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

Hi, sorry this chapter is a little late, I was travelling yesterday and just didn't get chance to post.

Yes, things have moved on now and we see the trouble and sadness which was predicted in all Gaskell's hints about the folly of choosing to lie about Ruth's past.

It was only when I was writing the summary I realised that Donne uses religion twice to manipulate - drawing on the bible story of Ruth to confirm her name, and saying he won't and then will go to church. He is utterly shameless, isn't he?

I liked the way Ruth is conflicted in this chapter and the old feelings come back - she has worked so hard on her conduct and feelings, but here the old passion is reignited and his voice calls to her. This is a battle for her soul and only the power of God can conquer her passionate nature. I was so proud of her for her strength but also pleased Gaskell allowed her to have her desire too - we get some of the old Ruth back in this chapter.

Chapter 23

In which our old villain has a new name but is up to the same old tricks. Ruth finds the strength to resist but realises that Leonard will be an inevitable connection between them.

The previously sparkling sea is dull and leaden on the day Bradshaw and Donne join the party at the sea-side. Ruth cannot see the newcomer in the dusk but when he speaks, she instantly recognises the voice that touched her girlish heart. Distraught, she can barely make her way back to the house and only the regular motion of walking can calm her. She excuses herself from the evening in the drawing room but is tormented by thoughts of what might have been, wondering again how he could have been so cruel. She is torn between making excuses for him, blaming herself and his mother and reluctantly accepting that there could be no excuse for his cruelty. Her love for Leonard helps her see that his father is a bad man, but her past love for him still pulls and she has to beg God for the strength to resist her feelings for him.

The next morning she observes him quietly in the breakfast room, noticing his restless and dissatisfied manner. He initially only thinks she resembles Ruth, but as she speaks, he becomes more convinced that it is her. He uses a bible story to trick the Bradshaw's into confirming her name, then manipulates the day's churchgoing so he can talk to her away from the other adults. She rebuffs him and he admires her pride and dignity. In church, her despair renders her unable to draw comfort from the peaceful marble statues but she is drawn to a suffering gargoyle which helps her to pray again for the strength she needs.

After the service he tries again to talk to her, and again she has to fight the old feelings and need to know why he left her. Her prayer for strength is answered and she is resolute, but collapses - as if the very bones had melted out of her - when she is alone.

Feeling he has neglected his duty as host, Bradshaw is determined to pay extra attention to his guest and the hours drag as Donne is unable to escape. In the evening, as she reads to the girls, he begs for 5 minutes alone with her but she avoids it.

As the gentlemen leave the next morning, Donne learns of Leonard's existence and asks "Our child?" The misery and terror in her face confirm the truth, and he realises that this gives him the power to make her listen at last.

I was the one putting forward the "village life, farmyard animal" theory, but I've mulled it over too and I tend to agree. She was 15 when she met him, she had no idea what would happen, and no chance against his determinedly manipulative campaign. She remains fairly oblivious until the reaction of the child in Wales shows her the real cost of her relationship with B.

Chapter 21

In which Mrs Bradshaw is indiscreet, Jemima is infuriated, Farquhar feels rejected, Ruth is admired, strawberries are gathered, Elizabeth is exhausted, sea air is prescribed, an election is called and a seaside stay is arranged.

The happy conclusion of the previous evening is shattered when Jemima learns that Ruth had been asked to intervene in her behaviour. She feels managed from all sides and resents the secretive machinations, thinking that it would be more honest and preferable to be openly bought "like an oriental daughter."

Jemima again withdraws from Farquhar, who accepts this as final, assuming she is repulsed by his age. He notes that Ruth is older in experience, if not in years, and that she perfectly fits his notion of what a good wife should be - reserved, calm and self-governed. Jemima watches their growing closeness with an acute sense of what she has lost through her own actions.

The younger girls regale her with the details of their idyllic day of strawberry picking and invite her to join them the next time. She makes an abrupt refusal then spends the day tormented by visions of the happy gathering and Farquhar's imagined attentions to the blushing Ruth. But the walk in the hot sun is too much for Elizabeth who collapses and becomes seriously ill.

Ruth is ashamed that she allowed the girls to exhaust themselves so that Leonard could join them, and spends every spare moment nursing the invalid. Jemima remains cold towards her, denying that anything has changed but leaving Ruth in no doubt that she has lost a precious friendship.

Sea air is prescribed, and it suits Bradshaw to engage a sea-side house for the family, so he can use the town-house for his election campaign. He wishes to challenge the sitting Tory MP with a more radical Liberal and Dissenting candidate, and approaches a noted Liberal agent, perhaps unaware of his unscrupulous reputation. There are hints that the election will be won by hook or by crook, which the famously moral Bradshaw cannot bring himself to examine too closely, as he needs to be sure the campaign will succeed.

A suitable candidate is found - a man with more money than he knows what to do with, bored with superficial pleasures and looking for a new challenge. It is agreed that this Mr Donne will reside at the Bradshaw's and the family will adjourn to the sea-side house 20 miles away.

@StColumbofNavron @cassandre @Sadik, I read a lot of Gaskell in the 80s. I did English and Economic and Social History at Manchester Poly, so she was a required read, and I remember enjoying her at the time. But as someone said earlier, there is probably a reason why Ruth is not one of her more famous ones.

Stroppy, impulsive Jemima has livened it up a bit though, hasn't she, and so much more interesting than the Sainted Ruth. I feel we are drifting into Austin territory with the will they/won't they romance, and I don't mind that at all. There is a similar implication that a headstrong young woman needs a strong, benign fatherly figure to sort her out and help her grow into the fine woman she has potential to be. Which is a bit nauseating now but maybe in those days that was the best you could hope for. Because the alternative was a weak or vicious husband who would dominate you - not having a husband not really being on the cards.

@Sadik yes, and that makes it very not-Austin, doesn't it? An awful lot had changed in the 50 years between Emma and Ruth.

@StColumbofNavron I'm with you on the fallen woman obsession. In the last two months I've seen the circus version of Tess, read the Posy Simmonds version of Emma Bovary, and both read and watched the French Lieutenant's Woman. So I've been positively steeped in fallen women. Any others we can think of?

I also watched True Things on the Iplayer this week which is a contemporary film about a woman throwing caution to the wind and having a reckless affair with a compelling but unreliable bloke. I was practically watching through my fingers as she ignored the red flags. It was so risky for her but you could see the joy of being thoroughly spontaneous and not-sensible, though you were just waiting for it to end in tears.

Chapter 20

In which Mr Farquhar and Jemima are embroiled in a classic rom com plot. There are misunderstandings, missed opportunities and miserable evenings until Mr Bradshaw pressures Ruth to intervene. Her inevitable grace and dignity shakes Jemima out of her rudeness but also affect Farquhar as he notices for the first time Ruth's brilliancy, tact and the unusual beauty of her face - and form.

Mr Farquhar has feelings for Jemima but believes it slightly preposterous to be in love with an impulsive 20 year old. Jemima has feelings for Farquhar, but resents his paternalistic moralising. She tries to provoke him then feels hurt when he withdraws. Her pride tells her he must love her for who she is, and she is furious when her father intervenes.

She assumes a sullen reserve which Farquhar cannot break through, and Bradshaw asks Ruth to intervene. Ruth is reluctant to accept, but relents when she sees the extent of Jemima's misery. Jemima envies Ruth's calm and heavenly serenity, assuming she has never really know what it is to suffer. Mrs Bradshaw is no help at all. We realise she is weak and not entirely honest, happy to ignore Richard's shortcomings as long as he hides them from his father.

Farquhar is close to giving up on Jemima and compares her gloomy sullenness with Ruth's heavenly calm and brilliant complexion. He notices for the first time the unusual beauty of Ruth's face and form, and her gentle firmness with the children hints at a discipline and strength that he has found lacking in Jemima. However, Ruth's presence brings out some of the old Jemima and Farquhar walks home through the garden-way happier than he has been for a long time, singing that "A man returns, always returns, to his first loves".