How do Hardy and Steinbeck portray loneliness in The Withered Arm :: English Literature

How do Hardy and Steinbeck portray loneliness in 'The Withered Arm' and 'Of Mice and Men'? Thomas Hardy, author of 'The Withered Arm' and John Steinbeck, author of 'Of Mice and Men both portray the common theme of loneliness in each of these novels. For example, in 'The Withered Arm', Rhoda is judged for the cause of her loneliness, such as when it says 'She knew that she had been slyly called a witch since her fall', as are Curley and Curley's wife like when Candy refers to Curley's wife as a tart. Both show signs of discrimination be it due to race, sex class or disfigurement. Also, both mainly revolve around a friendship-Lennie and George in 'Of Mice and Men' and Gertrude and Rhoda in 'The Withered Arm'. 'The Withered Arm' also conveys many other themes; a lot of these are common to 'Of Mice and Men'. Similarities in these themes include the unhappy marriages suffered which could also link into the loneliness theme. Curley and Curley's wife in 'Of Mice and Men' have an unhappy marriage as do Farmer Lodge and Gertrude in 'The Withered Arm' though in 'Of Mice and Men', neither try to resolve the situation whereas in 'The Withered Arm', it is Gertrude's main concern to find a cure for her arm so that her husband will love her again. However, we know that this won't happen as there have been too many bad things happen for everything to turn out happily. 'Of Mice and Men' also shows strong signs of this inevitability. We hear from George about the many mice that Lennie has killed and how things always go wrong due to the fact that he does not know his own strength. After crushing Curley's hand and killing the puppy, we know that it is only a matter of time before Lennie kills a person. We also know their 'American dream' of owning a ranch will not come true as, fairly near the beginning, George says 'Nuts' showing that he did not believe in it from the start. 'The Withered Arm' was set in Hardy's home town of Dorset though he has used fictional names for parts of Dorset such as Holmstoke, Casterbridge, Egdon Heath and Wessex. This in itself is a rural, quite isolated setting as is the ranch in 'Of Mice and Men' which is situated near Soledad in California which is also the author's-Steinbeck's-home town. The isolation of these settings is used to show the isolation of the characters within them. This technique of using the setting as a reference to other points of the story is also used in the settings themselves.