an architect and won a medal.
- Began writing poetry at about 1865.
- His first novel Desperate Remedies 1871.  The Poor Man and the Lady, By the Poor Man (1867) is said to be his first novel. It was not published.
- Achieved popular success with Far from the Madding Crowd (1874).
- Married to Emma Lavinia Gifford 1874; niece of an archdeacon.
- Continued to write novels until the unfavourable reception of Jude the Obscure (1895).
- After that he applied himself to poetry and the epic drama. The Dynasts (a 3-volume play) came out in 1903-8. It is about Napoleon.
- Married Florence Emily Dugdale in 1914  after death of the first wife 1912.
- His short stories were published under the characteristic title Life's Little Ironies.
- Hardy was originally a successful architect who took to literature, especially poetry, but who made his mark in prose fiction. He lived an isolated life in Dorset, his native County, and faithfully depicted his rural environment.
- In his works he shows the human will struggling against ill-comprehended laws of nature and fate - "Immanent Will."
- In his works nature and society over-rule the individual and ultimately decide his fate. Thence, the dim past determines the present-day life of its inhabitants. Mysterious and all-powerful forces and blind chance shape the destiny of his men. Except in Tess nature  (fields, heaths, downs, meadows, ...) springs as a character in his works.
- His works (novels) are tragic and he is the purest modern representative of Greek Fate Tragedy.
- Throughout his life, Hardy became familiar with the grimmer realities of rural (village) life. He is a nature adorer. It is said that as a short story writer, Hardy wrote about 40 stories. His stories tend to be oral conversations rather than artistic works.
- "The Withered Arm" could be an implicit reference to his unsuccessful marital life. His first marriage was happy at the beginning and bitter afterwards.
- Some of Hardy's friends were Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, and Henry James. Like George Eliot, he rejects Christian revelation.
- The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) traces the rise and fall of Michael Henchard, a tough egotistical fellow who, having committed the folly of drunkenly selling his wife and baby at a fair, turns teetotal and by sheer perseverance rises to wealth as a corn-factory owner and later to Mayor of Casterbridge.

- Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891) focuses on a poor village girl, Tess, who is seduced by the well-to-do Alec D'Urberville, a thoroughgoing Victorian villain. Tess gives birth to a child, but it dies, and eventually, while working on a dairy farm, she falls in love with Angel Clare, son of a clergyman. Tess delays revealing her past to Angel until their wedding night. When she confesses of her past, Angel, pitiless, immediately deserts her. Alone and forsaken, she eventually succumbs to Alec's pressure upon her to accept his protection. When Angel comes back repentant and claims her, her prospect of happiness has for the second time been ruined by the same man, Alec. Driven to madness, she murders him. The novel ends with her execution.
- Tess represents a powerful protest against the double standard of moral judgement in sexual matters which the Victorians applied to men and women.

Hardy's works:

I- Novels:
       1. Desperate Remedies (1871).
       2. Under the Greenwood Tree (1872).
       3. A Pair of Blue Eyes (1872?).
       4. Far from the Madding Crowd (1874).
       5. The Return of the Native (1878).
       6. The Trumpet Major (1880).
       7. The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886).
       8. The Woodlanders (1887).
       9. Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891).
       10. Jude the Obscure (1895).
                      
II. Poetry:
       1. Wessex Poems (1898).
       2. Poems of the Past and the Present (1901).
       3. Late Lyrics (1922).
       4. Human Shows, and,  Far Fantasies (1925).
       5. Winter Words (1928).


"The Withered Arm": (Sample commentaries)



I.   "The figure and action were those of the phantom ......."    (p.33)

This passage takes us more into Rhoda Brook's mind. It highlights her attitude to Gertrude whom she first met in her midnight vision. It describes Brook's feelings and moral position concerning that dream. The woman whom Brook sees in the above vision comes down to visit her and, to her surprise, proves beautiful and attractive. Comparing between the midnight visitor and this real figure, Brook starts to disbelieve her senses. In the vision Brook's rival was of "features shockingly distorted, and wrinkled as by age." Unexpectedly, this visitor turns out to be charming and winning; a thing that upsets the hostess. This is the first time these counter women come face to face. Brook tries to escape the confrontation but she fails because there was no backdoor to the cottage. This passage highlights two aspects of Brook's feelings. It concentrates on her expectations concerning Gertrude's physical appearance, and her disappointment that her visitor was not as ugly as the figure of her vision. Here, one finds that belief and disbelief interchange and as a result Brook is left confused as what has she to do.


II. "At these proofs .... the boy was absent."                  (p.33)

To R. Brook's disappointment, Gertrude is kind, friendly, and helpful. She repeatedly visits this family - mother and son - to make sure that the boots she brought for the boy were his size. This is the apparent reason behind her three frequent visits. As why she frequently calls on Brook, it can be inferred that she did that to find out about her rival and to decepher why the boy was gazing at her the first time she came to Holmstoke. That is to speak, she is either suspicious that the boy has a secret related to her, or somebody told her that she has got a rival and thus she came down to scrutinize (eye) her. Furthermore, this passage adds to our understanding and knowledge concerning the conflict between these two females. Rhoda feels guilty for what she had caused to Gertrude in the above dream. She starts to reproach herself for harbouring ill will against Gertrude. Her attitude towards the latter changes from anger to sympathy. Moreover, she sees that such a lovely woman should have her blessing and not her curse. Rhoda's above stance forms a temporary ebb in the conflict which intensifies after their visit  to the Conjurot. The disappointment of the boy could be a deliberate gesture on Harry's part that there is no need to his presence. Hardy wants to bring Rhoda Brook and Gertrude face to face without there being any obstacle between them.


III. "They tell me ... But you know."    (p.37)

This passage makes it clear that Gertrude started to suspect that Rhoda is behind what had happened to her arm. That is, what Gertrude states here forms an accusation of Rhoda and that she is an evil person. Furthermore, Gertrude wants to indirectly penetrate into Rhoda's inner thoughts. So, she refers to the relationship between Rhoda and the Conjuror. Hearing such an implied accusation, Rhoda turns pale and frustrated. She feels that her secret has come out ad that she no longer can deny the charge. Gertrude uses psychology to see into the mind of her rival.

In addition to the above conclusion, this passage takes on another issue related to superstition. It shows us that Gertrude began to believe in spirits and superstition. She has got an ordeal which cannot be cured but by means of magic and spells. Thus, she resorts to this phenomenon to solve her problem. As far as the morality of such a behaviour is concerned, it is left to the reader to judge by himself whether it is wrong or right.

We know that in her schoolgirl time Gertrude used to ridicule charms and books of necromancy as folly and that her first visit to the Conjuror was against her will:  "she had been conducted to the house of the solitary by Rhoda against her will." (p.43). But now it is she who wants to visit the Conjuror in a desperate effort to get her arm healed : "but it now suddenly occurred to Gertrude that she would, in a last desperate effort at deliverance from this seeming curse, again seek out the man." (p.43)


IV.  "D- you! what are you doing here? .... When he lifted her up she was unconscious."             (p.53)

This passage makes it clear that there was not any reconciliation between Rhoda Brook and Gertrude. Their antagonism continues even up to this crucial moment when all of them need to be consoled and cheered up. It is the first time Hardy brings all the characters of the story together. There emerges an opportunity for reconciliation and the steering of the story to a happy ending. On the contrary, Hardy magnifies the schism (tension) between them; a thing which adds to the tragic atmosphere in the story. As readers, we wish that Hardy had put an end to the hostility and hatred between Rhoda and Gertrude. Unfortunately, he makes us understand that such a tense and stressful relationship is irreconcilable and of tragic consequences. Unconsciously, Rhoda pours her curses on Gertrude and reveals to her that she hated her from the first time they met in the midnight vision. Rhoda damns Gertrude and calls her a worthless woman, "Hussy."  "You are like her at last," is Rhoda's conclusion.