"We Never do Work when we're Ruined": Country Girl to Fallen Woman

 

 

 If you looked upon a farm during the Victorian Era, you would most likely see similar labor as to what is being done now. Men and women mainly of lower and middle class worked sun up till sun down tending to their crops and animals. Clearly, this is a laborious job that requires hard work and dedication.

Upon looking at the poem “The Ruined Maid” by Thomas Hardy (1901), we can see a farm girl, given the named Melia, transform into a fallen woman. An unnamed friend of hers, who also worked on a farm, spots her in town and notices her transformation. She now has “gay bracelets and bright feathers three” (7) and dresses in “fair garments” (4).

Significantly, the friend of Melia’s wishes to be like her because she believes that prostitution represents freedom and an easy life.  She has seen her friend become a fallen woman, and notices that she is dressed well and has a completely new body. He hands “were like paws then, [her] face [was] blue and / bleak,” but now, he friend is “bewitched by [her] delicate cheek” (13-15) (my italics).

We also see, in the last stanza of the poem, that Melia’s friend is envious of her new life. She now wishes that she “feathers, a fine sweeping gown / and a delicate face and could strut around Town” (21-22). 

One can see that women believed that prostitution provided and escape from physical labor. This escape from labor is then replaced with paid sex and several other advantages. Fallen women get leisure time, nice clothing, better food, jewelry, a much nicer home, and no physical labor.

For more information on fallen women during the Victorian period visit:

http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/fallen.html