“Her Turn” and “To Please His Wife” stories Free Essay Example

Both stories deal with the pressure that lack of money can cause in a marriage. Compare the way in which Thomas Hardy and D. H. Lawrence portray relationships between men and women: In the two stories I am studying; ‘Her Turn’ by D. H. Lawrence and ‘To Please His Wife’ by Thomas Hardy, both writers deal with the pressure that lack of money can cause in a marriage, in tow different situations. The first story, ‘To Please His Wife’ by Thomas Hardy, is written at the turn of the 20th Century.

The story is of a mysterious stranger, who turns up in Havenpool Town one Sunday afternoon.

He turns out to have once been a member of the local parish, a seaman, who narrowly escaped a shipwreck, Captain Shadrach Jolliffe. He talks first with the townsmen whom he once knew, then his attention turns to two girls, who he recognizes as Emily Hanning and Joanna Phippard. The story then tells of how Emily and Shadrach Jollife get closer and closer until they fall in love with one another – “Emily Hanning lost her heart to the sailor” which begins the courtship between Shadrach and Emily.

After a while, however, in the next month, Shadrach gradually draws away from Emily and into the courtship between him and Joanna, as Joanna manipulates him and “contrived to wean him away from her gentler and younger rival”. Soon, it was rumoured that Shadrach was to be married to Joanna. Joanna isn’t satisfied with Shadrach however, and is, at first, considering giving him up to her friend Emily.

She soon changes her mind though, when she witnesses an event between Shadrach and Emily, in which Shadrach explains his love for Emily, and not that of Joanna – she is envious “Green envy had overspread Joanna at the scene… She could not let Shadrach go”. She is jealous of Shadrach’s love for Emily, and wants him for herself. The second story, ‘Her Turn’, by D. H. Lawrence is different to ‘To Please His Wife’ as Mr and Mrs Radford are already married, even though it is a second marriage for Mr Radford.

The author goes on to explain how Mr Radford works “… down pit” and gives his wife thirty-five shillings a week as well as his two sons who give her twelve shillings each. We learn that eighteen months ago, Mr Radford and his work colleagues had gone on strike for eleven weeks and even though Mr Radford was paid the low wage strikers pay, he didn’t give her a penny – “she could neither cajole not entreat nor nag the eleven shillings strike-pay from her husband”. Now with a second strike in place, she was determined to claim it from him.

Although both stories are different in situation, they are similar in content. Both the wives of the two men involved want the money from their husbands for the same kind of reasons. Joanna Jolliffe, after marrying Shadrach takes up a grocers shop, when her mother dies, as she won’t allow him to go back to sea. Their business crashes and burns, as Shadrach isn’t cut out for the job. He is a seaman. He isn’t “endowed with the narrow shrewdness necessary for developing a retail business”.

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