Ruined and Changed
- Dylan Gonçalves
- Apr 7, 2016
- 5 min read
During Queen Victoria's reign which was from June 20, 1837 to January 22, 1901 there stood in place many strict rules that people had to follow. There were rules set in place for dressing, rules for entering the dining room, rules for courtship, rules for how to hold your teacup, rules for what and how to talk. Not to mention that most of their rules were specifically targeted towards women. The Victorian Era is very different from the time period that we live in today because during that time the cult of domesticity was a common way of life. Women were to work only at home, while the man in the family was the breadwinner. Sex was a very taboo topic at the time and was not to be spoken of in public. Women were not to engage in any sexual activities outside of their marriage; if they were to have sex prior to getting married then they were considered “ruined.” Once a women became “ruined” there was no going back, she would be looked down upon, most ruined women would not get married. Sex was wrong, according to popular belief during the Victorian Era. Thomas Hardy on the underhand disagreed with what the majority believed to be wrong. In The Ruined Maid, Thomas Hardy ridicules the idea of premarital sex ruining a woman's life by describing positive changes in the life of ‘Melia, the ruined maid. Instead he emphasizes how the idea of being ruined changes someone for the better despite common assumptions about female sexuality.
According to the Merriam Webster dictionary the two most basic definition for the term change is to 1. To become different and 2. To become something else. In The Ruined Maid the two characters in the poem have two very different roles in society. Melia’s role in society was once to be a typical Victorian Era women who did chores and did not stand out from the other women but now her role has significantly changed. The other character is the “raw country girl” as she is described in line 23 of the poem and she has a more traditional Victorian Era women role that Melia once had. Another role of the country girl is one that is similar to a maid. She had dirt on her face and works all day which is the total contrast of Melia’s new laid back lifestyle. Although at first one may believe that since the title has the word “ruined” in front of the word maid then it is a representation of Melia, but instead the “ruined maid” is actually a representation of the country girl. This was another way that Hardy ridicules Victorian Era rules. According to him Melia isn't the one that is ruined, but the other girl is because she is the one that has to serve as a maid. In his mind Hardy believes that these generalizations about women’s sexuality are wrong. If one was to have premarital sex then she shouldn't be labeled as ruined.
The tone that Melia uses throughout the poem is one of joyfulness and shameless for instance such as lines 7, 12 and 16 where is admits having changed as if she had no regrets. She is loud and proud. Melia is not ashamed to be herself and show her face out in public (line 2 and 4). Melia’s friend on the other hand says “I wish I had feathers, a fine sweeping gown, a delicate face, and could strut about town.” It is almost as if she idolizes Melia’s new found lifestyle. Thomas Hardy include this in his poem to prove that Melia has gained all of this because she is considered “ruined” and Melia’s friend can achieve all that if only she was to became ruined too. But Melia reminds her friend in line 23 and 24 that she isn't ruined, “My dear a raw country girl, such as you be, cannot quite expect that, You ain't ruined.” Change as represented by Melia in this poem is considered a good thing because Melia now has more than she ever had before. Melia has no shame in her new found possessions, she's not ashamed of being seen in town and getting recognition for being ruined.
Killing someone is wrong because, well, it's just wrong. Driving on the road at 65 miles per hour when you know that the speed limit is 40 mph is open for debate, it's dangerous, but still open for debate. Who gets to choose what is right and what is wrong? The origin of morality can be tough to trace back to but Thomas Hardy doesn't find premarital sex to be a bhuge isse so he chooses to ridicule it. Is society wrong for trapping women of having any sexual desire and considering them as “ruined” after they engage in sexual activity prior to marriage? Is Melia in the poem wrong for changing after she explores her sexual desires? All of these question are open for interpretation but in today’s culture we look at and laugh at the British for the uptight rules that they had for a very long time.
In a lecture that was given by Katherine Wetzel she goes on to mention that “Thomas Hardy bridges the divide between Victorian morals, traditions, and modernist challenge to social conventions,” and I agree with that statement because Hardy wrote The Ruined Maid during the turn of the century when people in the Victorian Era were rethinking how society was run and were moving towards modernism. British author Peter Childs describes the word modernism in his book Modernism of not having a precise label “but instead a way of referring to the efforts of many individuals across the art who tried to move away from the established modes of representation in formal and political terms.” The start of modernism marked the era when assumptions about human sexuality were not as prevalent as before and opened a new way of thinking for women in literature, art, and as a way of life.
In conclusion the subject about morality and change matters because societal view is always what influences change. Change is very relevant whether we choose to acknowledge it or not and for those that choose to challenge it and ridicule society through poetry, (for instance Thomas Hardy in The Ruined Maid) or through any other medium change is not always implemented immediately. Women have had their fair share of denigration but long after Thomas Hardy criticized the way women were viewed in society many people chose to speak up and fight for equality. Change is an always recurring phenomenon and although in today’s society there are certain groups of people that are marginalized, for whatever reason there is no stopping
the fight for justice.
Works Cited
Childs, Peter. "Introduction." Introduction. Modernism. Second ed. N.p.: Routledge, n.d. 3. Print.
Greg, William Rathbone (1869). Why Are Women Redundant?. N. Trubner & Co. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
Rebecca Probert, "Living in Sin," BBC History Magazine (September 2012); G. Frost, Living in Sin: Cohabiting as Husband and Wife in Nineteenth-Century England (Manchester U.P. 2008)
Wolffe, John. Religion in Victorian Britain. Manchester: Manchester UP in Association with the Open U, 1997. Print.
Wetzel, Katherine. “Victorian Era and Modernism Lecture.” The University of Iowa. University of Iowa Main Library, Iowa City, IA. April 2, 2016