The Son's Veto: Is Sophy The Victim Of Society?

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'The Son's Veto': Is Sophy a victim of society? 'The Son's Veto': Is Sophy a victim of society? By most interpretations of the short story 'The Son's Veto' by the poet and novelist Thomas Hardy, Sophy was a victim. She suffered an injury that left her unable to 'walk and bustle about'; married a man that she 'did not exactly love'; moved to an environment with which she had no connexion; living on a road with 'sooty trees' and 'hazy air'; with 'her almost only companions the two servants of her own house'; raised a son for whom she had unlimited unreturned love but with whom she was not at all similar; and was denied by this very son for whom she had such love, the chance of an 'idyllic life' with Sam Hobson. Sophy was a victim of these events, but by what was she victimised? This is the question that I am attempting to address in this essay. There... ... some extent Sophy can be seen as a victim of the Parsons character, but ironically it is the Parsons good natured attempts to help Sophy that contribute to her victimisation. Sophy felt that she had little choice but to accept the vicar's offer, as although she 'did not exactly love' the parson, she had little choice but to accept his offer of marriage. Here we see an example of Sophy's lack of strong character. This shows us that not only was she too timid to refuse the parson, she was also too weak willed to even hold a strong opinion; she neither loved the parson nor detested him. Despite her own character's contribution to her own victimisation, this is in fact also victimisation by society, as she had been trained to see herself as subordinate to the vicar 'she hardly dared refuse a parsonage so august and reverend in her eyes'. Hardy's use of the word 'dared' implies that Sophy afraid of the vicar, and that to refuse him would have been being naughty. This is an example of Sophy being treated by society as a
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