Thomas Hardy The Ruined Maid

Beyond the social values associated with appearance, Charlotte Bronte also points out the social ideals related to the importance of wealth. Jane seeks advice and comfort from Bessie in chapter 2, only for Bessie to tell Jane, “You ought to be aware, Miss, that you are under obligations to Mrs. Reed: she keeps you: if she were to turn you off, you would have to go to the poor-house” (Mrs. Reed, Jane’s aunt, constantly treats Jane crudely and unfairly). Bessie, in other words, tells Jane that she must put up with Mrs. Reed’s punishments and cruelties because her fiscal situation provides no alternative. Bessie shows no sympathy or remorse in her advice, as her worlds bluntly put the situation of context of how it “just is”. If one has no wealth, they become subject to whatever treatment comes to them and should expect nothing –

“The life so short, the craft so long to learn” (Famous Quotes). The Canterbury Tales is enriched with humanistic merit that allows the reader to sharpen his or her own craft of life. Specifically, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” and “The Clerk’s Tale” are embodied with multiple struggles of life that pertain to life in the present. Despite seven centuries of society constantly evolving, the two stories’ plots can still be further analyzed through similar themes about relationships that pertain to modern society and how rhetorical strategy allows the audience to relate to the narrative characters.

Eliza changed herself for the better. In act 5, she told the two men to start calling her “Miss Doolittle” and that was the beginning of learning her self worth. She was done being treated like a “live doll” and began to see herself like a Duchess, like Higgins

She took her husband and the all the things he provided for her for granted. Mathidle was not satisfied with just a new dress, she had to have jewels to go with it. “’It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put on. I shall look like distress. I should almost rather not go at all.’” She also did not care how much money the dress and the jewelry would cost. To her, all that mattered was if she looked good enough to fit in with the wealthy. She was fortunate enough to be able to borrow the perfect necklace from her wealthy friend. “All of a sudden she discovered, in a black satin box, a superb necklace of diamonds; and her heart began to beat with an immoderate desire. Her hands trembled as she took it. She fastened it around her throat, outside her high-necked dress, and remained lost in ecstasy at the sight of

Fitting with the common theme between the two novels of the judgment of others, each heroine falls victim to a horrible misjudgment of the character of another. After discovering that the engagement between her brother and her friend Isabella has been broken, Catherine finds she has grossly misjudged her friend’s character, and thinks, “She was ashamed of Isabella, ashamed of ever having loved her” (Northanger 150). Elizabeth, on the other hand, finds her attachment the Wickham wholly inappropriate after receiving her letter from Mr. Darcy. After digesting the shocking contents of the letter, Elizabeth “grew absolutely ashamed of herself.—Of neither Darcy nor Wickham could she think, without feeling that she had been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd” (Pride 156). And indeed, as suggested by Elizabeth’s mention of Darcy, this misjudgment goes on to affect each girl’s attachment to her future husband.

“[t]he most unlikeliest materials- a stick, a bunch of rags, a flower- [these] were the puppets of Pearl’s witchcraft, and, without going any outward change, [she] bec[omes] spiritually adapted to whatever drama occupied the stage of her inner world.” (Hawthorne 89)

Amelia’s caring response towards a furniture crazed Linda illustrates that in inescapable situations, it is common to hide true emotions on the inside. In fact, when forced into an argument between the two, Amelia is given a clear advantage due to her ability to separate her actual feelings and what she is saying on the surface. Growing up in a critical thinking family, she never discusses her issues openly because she knows that only underlying messages have any significance (Warren 72). With the realization that direct verbal confrontation in many cases does not reveal the truth, Amelia bottles up her true feelings out of pure instinct. Even when her stepmother makes a blind assumption that they’ve come to an agreement about the situation, the narrator knows better than to say what she’s truly thinking (72). Rather than create a hostile situation, Amelia diffuses it in a certain way that shelters herself from the aftermath of exposing her true feelings. When first describing her stepmother, she clearly states that starting a conversation with her is so painfully inescapable that “[her stepmother] won’t shut up until you run screaming from the room” (69) but she also acknowledges the fact that it is realistically never an option. At any given moment, it is clear that dealing with Linda’s obsession for furniture is an unavoidable nuisance, however, she makes the situation significantly more easily

However, in poems such as ‘A Sunday Morning Tragedy’ and ‘The Newcomer’s Wife’, Hardy shows only a negative view on life throughout them. Hardy uses the idea of women's sexual impurity as a way to negatively portray society, to show the way society in his time treated people unfairly. In ‘A Sunday Morning Tragedy’, it is shown that even through a strong maternal love shown to the daughter in the ballad, the daughter still suffered from her unwed pregnancy. ‘‘Is there an herb…?’ I asked. ‘Or none?’/ Yes, thus I asked him desperately.’ When the mother says ‘herb’ it is meant that she is trying to find something to abort her daughter’s unborn baby. The mother asks the shepherd ‘desperately’ which shows her strong maternal love for her daughter, in her desperation to help her and get what her daughter needs to live a life without shame. ‘’This scandal shall be slain,’ Said I,/ ‘That lours upon her innocency.’’ The use of sibilance and alliteration in what the mother says highlights the idea of the secretive nature of the family's situation and the gossip that is being spread around the village about them. Furthermore, in the first line, Hardy uses eight syllables whereas he uses nine in the second line; ‘’That lours upon her innocency.’’ This break in the regular rhythm of the ballad can suggest to the reader a lack of truth from the mother. In the society that Hardy was living in, it was socially unacceptable to become pregnant while unwed. By also breaking the regularity in the syllables, it draws attention the the line, which could be used to suggest the unwanted

Finally, the reader is introduced to the character around whom the story is centered, the accursed murderess, Mrs. Wright. She is depicted to be a person of great life and vitality in her younger years, yet her life as Mrs. Wright is portrayed as one of grim sameness, maintaining a humorless daily grind, devoid of life as one regards it in a normal social sense. Although it is clear to the reader that Mrs. Wright is indeed the culprit, she is portrayed sympathetically because of that very lack of normalcy in her daily routine. Where she was once a girl of fun and laughter, it is clear that over the years she has been forced into a reclusive shell by a marriage to a man who has been singularly oppressive. It is equally clear that she finally was brought to her personal breaking point, dealing with her situation in a manner that was at once final and yet inconclusive, depending on the outcome of the legal investigation. It is notable that regardless of the outcome, Mrs. Wright had finally realized a state of peace within herself, a state which had been denied her for the duration of her relationship with the deceased.

The one of the poem would be frank. Reason why is because there is not an ounce of lie in this poem. It is truthful and straightforward. For example, the poem speaks about her drinking problems and how the women begs to get money from the government to help her live the lifestyle for her kids, yet her kids are unhealthy and uncared for as she just blabs her mouth about other people. Reason of using repetition in this poem was because in my head it sounded right, it sounded and a way to point out that the person’s life is not blessed, it’s in a terrible mess. The simile points out that the lady’s words are hurtful rather than being harmless, imagery plays a big role in the poem as it describes how she looks like, what she spends time doing,

The speakers in “The Ruined Maid” are two women in the working class. The first is a simple country worker that has run into a lavishly changed version of her former farm working friend. The extravagantly dressed woman, ‘Melia, is quite different than our simple country woman remembers. Throughout the poem the manual laborer repeatedly exclaims at the difference in her appearance, dress, speech and actions. In reply to each of the country woman’s remarks ‘Melia tells her that is the result when one is “ruined” (4).

Many literary critics throughout the years have labeled the Wife of Bath, the "gap-toothed (23)" character of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, a feminist. She is a strong-willed and dominant woman who gets what she wants when she wants it. However, this is not the definition of a feminist. A feminist is someone who believes that women and men are equal, while also is able to recognize and appreciate the unique characteristics of both sexes. A feminist celebrates what it means to be a woman, and a feminist is definitely not what Chaucer meant his character to be interpreted as. If anything, the Wife of Bath could safely be called a sexist. She constantly emphasizes the negative

When looking at the title, The Ruined Maid, the first thought that comes to mind is that of a woman that has acted scandalously. This poem was published in England during the Victorian Era, a time when women were expected to remain “pure” until marriage. Any woman that had sexual relations outside of marriage was considered “ruined” and unmarriable. This poem is a satire on the double standered men had for women, as it was common for men to hire prostitutes when single and have mistresses when married. In the beginning of the poem, a girl named Melia is introduced, a past friend or aquantance of the narrator.

She now refers to the old ladies as robbers the first old lady is very

Just like a child who has had a toy taken away from him, he becomes upset that something he once viewed as his, no longer belongs to him. This view is revealed earlier through his fixation of having her take his last name, thus marking her as his. Though he could easily still treat her as a true daughter, Henchard’s has lost his sense of entitlement to Elizabeth-Jane, causing his narcissistic rage to take over. He quickly begins to criticize her for anything she does that reminds him of his former life. For example, “her occasional pretty and picturesque use of dialect words”, which reveal her poor upbringing, force Henchard to think of his own past when he too was poor (99). Though, quite hypocritically, he is “uncultivated himself”, he becomes “the bitterest critic the fair girl could possibly have had of her own lapses” (100). Though he is swift to rage at and condemn Elizabeth-Jane for her inability to completely erase the tongue of her past, ironically he can not erase his past either. Just as Elizabeth-Jane’s accent occasionally slips into her speech, Henchard’s past continues to slip into his new life.