The Fallen Woman: Does the woman still bear the title of a fallen woman after death in Thomas Hood's "The Bridge of Sighs"

In Thomas Hood's "The Bridge of Sighs" it brings up the question on whether one can continue to call a "fallen woman" a fallen women after death. Is she free of such a label? Did she kill herself to rid herself of such a name? Of course, I'm getting ahead of myself.

The context of this poem is rather tragic and told from either an omniscient voice or a person who found the girl speaking to someone who's taking care of the body. The speaker is very careful about the girl, urging the other individual to handle her as delicately as possible. He says in lines 13-14 to the other character to "Take her up instantly/ Loving, not loathing." She may be a dead prostitute, just because she is a prostitute it gives no reason for anyone to treat her uncivilly. The speaker's respect for the dead woman continues throughout the rest of the poem.

Touch her not scornfully;	15
Think of her mournfully,
Gently and humanly;
Not of the stains of her,
All that remains of her
Now is pure womanly.	20

From lines 15-20 the speaker is reminding the person/reader to not think of her as a prostitute. He repeats his early sentiment to take care of her with love because after death she became pure. Yes, if she were still alive one wouldn't think of using kind manners to a prostitute, but the speaker kindly requests for us to think "Not the of the stains of her,"(19) but as any pure woman who could have died that night. That life she lived as an unclean woman is over. Now that she is dead there is no point to continue with such bad behavior. All dead person's deserve respect.

Hood doesn't put to bed the thought of seeing the fallen woman as a new kind of person than being recognized for her old ways. In lines 21-35 the speaker continues to defend the woman's corpse, or rather her soul.

Make no deep scrutiny 21
Into her mutiny
Rash and undutiful:
Past all dishonour,
Death has left on her
Only the beautiful. 26 At the 5th stanza the speaker against reminds the reader and to whomever he's talking to to not judge her for the mistakes she's made in her past life. He acknowledges that it wasn't a life honor and colour and beauty, but it's all over now and she's dead– that life is gone. She's a beautiful person, looking peaceful almost because she doesn't have to live on that burden any longer, knowing she's a prostitute in a society that really didn't care for her. Nearing the end of the 7th stanza to the 8th stanza he begins to wonder who this woman was before her death, before she ever became a prostitute. He detaches her from her former fallen life and enters a series of thoughts of where she came from. Who were her family members? He gave the woman a life prior to her death, who was she loved? With lines 40-42 he asks "was there a dearer one / still, and a nearer one / yet, than all other?" The question of whether or not she was loved at all by someone who knew her, who was probably near by somewhere, reminds us that she was a human being. Just because she was a ruined woman doesn't mean she still didn't have the desires for love by a single person. That one person would always be more significant than any of the patron's she ever had. She was a real person, a real woman. Unfortunately the life of a fallen woman was too tiring for this woman. The later descriptions Hood uses of the type of setting it was that she killed herself in has the reader feeling sorry for her. She died in the cold winter month of March because she was exhausted of "life's history," the misery every day has brought lead her to be "glad to death's mystery," (68); she was happy to embrace death. In lines 69-71 she was "Swift to be hurl'd – / Anywhere, anywhere / Out of the world!" Either the speaker is saying she would rather be out of this world or if it was Hood himself, one cannot know for sure, but what is clear is that she tired of living this life and wanted to leave this world that was so cruel to a woman in her position. Why wouldn't she dive into the dark river? It's as if she pass on to a new world when she hit the water.

In she plunged boldly—	72
No matter how coldly
The rough river ran— 74

As she drowns in the water, is it possible that she cleansed herself of her sins of a prostitute to cross over into the after life as the "pure woman" Hood hints at? This question may come off as a bit odd because suicide is a sin itself, but the representation of emerging her body through the water almost reminds one of a baptism taking place. She purified her soul so she may enter a world that's more deserving to live in.

Owning her weakness, 103
Her evil behaviour,
And leaving, with meekness,
Her sins to her Saviour! 106 Towards the end of the poem the speaker suggest to us that before the woman ended her life she forgave herself of the life she led before. She knew that the life she led was "evil" and so as she quietly left her past life she carried her sins to the after life to place them before God (the Saviour from line 106). When I read this last stanza I thought to myself that she went before God with the strength in knowing she has sinned before and hopes for a new beginning in the afterlife, in Heaven. She left her worldly body because it was tarnished and everyone knew this of her. In Heaven she could be forgiven for her past life and start anew at a place where she can feel loved. To read the rest of the poem by Thomas Hood, visit: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-bridge-of-sighs/