Ruth (Penguin Classics)

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Ruth, the protagonist of your own story, when I met you the first time you were a good dressmaker apprentice – I could tell that you were trying it; besides, you had your friend Jenny who used to be nice and charming with you, whereas Mrs Mason was such a cruel and ruthless employer who was constantly against you. So unfair! Chapman, Alison, ed. (1999). Elizabeth Gaskell: Mary Barton North and South. Duxford: Icon Books. ISBN 9781840460377. The story of Ruth’s life is a kind of extended parable; she is a humble and pious martyr to her own lost innocence and socially dictated moral strictures, and her religion both condemns and saves her. Gaskell writes the character of Ruth deliberately as symbol for the reader and supporting characters to provoke an examination of both their own and society’s misogynistic prejudices, which spring from cultural convention and religious teaching. Gaskell brings the Madonna/Whore dichotomy to a head by creating a character that represents both, and crafting a plot which invites the reader to notice the casual cruelty of their own assumptions, the hypocrisy in religious practice, and the ways that an accumulation of small injustices can have drastic results.

Jemima is in love with Mr. Farquahar, who is much older and a business partner of Mr. Bradshaw’s. Mr. Farquahar is interested in Jemima as well, though he’s concerned about their age difference. Mr. Bradshaw very much desires the union, figuring it will get Jemima off his hands *and* keep money in the family. There is nothing wrong with you, Ruth; the society pointed you out, they judged you as though they were perfect; hypocritical society, I must say. Perhaps you felt confused, perplexed, torn, even you didn’t understand why, why this was happening to you. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry… I don’t have an accurate answer – even though I don’t rule out the possibility of being truly and completely happy in your time, in my time things are not so easy either. Alas, it’s not surprising, therefore, that so many people are suffering such things and more. A friend of mine noted that Elizabeth Gaskell's novels are so different from each other. I have read North and South, Cranford, Wives and Daughters, and now Ruth, and I agree. I knew Elizabeth Gaskell was a religious person, but I did not expect from her previous novels that Ruth the novel would be so deeply religious. In fact, I think reading this novel would be a challenge in some ways for a reader who did not have some familiarity with the Bible and with the Christian faith. Since I finished the novel a couple days ago, the characters and questions the novel raises have been rolling around in my brain, and I'm eager to try to put words to them. What you should have known, dear Ruth, it’s the fact that this world is sometimes full of bad people, suffering, and sorrow. So, you trusted him, you were young, innocent… how could you have known the truth?Is it not time to change some of our ways of thinking and acting? I declare before God, that if I believe in any one human truth, it is this—that to every woman who, like Ruth, has sinned, should be given a chance of self-redemption—and that such a chance should be given in no supercilious or contemptuous manner, but in the spirit of the holy Christ.” Still, with all the fervor of youth, Ruth has convinced herself that she loves Bellingham. She doesn’t seem to have strong feelings about her “fallen woman” status unless it’s shoved in her face, as when a young boy castigates her in the village in front of his nanny, having heard that Ruth is a “bad woman” from his mother. It occurs to me that her love for Bellingham is probably partly motivated by a desire to self-justify her “sinful” behavior. (Spoiler: he’s not that lovable!) Her grave is near the Brook Street Chapel, Knutsford. [ citation needed] Reputation and re-evaluation [ edit ] Rubenius, Anna. The Woman Question in Mrs. Gaskell’s Life and Works. 1950. Reprint. New York: Russell & Russell, 1973. An early feminist interpretation of the social, political, and economic critiques in Gaskell. Sees Ruth as reformist concerning patriarchal sexuality, marriage, family life, and conditions of women’s work for hire.

Ruth, the social novel which is very sympathetic towards Ruth. although not all of the characters in this novel are near being as Christ-like as Mr. and Miss Benson. This novel portrays the devastating tragedies of Ruth’s life.

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Secure in his dominion, Bradshaw challenges the Tory hegemony in the town by fielding his own Liberal candidate for Parliament, wealthy Mr. Donne. Confronted with Donne, Ruth finds that he is actually Bellingham (he has changed his name to gain a legacy), and he eventually discovers who she is. Although Ruth knows that he is a scoundrel, she also recognizes that she will always love him. Again, he pursues her, even proposes to her, but she refuses him and forbids him access to their son. Her course is set; her life is dedicated to her son.