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

This part of the book is quite slow and sad, but I found some enjoyable moments in this chapter. More glorious description of natural beauty - the peaceful vale and flat white pebbled stream. Benson's valiant attempts to speak Welsh meeting utter bafflement from the boy. Miss Benson's manly whistle, her distrust of romance, and her deliberately dragging out afternoon tea because she really is in no hurry to commence the distasteful interview.

But the pace feels like slightly hard going at this point and I'm wondering if that's why comments have dropped off a bit? l'll keep going with the chapter summaries for now but might stop if I feel I'm basically writing to myself here!

@ShabanahFazal thanks for those links. I'd never come across the poem before and it is stunning. On one level it reminded me of those little flower fairy images which were so poplar in the 70s - all delicate watercolours and rich detail. Then on another level it's pure filth! All those leering, physically repulsive but so very tempting goblins - just brilliant.

I wonder if Rosetti wrote about her time in the penitentiaries? Given that she wrote the poem just when she started, she might have very interesting things to say about it.

Not had time to read the novella but very much looking forward to it.

Do you by any chance work in the field of history/literature? Very much appreciating your wider knowledge here!

Chapter 11
In which another strong-willed older woman enters the story and first judges Ruth, then softens, judges again then proposes a solution which will pivot the fate of years - and not in a good way.

Benson writes to ask his sister to come and we see how much he respects her- and how poor they are. She arrives full of concern for him and scepticism for the fallen woman, but a reproving word from Benson makes her regret her comment that Ruth might be better dead.

Her ambivalence makes her drag out their afternoon tea, but when she sees "the poor lovely creature who lay thus stricken and felled", her heart softens. She sends the weary Benson and Hughes to bed and nurses Ruth through the night. Ruth awakens and Miss B strokes her hand and tells her she is a friend - and her own heart unlocks as she does so.

The doctor comes and Miss B is shocked to learn that Ruth is pregnant - and even more shocked when Ruth thanks God for the baby. Benson and Miss B debate theology and he suggests that the child could be the making of Ruth, but they both recoil at the implications for the poor illegitimate child. With great sadness, they recall an old acquaintance who drowned at sea rather than live with the shame of his birth.

Miss B realises that Ruth's utter friendlessness and isolation could be an advantage, in allowing Ruth to pass as a widow. Their desire to protect the innocent child, and their recall of "the obnoxious word in the baptismal registry (which) told him that he must go forth branded into the world, with his hand against every man's, and every man's against him", overcome Benson's scruples, but Gaskell tells us that this will have serious long term consequences. Benson has turned the pivot of fate the wrong way - not for his own sake, but for the helpless baby about to enter a cruel and biting world.

I tracked down the full paper and it's fascinating. It does seem to be a different ethos to the very punitive Magdalen system, though the evidence quoted is from official records so we're only getting the sister's perspectives. But the women were there voluntarily and could leave at any point.

Mumm quotes the founder of the Church Penitentiary Association asking: "And whose fault is it that the poor are so poor, that the severe toils of our women are so under-paid, that all the wretched shirt-makers and needlewomen are drudging away their lives, and often for very bread yield themselves to sin, after long resistance?"

One experienced penitentiary manager cautioned against making the regime too overtly religious: "many would gladly enter if they knew that they would find a quiet home, where they might rest and think, instead of a semi-prison...let them be admitted . . . simply as inmates of a Home, requiring of them only quiet behaviour, obedience, and work, and leaving them perfectly free as regards religion, and entirely free to go away if they dislike the place."

I also love that Penitentiary workers divided the women into the "weak" (little trouble, obedient, fell in with religious influences, and seemed like successes) and the "strong" (chose a life of vice, gave "endless trouble," were disobedient and defiant, but had in them "the raw material of better things.")

The weak might appear to be saved but were likely to succumb to bad influences as easily as they had to good, whereas if the sisters could win over the troublesome strong, the change was likely to be permanent!

NOTWORSETHANOTHERGIRLS.pdf (open.ac.uk)

Great points @@FuzzyCaoraDhubh @TheWriteStuff @Tarahumara. It's the women who condemn Ruth. Even in the boarding house, the gentleman was amused/titillated by Ruth and his wife was disgusted by her.

I'm thinking that this is not, after all, primarily a feminist book, even though Gaskell is unequivocally on Ruth's side. It's mostly about class and power, with a strong emphasis on analysing what it means to be a true Christian. That makes sense from Gaskell, a Unitarian minister's wife with a passion for social justice. She is on the side of poor women and opposed to hypocrisy, but she has no illusions about female solidarity or the innate moral superiority of women. And she is not arguing for women to be allowed to express their sexuality but criticising the men who force women to "give in" to male desire.

A short chapter but another brutal one! The spirituality of Benson at the start contrasts with the ruthless (see what I did there!) self interest of Mrs B. We are reminded again of how harshly the world judges Ruth, and how others are using her to assert their own moral high ground. Again, we see a mother ignoring her son's character defects and channeling their discomfort into blaming another woman. Looking very bleak for Ruth at the moment.

I tried to find out more about penitentiaries and came across this which I found fascinating, especially as I know Dickenson Road well.

Fallen Women; St Mary's Home | Rusholme & Victoria Park Archive (rusholmearchive.org)

The author suggests that the unsmiling women may offer confirmation that this is likely to be the penitentiary, and includes this quote from a 1996 historian, Susan Munn:

“In Victorian Britain, a female penitentiary was not a penal institution for the punishment of crime, but a charitable enterprise entered voluntarily by members of an outcast group, popularly known as 'fallen women.' Many fallen women were prostitutes, but the category also encompassed groups other than sexual deviants: female thieves, tramps, alcoholics, and those who were described as feeble-minded were also considered fallen, and it was seen as appropriate to rehabilitate them alongside streetwalkers. Penitentiaries were intended as transformative institutions, where female outcasts of many kinds could be changed into 'honest' women, a conversion which incorporated both a spiritual change from sinner to penitent, and an equally important social shift from dissolute and deviant female to respectable woman. The penitentiary, despite its penal overtones, was a therapeutic community which was not experienced as unbearably punitive. As well as reforming prostitutes, Anglican penitentiaries in Victorian Britain offered shelter to the survivors of incest and sexual violence, women fleeing abusive relationships, and female alcoholics.”

Chapter 10
In which Mr Benson appeals to Mrs Bellingham's good nature, but she feels her Christian Duty is more than fulfilled with a 50/- note and directions to the Penitentiary.

We see that Mr Benson's good character is respected even by the pragmatic and materialistic Mrs Mason, though he has rarely spent a shilling in her inn. He takes her advice and sends an appeal to Mrs Bellingham to send her maid to help the barely conscious Ruth, or to tell Ruth's friends to come and care for her.

Mrs B confirms that her maid, stiff with virtue, would not dream of caring for this creature. She learns that Mr B is unaware that Ruth was given £50 to leave Bellingham alone. The maid explains that Ruth's only "friend" - the dressmaker Mrs Mason - has washed her hands of Ruth, and we hear that gossip has described Ruth as a forward creature who boasted of her own beauty, strived to get her good looks seen and admired, and ensnared B at the County Ball.

Mrs B reaffirms that the only possible course for the friendless Ruth is to take the £50 and procure admission to the Fordham Penitentiary, where she may be led to an honest life. She urges the maid to say nothing to B, who must remain unaware of this potential annoyance.

Have any of you seen this version of Tess? I might go when it's at the Lowry in Manchester, but there is also a livestreaming on Friday 16th Feb, bookable through the Lowry.

It sounds a bit off the wall but very interesting:

Classic literature and circus collide in Tess; a groundbreaking adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles.
Against a backdrop of projections, the cast wield wooden planks, climb shifting walls and move through ropes and swathes of linen to evoke the vast landscapes and interior worlds of Hardy’s Wessex.
Female relationships, sexual desire, consent, privilege and poverty; themes which resonate now as much as ever. See Tess as Hardy intended; strong, heroic and powerful.

Tess - Ockham's Razor | What's on | The Lowry

Chapter 9
In which Benson fights for Ruth's soul and she obeys him for her mother's sake. Benson and his gentle Welsh landlady provide a place of safety, but it seems Ruth's distress may prove fatal.

While the bustling, gentle Mrs Hughes takes care of Benson, Ruth stares out at the violent storm rushing on in the direction taken by the Bs. The storm and her state of mind entwine - the moon shines with hope, there is a brief silver lining, then utter blackness. Benson sees that she is thinking of running again and begs her in God's name to stay. But in her despair, she feels she has forfeited her connection with God. A small inner voice inspires Benson to call upon Ruth's mother's name. She cannot defy this, but her spirit crumples as she gives up all hope and becomes utterly still and subdued.

Ruth allows Mrs H to put her to bed and Benson passes a troubled night tormented by his desire to help her. In the morning Mrs H finds her lying as if dead, pulse weak and limbs heavy. Benson goes for the doctor and Mrs H does what she can to make Ruth comfortable. We see they are truly loving and virtuous people who are glad of the opportunity to help an unfortunate stranger.

@Tarahumara yes, it's just more Victorian hypocrisy, isn't it? Basically, if you had wealth and power you could do as you wished - as Mrs G makes very clear by showing us how the Bellinghams use their money to get away with apalling behaviour and are considered moral, whereas Ruth, deeply moral and with no money, has no choice but to go along with her own ruin.

And of course, abuse of wealth and power did not die out with the Victorians!