The Ruined Maid

In Thomas Hardy’s The Ruined Maid we do not directly watch change occur, however we are given an insight into the after math of a character’s change. One of the things we as a reader learn is that the value of change is often subjective. How one views another’s personal transformation can be effected by their race, class, morals and a plethora of other factors. In Thomas Hardy’s poem he shows us just how morals, class and gender roles can effect a person’s view.

In this poem we have two characters, Melia, the “ruined” maid and the nameless narrator. The poem kicks off when Melia crosses paths with the narrator and the two have a (rather one sided) conversation about the changes Melia has gone through since the narrator saw her last. Melia used to be poor and her life was full of despair, as exemplified in line 17 “You used to call home-life a hag-ridden dream” but now Melia wears fine feathers and gloves and is more-than-likely working as a prostitute. With bright feathers and a more attractive appearance a sex worker is able to subtlety tell potential clientele of her profession. Hardy makes good use of irony throughout the poem and Melia’s feathers and fancy attire are not exempt from his touch. Melia is advertising herself (out of necessity) yet she does not seem proud or willing to discuss the nature of her business with the narrator. It is also purposeful that the narrator equates “gay bracelets” and “bright feathers” with the higher class, because in reality the upper class was more refined and their attire reflected that. Her confusion highlights her nativity.

The narrator seems much more impressed (or maybe shocked) by Melia’s transformation than Melia herself. When responding, the ‘ruined maid’ only uses quick quips and refers to herself as “ruined.” Each stanza ends with some mention of Melia being ruined. Melia refers to herself as ruined, so obviously she is not proud of what she has had to do to dig herself out of poverty. The word “ruined” is very purposely in this poem. Ruined in one sense means that someone has lost a sense of innocence or purity, the way that narrator might view Melia and in another sense it can allude to financial ruin, where we are told Melia was before her encounter with the narrator. Melia’s own view of her transformation is made quite clear when she says “Some polish is gained with one’s ruin (12).” The fact that she says “polish” means she thinks only her outer appearance has truly changed, and deep inside she is still the same woman. Using the word polish also emphasizes Melia buffing up her outer appearance so that she can be more desirable to her clientel. To me this means that Melia is involved in prostitution out of necessity, it is only a means to an end. This is made clear by the contrast with the quality of her old life and the quality of her new life. Now instead of her face being “bleak” she has a “delicate cheek.”. The tone of the poem is dry and almost resentful, much like Melia’s quips. There seems to be some resentment from Melia to the narrator perhaps for acknowledging what she has done and Melia may be projecting some of her regrets from her past decisions onto the narrator.

On the topic of morality, it is hard to know what Melia’s former moral view points were but whatever they were it is clear that she chose having money over any moral obligations she had to a life of prostitution. There is also the chance that she had no moral obligations to overcome and maybe she saw nothing wrong with making a living through sex. Given the poem’s Victorian setting this second option is rather unlikely, because at the time the issue was highly stigmatized. At the time women were thought to have no sex drive, so to have a female not only willing but wanting to have sex would have a hard concept for some to grasp. Sex was more than ever a taboo topic, and Hardy was definitely taking a swing at the views of sexuality at the time. His poem proves that Melia, through her prostitution, has elevated herself out of poverty, she is no longer naïve and poor like her raw-country-girl acquaintance. Thomas Hardy may also be showing how Melia was a product of her environment, because of poor conditions and poor opportunities for women, she turned to prostitution. In some lines it would seem that the narrator is oblivious to what it is Melia does. She never casts direct judgment or says anything condescending. In-fact she even declares a desire to be like Melia, or more specifically to wear “a fine sweeping gown” and to “strut about town” (24) a country girl like the narrator may not have seen a prostitute before. This paints her as an unintelligent woman, showing that Melia’s choice not only benefited her finances but it also surrounded her with people who were more intelligent and refined than her acquaintance.

From Melia’s perspective, both of the girls are ruined. Melia may be morally ruined, but she at least has money and lives comfortably. The narrator on the other hand, may have managed to maintain her purity, but it would seem she is in a sate of financial ruin nonetheless. In lines 5-6 she talks about the bleak conditions back at home; “You left us in tatters, without shoes or socks / Tired of digging potatoes and spudding up docks.” So this presents the reader with a question: What is more valuable? Income or innocence? It also presents the reader with the different scopes the women are using to asses the changes Melia has gone through. Ultimately what the poem argues is that personal change, is just that, personal.

Bibliography

Hardy, Thomas. The Ruined Maid. The Norton Introduction to Literature 11th edition. 2013.

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