# IX: A Rencounter explained — Short Fiction

> Chapter companion for Short Fiction by Thomas Hardy.

## What happens

Gertrude Lodge, having been admitted to the jail, witnesses the aftermath of an execution. She is forced to touch the neck of the executed man, Rhoda Brook's son, in a desperate attempt to cure her paralyzed arm. The shock of the encounter, combined with the appearance of Rhoda and her husband, causes Gertrude to collapse. She dies three days later. Her husband, burdened with remorse, sells his farms and moves away, eventually dying two years later. He leaves his property to a reformatory, with a small annuity for Rhoda, who refuses it and returns to her life as a milkmaid.

## Themes in this chapter

### Sacrifice and Duty

Gertrude sacrifices her own well-being in a desperate attempt to cure her arm, while Rhoda and her husband perform the grim duty of claiming the executed son's body.

### Fate and Coincidence

The conjuror's prediction of 'the turn o' the blood' comes true, but with fatal consequences for Gertrude.

### Isolation and Longing

After Gertrude's death, her husband lives in solitary lodgings, and Rhoda returns to her lonely life as a milkmaid, refusing the annuity offered to her.

## Character check-ins

### Gertrude Lodge

Gertrude, in a desperate attempt to cure her paralyzed arm, touches the neck of the executed man, Rhoda Brook's son. The shock causes her to collapse, and she dies three days later.

### Rhoda Brook

Rhoda appears at the jail to claim the body of her executed son. She confronts Gertrude and her husband, expressing her grief and anger.

### Mr. Lodge

Gertrude's husband is present at the jail with Rhoda to claim the body of her son. He is overcome with remorse after Gertrude's death, sells his farms, and moves away, dying two years later.

## Key lines

> Her delicate vitality, sapped perhaps by the paralyzed arm, collapsed under the double shock that followed the severe strain, physical and mental, to which she had subjected herself during the previous twenty-four hours.

Gertrude's fragile health, possibly weakened by her paralyzed arm, gave way under the combined shock and extreme physical and mental strain of the past day.

_Describes the cause of Gertrude's collapse and subsequent death._

> Her monotonous milking at the dairy was resumed, and followed for many long years, till her form became bent, and her once abundant dark hair white and worn away at the forehead—perhaps by long pressure against the cows.

Rhoda returned to her routine of milking at the dairy, continuing for many years until her body became stooped and her hair turned white and thin, possibly from pressing against the cows.

_Depicts Rhoda's return to her simple, hard life after the tragedy._

## Links

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