How Does Hardy masterfully depict the role of women in the Victorian Age?
In the story “The Son’s Veto” by Thomas Hardy, the writer represents the role of women in the Victorian Age by the character of Sophy and making use of her education, her social environment, her relationship with her son, and her life’s decision making.
Firstly, Sophy hadn’t gone to school, so her language was pretty poor and she got spelling problems. When it states “She had now been married more than fourteen years, and her husband had taken much trouble with her education; but she still held confused ideas on the use of “was” or “were”, which did not beget a respect for her among the few acquaintances”, it represents her as a lower class woman who married an upper-mid class man and without such education she wouldn´t be able to link up with other people. So, regarding the social environment “An exchange of livings had been arranged with an acquaintance who was incumbent of a church in the south of London (…). It was all on her account. They were, however, away from everyone who had known her former position; and also under less observation”. By telling this, the writer wants to demonstrate that they needed to move so people wouldn’t know who where they and from where did they come. This also illustrates her position in the social environment of the Victorian Age and how isolated she was left by it.
Secondly, even the children of many families were more educated than their mother; in “The Son’s Veto”, her son “was now old enough to perceive these deficiencies in his mother, and not only to see them but to feel irritated at their existence.”, as they were a mid-class family, and her son knew this, he felt irked about her mother’s flaws. Also, women were so influenced by men that at the end of the story, when she wants to marry a lower-class man, her son told her off and she had to say to Sam: “But there’s something else. I have a son… I almost fancy when I am miserable sometimes that he is not really mine, but one I hold in trust for my late husband. He seems to belong so little to me personally, so entirely to his dead father. He is so much educated and I so little that I do not feel dignified enough to be his mother… Well, he would have to be told.”. Her son interfered in his mother’s life because he was more educated than her and she has to respect his opinion. This portrays how the social difference between she and her son affects her decisions and how she must follow what her son says because he belongs in a higher social class.
In conclusion, the writer depicts the role of women in the Victorian Age so masterfully that because Sophy belongs to a lower social class, she has got almost no education at all; her social environment seems to be limited to other people from the lower classes; due to her son belongs to a higher class, she must obey him, and do what he says and this also influence her life’s decisions.