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

[BishyBarnyBee]

Following the very successful Madame Bovary readalong, we have decided to explore another woman who refused to be bound by contemporary mores.
So shocking at the time, two of Gaskell's friends burnt their copies.

"Elizabeth Gaskell's Ruth (1853) was the first mainstream novel to make a fallen woman its eponymous heroine. It is a remarkable story of love, of the sanctuary and tyranny of the family, and of the consequences of lies and deception, one that lays bare Victorian hypocrisy and sexual double-standards. Shocking to contemporary readers, its radical utopian vision of a pure woman faithfully presented predates Hardy's Tess by nearly forty years."

We will aim for two chapters a week - a weekend chapter and a mid week chapter. If I have time, I'll try and do a ChatGPT chapter summary, but anyone else is welcome to jump in if I haven't got there first.

We start 1st Jan, so if you are up for a bit of Victorian passion, guilt, regret and redemption, sign up here!

Yes I was surprised that Ruth was only 15 and I imagined her to be around 19. Quite the age gap between them. She has a feeling she is doing wrong but I think this is her gut feeling saying that Mr B is wrong doing her. However Ruth is not listening to her conscience.

@cariadlet It was this one, I think (had a bit of a youtube binge today!). Only mentioned in passing but it was interesting.

Ruth's age as well as her social position make it very clear what the power dynamic is here. Sadly it feels like a grooming scenario which could absolutely still happen today between a 23 year old man & 15 year old girl in care.

Thank you @Buttalapasta

Agree about the feeling of dread at what is to come, enjoyed the description of the spring walk and the hidden primroses, enabled us to share Ruth’s feeling of a little brightness in her dark week. Having something to look forward (the trip on Sunday) makes a big difference to her week, easy for Mr B to tempt her.

Interesting to read your comments. I agree Ruth is an early example of this fatal contrast that’s too tempting to predatory males, and so interesting to compare with later ‘fallen women’. I’ve not read Tess of the D’Urbervilles for ages, but my memory is also that she was warier of her newly discovered distant relative Alec, because she’s been compelled to make contact primarily for work, to help out her family while they’re in dire straits. So she’s already in a tougher, adult position of responsibility for them all. And yes, probably a bit more worldly-wise eg at her first meeting with him in Chapter 5, she initially resists the strawberry he forces into her mouth, preferring to hold it herself, as if alert to the sexual suggestiveness of his action.

I also find it interesting to compare these two characters with Gerta, in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s brilliant feminist short story ‘Turned’ (1911). She’s an 18 year old housemaid taken advantage of by her master, and described at the start of the story as ‘a tall, rosy-cheeked baby; rich womanhood without, helpless infancy within’. What happens to her - and the other key female character - when this story ‘turns’ is remarkable. But I don’t want to spoil the ending, so if you don’t already know it, read it here for yourself: http://www.public-library.uk/ebooks/101/19.pdf

@ShabanahFazal just wow! Haven't come across it before and really enjoyed it. What a difference 50 plus years made. Thanks for sharing it, really interesting.

So glad you enjoyed it! I just love what happens after the ‘turn’, and how the description of Gerta at the end changes. You’ll probably know Gilman’s most famous tale ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, the title story of her short story collection, but another favourite lesser known one in there is ‘If I were a Man’ :
http://public-library.uk/ebooks/105/25.pdf

She also wrote a feminist utopian novel called Herland, which I’ve not read yet.

I read Herland last year and thought it was really interesting.

I enjoyed the background stories of their youth in chapter 3.
According to the ‘language of flowers’ primroses signify first love and young love. They are also associated with the Virgin Mary’s ‘pure and unblemished spirit.’
I am already feeling very angry towards Mr B!

Just sticking my head round the door. I'm lurking and reading. This is a fabulous thread. I am now spending an inordinate amount of my day worrying about poor Ruth. Am almost afraid to read on. I guess that owes much to Elizabeth Gaskell's writing skills!

@ShabanahFazal - that short story is really good. This line struck out to me as so true: "For his own pleasure he had chosen to rob her of her life's best joys."

And yes, what a difference those intervening years have made between Ruth and Turned in how the 'fallen woman' is written. Even more stark the difference between Tess (1891) and Turned (1911). But, of course, there is another difference between these two: Tess was written by a man.

Thank you @ShabanahFazal I will look up your reading suggestions.

Wow, twenty years between Tess and Perkins Gilman. I tend to lazily think that modern feminism grew out of WW1, but of course, the WSPU was founded in 1903 so clearly the industrial revolution (and maybe all those powerful widows, who knows? 😁) had started the ball rolling earlier in the 20th century. I feel another dive into a rabbit hole coming on!

I am enjoying the sideways dives! Mainly because I read the next chapter already and so am filling time before we can all discuss it

I am loving the readalong and rather regretting not finding you all sooner for the previous books.

The fact that Gilman was a New England American also makes a big difference, so not quite the same context. In a nation where everyone was pushing new frontiers, the drive for women’s emancipation there came even earlier in some ways. Last year I re-read Henry James‘ brilliant The Portrait of a Lady, in which the American heroine Isabel Archer is much more spirited and independent-minded than her European counterparts - and that was 1880. Just one example.

Chapter 4
In which the day dawns as brilliant as if there were no sorrow in the world, but by evening, darkness gathers thick and our heroine is jobless, homeless, and helpless.

After church, they take a leisurely walk to Milham where Ruth's former home seems a rural idyll but then reveals decay and neglect.

Ruth is delighted to see her elderly friend, but B again shows his contempt for the working poor. The distrust is mutual as Thomas sees straight through B's attentions, but Ruth is too innocent to realise that the bible verse he quotes is a warning. Thomas prays for her soul and Mrs G uses a rare authorial "I" to comment that she thinks his prayers were heard.

The evening is filled with mellow light and sunny happiness, but dark phantoms gather. As they reach the inn there is not a visual or audible note of discord in the sleepy evening - until the clock strikes 8, they realise how late it is and Mrs M rides over the horizon, her needle sharp eyes immediately spotting Ruth's hand held in B's.

Mrs M, already angry with her ne'er do well son, vents her temper on Ruth, and sacks her on the spot. Ruth is utterly desolate and guilt-ridden. With much hesitation, she agrees to B's insistence that if she loves him she must trust him, but while he fetches the carriage, she realises that she should go back to Milham. However, the landlord is blocking the door and she cannot find the courage to push past him. Obedient and docile by nature, she follows B into the carriage - which drives not to Milham, but towards London.

Look into ideas about the 'New Woman' at the 'fin de siècle' to see how things changed through the Victorian era. Fear of women is very clear and a desire to divide them into 'virtuous' (and hysterical/unintelligent/boring but ideal) or 'fallen' (exciting/clever/bewitching and not fit for polite society) again.

I like the way 'Ruth' is a woman presenting women.

Oh the feeling of dread at the end of Ch 4! Ruth - save yourself!

The story is moving along now and I feel we are starting to really get to know Ruth and Bellingham.

The book so far seems to circle about contrasts: we had the contrast between old and new building works, between buildings and nature, between the monochrome of Ruth's world and the colour of B's, between Ruth's current circumstances and her past. Now we have this chapter which runs from a perfect day full of promise and hope, through to the end full of despair and threat.

There were also a stark difference in how Ruth and B saw Old Thomas. Ruth saw him as beautiful, because of the love he has for her and the memories they share. B dislikes him seemingly for his low status ("hard-featured, meanly-dressed old labourer"). We've seen before how B has no time for people he sees as below him and that are not pretty. And how older and wiser folk have got the measure of B alright. Plus, B's anger at being mistaken for Mrs Mason's son 🙄

But maybe there is some small chink of hope: Old Thomas spent the night praying for Ruth's soul and Gaskell says she thinks his prayers were heard. Could this be some small protection for our heroine?

Yes, TheWriteStuff. It suggests to me that goodness will prevail.

This is a significant turning point in the story.

" 'Yes'; the fatal word of which she so little imagined the infinite consequences. The thought of being with him was all and everything" sums it up well.

Just checking in having followed the fallen women read alongs last year. I have really enjoyed the opening chapters, especially the way in which Ruth’s vulnerability is revealed.

I sniggered when the most able seamstress were going to go to the dance but, in fact, other factors such as attractiveness came into play. Some things never Change for women.

I agree about the dread @TheWriteStuff which Chapter 4 builds and builds! Ruth almost does save herself I think when it occurs to her that she could stay at Milham. The fact that she mentions this plan to Mr B. right at the end of the chapter and then the carriage heads towards London shows us that her agency has been taken away from her.

Loving the summaries and the brilliant commentaries.

I was struck by how Ruth has learned to expect nothing in life. She won't take a cup of tea from the servant, and the reason she won't leave the inn to go to Old Thomas is because she has taken a cup of tea in the inn and now feels obliged to stay, beholden to Mr B. Yet, she doesn't see how easily others have dropped her (Mrs Mason, her father - he should have held it together for her sake, not succumbed to grief!).

I agree with all the comments on Mr B. Yet, I despair because this is how he was raised. He barely understands the world outside his narrow view. He does what he likes, criticises the grandmother, mislead the girl he's supposed to marry, threatens to put Mrs Mason out of business. And society seems to expect that this is how young men are (until they're married, I guess; maybe that's what matures them). I see a sort of parallel with young boys today who are growing up in the internet bubble, being raised on porn and violence, gaming all night. When they inevitably behave badly, we wonder how they have turned out the way they have.

Finally, religion - It has such a hold on the poor (Old Thomas, Ruth) keeping them in their place.

It's interesting to compare Old Thomas's quiet prayerfulness and good intentions towards Ruth with Mrs Mason's faux Christianity and shunning of her.

That's true Fuzzy! I was struck by the narratorial intervention critiquing Mrs Mason, in the context of her declared interest in 'keeping up the character of her establishment': 'It would have been a better and more Christian thing, if she had kept up the character of her girls by tender vigilance and maternal care.'

It's interesting to see when the narrator pipes up with a comment on events. Thank you for pointing out the rare appearance of 'I', @BishyBarnyBee , when the narrator says of Thomas that 'I think that his prayers were heard'; I hadn't noticed that!

@GrandMarnierChocolate , your comment about how religion is keeping the poor in their place is intriguing! I don't know if Gaskell herself would have seen it that way, because I think she was quite committed to religious faith. But google tells me that she and her family were Unitarians, which is quite a radical and forward-thinking version of Christianity as far as I know. (According to my fundamentalist Christian parents, Unitarians were pretty much already halfway to hell, ha!)

By the way, this is a bit random, but part of the Wikipedia entry on Gaskell had me rolling my eyes. I love Wikipedia and rate it highly, but sometimes you get weird glitches of writing cut and pasted from dubious sources, like this:
A beautiful young woman, Elizabeth was well-groomed, tidily dressed, kind, gentle, and considerate of others. Her temperament was calm and collected, joyous and innocent, she revelled in the simplicity of rural life.

Well-groomed? 😂Some old-fashioned biography is surely being cited here. It's so gendered; I mean, I'd like to see a wikipedia entry on Dickens that informed us that the young Dickens was well-groomed and tidily dressed!