New Year, New Fallen Woman: Elizabeth Gaskell's Ruth Readalong

Well, I shall look forward to Chap 16 then as I must say I am, at present, a bit piety-ed out.

We're on chapter 15 today.

'The earth was still "hiding her guilty front with innocent snow," when a little baby was laid by the side of the pale white mother. It was a boy (...)'

I also loved Sally's story in chapter 16.
A much-needed bit of humour.

I'm not sure what chapter we're on but I LOVED chapter 16. I need a Sally in my life. I won't say anything more for the moment as I'm not sure where we are meant to be up to.

Forgive me for going back to Chapter 11. I meant to write this the other day but ran out of time, had to remind myself of my notes at the time, and then had huge technical problems with my Kindle app that wiped all my notes for the whole book!! So this is from dimmer memory, having since read two other books ….

I found this chapter fascinating and totally absorbing. Without knowing at this point what was coming next, it felt immediately to me like it would turn out to be a critical one, the moral crux of the novel - and having got to the end of the novel now, I haven’t changed my mind. The Bensons epitomise slowly reasoned and courageous compassion considering the minister’s role and the community they’re bringing Ruth into. I absolutely loved their brother-sister dynamic, especially the warm, affectionate friction between them, and the way they complement each other. I particularly enjoyed the gentle humour here:

"That's all very fine, and I dare say very true," said Miss Benson, a little chagrined. "But 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush;' and I would rather have had one good, hearty 'Thank you,' now, for all I have been planning to do for her, than the grand effects you promise me in the 'sweep of eternity.' Don't be grave and sorrowful, Thurstan, or I'll go out of the room. I can stand Sally's scoldings, but I can't bear your look of quiet depression whenever I am a little hasty or impatient. I had rather you would give me a good box on the ear." "And I would often rather you would speak, if ever so hastily, instead of whistling. So, if I box your ears when I am vexed with you, will you promise to scold me when you are put out of the way, instead of whistling?" "Very well! that's a bargain. You box, and I scold.

Ultimately, as Mr Benson rightly states, they are often “both right“: she’s more human, down-to-earth and better tuned in to the prejudices of their community, whereas he’s more far-thinking, with the radical courage to actually do his spiritual job by putting God’s judgement above the opinions of men. And the result is, they make the best decisions for Ruth. Ironically, despite his sister’s first name, it’s not surprising he’s the one that shows much more faith in the plan to redeem her through her innocent baby.

A couple of details I liked about Gaskell’s narration and attitude to him here at the start of the chapter in her narrative method:

You have now seen the note which was delivered into Mr Benson's hands….

but then she returns to the first person she’s used before. She makes an amusingly ironic comment when Faith tells him Ruth is pregnant, but he fails to compute it, displaying a touching male innocence:

‘I said, "all things possible;" I made a mistake”.

There was also a detail about Faith that tickled me. She’s so resolutely down-to-earth and anti-romantic, she even dislikes mountains (in contrast to her poetry-loving brother and Ruth, of course). In fact, so much that they ‘oppress’ her and she can’t even sleep when thinking of them. I found it subtly humorous because it exaggerates the contrast between the siblings, but mainly because it reminded me of a minor Jane Austen character who says something like she can’t abide mountains, and I always found that comical - whether intended or not (Lizzie Bennett loves them, being more spirited and natural). Help me out anyone who can remember the exact character and comment?

That should be Ruth's story!

Yes thank you Bishy. Okay so in all honesty this is the first chapter I was beginning to find it a struggle to read. It was the final part that was the icing on the cake for me. I think it’s probably because my own mind is distracted and was finding it hard to focus. Still though I am looking forward to reading the rest it was just this chapter. I think I will re- read it again at the weekend where I can concentrate more.

Thank you for the summary Bishy!
I found the description of the Dissenters' church interesting, not knowing anything about this religious movement at all, if that's the correct thing to say.

Early on we encounter the local Bigwig, Mr. Bradshaw. Everyone seems to quake in their boots around him. I think he enjoys lording it over everyone and is generally an annoying man. Does every congregation have a Mr. Bradshaw, I wonder?!

I enjoyed Faith's embellishment of Sally's back story. She enjoyed herself giving it colour and credence in spite of Thurston's admonishment. I liked it when she could relax and play around a bit. It's human nature to not always be so strict and regimental about things. Sally and Faith are well-rounded characters in that respect.

@ShabanahFazal I am a Hardy fan but I've never seen that before - interesting!

Oh, I caught up very quickly and didn’t notice you’d already alluded to it above!
Anyway, if you’re a Hardy fan like me, you’ll probably also know this wondrously intriguing introduction to Sophy, the central character in his short story ‘The Son’s Veto’, a devastating, richly ironic look at patriarchy, class and the country v city divide. He frequently revealed his fascination with women’s hair (inspired by his first wife Emma’s lustrous tresses), but I’m not sure he ever bettered this, with its clever foreshadowing, symbolism and subtle political critique:

“The Son's Veto

To the eyes of a man viewing it from behind, the nut-brown hair was a wonder and a mystery. Under the black beaver hat, surmounted by its tuft of black feathers, the long locks, braided and twisted and coiled like the rushes of a basket, composed a rare, if somewhat barbaric, example of ingenious art. One could understand such weavings and coilings being wrought to last intact for a year, or even a calendar month; but that they should be all demolished regularly at bedtime, after a single day of permanence, seemed a reckless waste of successful fabrication.
And she had done it all herself, poor thing. She had no maid, and it was almost the only accomplishment she could boast of. Hence the unstinted pains.”

@ShabanahFazal Yes, it was The Woodlanders I was thinking of, not Return of the Native. Geting my Hardy novels mixed up!

Me too! Loved her. Apart from the hair-cropping scene, she’s an absolute hoot and much needed comic relief but not in a patronising way. She’s absolutely a vividly drawn, rounded, complex character in her own right and gets the funniest, most memorable lines.

Totally agree with your excellent summary of the Benson household @BishyBarnyBee ”Gaskell compares the household with the virtue of Ruth's mother, and we see how they share an innocent and unselfconscious goodness. They may have failings - and Sally's anger may be one of them - but generally a fault in one brings out the goodness in the others and they complement each other in a way which leads to harmony and peace.”

This is precisely why they were my favourite characters, and a welcome contrast to the now maddeningly passive Ruth. I know she’s been traumatised, but at this point in the novel I couldn’t shake off the image of her pitifully degrading herself by running off after the worthless Bellingham’s disappearing carriage. However much I understood her lonely desperation, that undignified sight had to be the lowest point in my sympathies for her. Sally’s brutal cropping of her hair actually restored my feeling for Ruth and had me raging against Sally for her, as I’ve always had a visceral reaction to any attempt to cut, control or cover women’s hair. Not only is it a violation, but a political act since we know that patriarchal societies see a woman’s hair as a symbol of her sexuality, and of course curbing that is what Sally’s instinctive punitive act represents. Although she’s basically a good ‘un with a big heart and nothing like the pharisaical Mr Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre, this scene did remind me of his visit to Lowood School, when he fulminates against the girls with curled hair and top-knots, ordering they be chopped off immediately on pain of eternal hell-fire (watched on, hypocritically, by his own fashionably curled wife and daughters). Sally of course doesn’t have a grand religious justification for it, but simple conventional prejudice and I think more interestingly, annoyance that she hasn’t been told the full facts about why her ‘betters’ have taken Ruth in. It’s faintly funny - almost as if by committing this barbarous act, she’ll be proving she’s no fool by exposing Ruth’s guilt.

Sorry to pursue the hair theme, but I’m completely fascinated by Victorians’ preoccupation with hair; it was everywhere in their literature, art and actual life, with their habit of keeping locks of hair in lockets etc. So for anyone who’s interested there’s an even more upsetting scene in the The Woodlanders, by Hardy (he was obsessed with and often wrote about his first wife Emma’s nut-brown tresses).

SPOILER ALERT:

In this novel, a very poor female character is driven to cut her own hair off by a wealthy woman who covets her beautiful tresses and uses her power to get what she wants. So here, hair is political in an additional way - not just objectification but commodification. It’s a beautiful, heartbreaking novel and one of my favourite Hardys.

I like Sally. She was very hard on Ruth in this chapter, but her heart is in the right place. I love this line; 'If I'd a been her mother, I'd ha given her a lollypop instead of a husband. Hoo looks fitter for it'.

I felt for Sally in that she thought she was the cause of Mr Benson’s disability, and that she has remained loyal to brother and sister ever since. I like her character and think she is doing what she thinks is best to help Ruth when she cuts her hair as she knows it will help with her disguise as a widow.
I also enjoyed some of the descriptive writing. ‘’Bright glittering tins on which the ruddy fireplace danced” just lovely writing. I was also struck by how the sitting room was described as being called the parlour but this was an old fashioned term. I thought this would be an up to date term for those times but I really don’t know.

I thought the return of the £50 was nicely done in that it emphasises Ruth's moral compass (she won't be 'paid off') but at the same time shows her naivety, made clearer when we see how poor the Bensons are & the difference it might have made.

While Ruth is very passive in this section, so much has happened to her in the short time since becoming an orphan that it's perhaps unsurprising that she's totally overwhelmed & has little agency. She's still very young, and has so little experience of the world.

She reminds me of Fanny Price in Mansfield Park in some ways. Fanny is often criticised for her passivity, but without any acknowledgement of the impact of being taken from her parents & everything she knew age 11 to live with total strangers, and having her inferior position continually made clear.

I’m still here too. Got behind while reading other things but back on track now. After enjoying the first few chapters I found the Welsh section harder to get through, perhaps because Ruth lost her spark (as others have said). I’m enjoying the character of Sally, she makes a good contrast to Miss Benson. I thought the descriptions of Ruth putting on the ring and the haircut were very moving.
Slightly confused by Benson’s disability. Did Sally really cause it or does she just think she did? I had previously assumed it was congenital.
Looking forward to reading on.

Delurking too. My first time with a read along thread. I found it late so was behind and now somehow am ahead! I do think Ruth is very naive, but refusing the £50 shows she still has some spirit, and her own moral compass. If he doesn’t love her she doesn’t want his money. It does feel like she has her own ideas of what right and wrong is not shaped by society and the church. She is prepared to pretend to be a widow, and is pleased to be having a child when the church would say that is a sin she should atone for.

I seem to remember from Hardy (Return of the Native?) that you could get good money for hair. I'm surprised they didn't suggest it!

Yes, thanks - very helpful! Will remember that bookmark short cut. I know the reason for limited editing, and agree with the principle of not radically changing your original post, as that’s not in the spirit of things. However, as someone that writes slowly and makes a lot of minor wording changes as I go along, I was just expressing my frustration!

I am all caught up now. There is something different (to me) if the way the Benson's siblings approach helping Ruth. Mr Benson's helps seems more logical - like he is doing what he knows to be right. Mrs Benson's is more emotional - she doesn't necessarily know it to be right but cannot help but help, iyswim. I like Mrs Benson the better for it.

Ruth seems more like a child than ever now. Not realising why she gets a seat in the carriage and the Benson's sit up top etc. Makes me wonder how she will cope with a child...