Only God Knows: An Argument Against Various Interpretations of Hood's "The Bridge of Sighs"

             Through Hood's "The Bridge of Sighs," the tale  of a fallen woman (a prostitute, most likely) who had made the decision to take her own life by leaping off of a bridge and into a river to drown. is told But when her body is recovered, the shamed, fallen woman is "purified" and is actually lamented by the narrator - an act that was greatly against general societal feelings toward this type of woman. As I was going through the pages of the blog, I couldn't help but notice that nearly everyone interpreted the fallen woman's suicide as an act of cleansing and redemption. If you examine in a little bit closer and contextualize it, this cannot be true. Let's take another look at both the penultimate and final stanza of the poem:

Perishing gloomily,                  (95)
Spurr'd by contumely,
Cold inhumanity,
Burning insanity,
Into her rest.--
Cross her hands humbly,          (100)
As if praying dumbly,
Over her breast!

Owning her weakness,
Her evil behavior,
And leaving, with meekness,    (105)
Her sins to her Saviour! 

          To begin, the woman did not jump off of the bridge to purify herself, a fact that Hood explicitly states in lines 96-99. He says that she was "Spurr'd by contumely" (Contumely is insolent or insulting language or treatment), cold inhumanity, and burning insanity into her rest. Society's hatred of her forced her to her death, she did not have any sort of righteous thoughts behind it. She could not handle the stress or hate.
         But what's the most curious to me are lines 100-106. As established earlier in the poem, this woman committed suicide. In most faiths, this is a huge sin. As England, Hood's homeland, was Christian, we'll take a look at what Christianity has to say about suicide. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, suicide is "seriously contrary to justice, hope, and charity. It is forbidden by the fifth commandment" (Paragraph 2325). The fifth commandment states that "Thou shalt not kill." By her suicide, she isn't cleansing herself in the face of God, she's condemning herself. If you look closer at the  final 7 lines, it isn't the woman that is crossing her hands to pray, but either the narrator or someone in the crowd. They're attempting to try to give her some form of faithfulness to God, some reason that her soul may not be condemned to hell for her mortal sins that went beyond prostitution and even committed murder. She isn't actually "owning her weakness" or her "evil behavior" and leaving "her sins to her savior" -  they crowd only wishes that for her. According to traditional Christian faith, her soul is already condemned to Hell. The narrator's action is just a feeble attempt to save her.
         But Hood doesn't leave the woman with just this small shred of hope of her corpse's hands fashioned for prayer; earlier on in the penultimate stanza, he mentions "burning insanity" (98). Assuming he's saying that the woman was insane, there is hope for her, although not too much. Paragraph  2282 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church mentions that "grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide (my italics). If this woman was truly insane, she has the chance of having a lesser punishment for her sin. Although the chances are implicitly slim, there's still a shred of hope for her. Is Hood really saying that the fallen is redeemed, or is he just casting an illusion? Only God can know.




References:
http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2325.htm
http://www.olrl.org/Lessons/Lesson38.shtml
http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2282.htm
         

"Art for Art's sake"

“Art never expresses anything but itself. This is the principle of my new aesthetics.” Wilde

As I was reading “The Picture of Dorian Gray” I became curious to know more about the aesthetic philosophy and the literary movement that was in effect in late nineteenth-century Britain. I found many interesting articles that showed me the direct influence that aestheticism had on Oscar Wilde. With the influence of his poetry and plays, Wilde was known to be “a major spokesman for the Aesthetic Movement”.

The term “aestheticism” derives from Greek, meaning “perceiving through senses” A doctrine which holds aesthetics or beauty as the highest ideal or most basic standard. According to the Aesthetic Movement, art justifies its own existence by expressing and embodying beauty. Aestheticism was in complete opposition to the prevailing Victorian mentality, with its emphasis on hard work, moral earnestness, and material success, aestheticism on the other hand emphasized the fleeting nature of life and argued that the most important thing was to relish the exquisite sensations life brings, especially those stimulated by a work of art. The aim was to be fully present and to live vividly in each passing moment. (Anderson )

In the novel Dorian Gray a young, innocent, beautiful boy is introduced and corrupted by Lord Henry Wotton’s introduction of the principles of hedonism and aestheticism. His corruption starts with the extreme admiration of Basil and fuel is set to the fire by Lord Henry who tells young Dorian Gray that “youth is the only thing worth having” and that ”Beauty is a form of Genius- is higher, indeed than Genius, as it needs no explanation” basically saying that when beauty and youth go, by natural age, he will discover that there will be nothing left for him. This put immense fear into Dorian, which caused him to make the wish of him staying always young and the painting to age.

His search for pleasure and obsession with esthetics ruined his soul and some of the lives that he encountered.   

Anderson , Anne. "Oscar Wilde and the Aesthetic Movement, and the Cult of Beauty in Art and Design." Cranleigh Decorative & Fine Arts Society.

"The Ruined Maid" - Not So Ruined, After All.

  Thomas Hardy’s “The Ruined Maid” deals with the topic of fallen women - women who deviated from the path of righteousness and had sexual relations out of wedlock. This doesn’t just apply to prostitutes, but any sort of women who engaged in this sort of activity; it didn’t necessarily have to be a repeated offense, a one time occurrence was enough for a woman to take a fall. These women were disgraced and ousted from society’s social structure, as no one truly respected these “ruined” women.

In this poem, Hardy attempts to show that fallen women (in this case, a prostitute) are not what society makes them out to be, but rather depicts them as classy, refined individuals. I interpreted the poem as an argument against the accusations that society made on these women. 

  “The Ruined Maid” is comprised of a conversation between a farm girl turned upper-class prostitute, Melia, and an unnamed girl that is implicitly from Melia’s old country home, possibly a close neighbor. Each stanza begins with the unnamed farm girl making some sort of explanation of how much Melia has changed since she left the farm life; she presents a previous memory of Melia followed by the Melia in the time of this poem. For example, in the second stanza, the girl remarks how Melia left them “in tatters, without shoes or socks (5),” but now she has “gay bracelets and bright feathers (7).” Each stanza follows the precedent made from the first, always expressing the change from one of lower-class or melancholy feelings to one of wealth, prosperity, and happiness. Melia’s repeated explanation is that it all comes with one’s ruin. 

          Hardy expresses through this poem how much better off  “ruined” women are - they are more prosperous, more educated, more refined, and more lively - than the average women. Hardy presents an entirely opposing view of what was typically thought of these kinds of women. He claims that these women aren’t down-trodden, dirty, unintelligent, and rough, but the direct opposite. 

When the unnamed farm girl in the sixth stanza (Beginning on line 21), expresses her want and desire for everything that Melia is - her polish, her wealth, and her attitude - Melia responds in a manner different than the rest of her previous answers. She says:

“‘My dear -- a raw country girl, such as you be,     (23)

Cannot quite expect that. You ain’t ruined,’ said she.” (24) (My italics)

  Melia says that the country girl can’t expect to have everything that she does, as it is something that comes when you are “ruined.” But more interestingly, she calls the girl “raw” (23). This choice in wording is curious; according to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, to be raw is to be unprepared or imperfectly prepared for use; not being in polished, finished, or processed form (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/raw). By stating that the country girl is “raw,” Hardy is implicitly stating that Melia is beyond this stage. He’s implying that Melia is past this stage -  she’s prepared and perfectly prepared for use, she’s polished, finished, and processed. Clearly, Melia is in a better form than the country girl, and this form, as said by Melia, comes when one is ruined. Hardy says that she’s the better of the two.

  Is being “ruined” as bad as the word implies? Clearly, Hardy doesn’t think so. It doesn’t look like everyone was against these fallen women. 

The Ruined Maid

Thomas Hardy’s poem “The Ruined Maid” is an example of a dramatic monologue, which features a conversation between two women in late Victorian England. One is a farm girl and the other is a former farm girl who moves to the city. In the poem the farm girl speaks to Melia, the city girl, and notices how she has changed since her move to the city. The first girl—unidentified by name and yet living on a farm—addresses the other girl, named Melia, who answers in all but one stanza, the last one. The first girl has three lines of the quatrain, and Melia is given a one-line response in which she uses the word “ruin” in a couple of different ways.  Melia explains in each of the six stanzas of the poem that these changes indicate how she has become a “fallen woman.” The term fallen woman in Victorian culture applied to woman who were considered prostitutes, unmarried women who engaged in sexual relations with men, victims of seduction, adulteresses, as well as lower-class women who broke the rules.  

At this time there is a thin line between high prostitutes and well kept women. The poem clearly shows the freedom that is gained from being a prostitute compared to a factory worker that may work 15 or more hours of very hard labor that ruins the body. This work was also very dangerous since no protection was really offered in the factories. Despite all of the hard work and long hours, factory jobs could barely provide someone with proper amount of food and a livable sleeping area.

The country girl shows envy when admiring the prostitute and shows desire to escape to the city. Melia shows that her life used to be old fashion and full of work that was way too hard on a woman. She has replaced her old job for a different kind of labor called “sex” and she states that it has many advantages, like more food, more money, comfortable place to sleep at night, beautiful elegant clothing, etc. Melia seems to have an easier life from the “honorable” farm girl and Melia seems to enjoy her life even though she is doing something that is considered totally wrong and a sin in her society. Why is it that the respectful hard worker lives a much problematic life full of struggles, compared to a prostitute that is sinning and going against all the rules of being the ideal “Victorian woman”?

At this time a Victorian woman, or the “angel of the house” was defined by her role within the home, because the family served as a sanctuary for the "preservation of traditional moral and religious values" ("Victoria's Past").  The qualities valued by Victorian society in the ideal female were submissiveness, innocence, purity, gentleness, self-sacrifice, pa t i enc e, modesty, passivity, and altruism.  T he middle - class Victorian woman was to have no ambition other than to please others and care for her family. A woman was to be "a monument of selflessness, with no existence beyond the loving influence she exuded as daughter, wife, and mo t h e r"  ("Victoria's Past") .

The woman of the nine tenth century occupied a position of “duality” within Victorian culture, she was either “Madonna or Magdalene”, pure or ruined, familiar or foreign.  If a woman disobeyed the rules of what the ideal Victorian woman was, whether by sexual misconduct or criminal act, she was viewed as deviant and unnatural. She represented an “unsettling anomaly that both repelled and fascinated the Victorian.” Society viewed these woman as fallen, but in reality these women were victims of seduction and poverty.

The Victorian man, similar to the woman was only allowed to have sex within marriage, but a woman had to help men control their instincts and not have sex. Even though men were urged to control their sexuality, the Victorians believed that heterosexual desire was in a man’s nature. Therefore the society pleaded ignorance about a man’s inability to control his sexuality!! A man was allowed to seduce women, and in fact it was in their “nature” to do so, but all the responsibility fell upon the women to reject this seduction or else they were damned!

In my opinion the prostitute of Victorian times had a lot in common with the poor women trying to make a living in the urban job market. Many orphans on their own or extremely poor women became prostitutes out of necessity or a means to survive. Most of these women were desperately trying to survive in a world of very few opportunities. In “The Ruined Maid” we clearly see the appeal of becoming a prostitute compared to the living of the factory worker. 

What is very interesting is that Victorian women were not judged solely by their behavior but also by the way that they looked, a woman’s poor appearance could make her seem “fallen”. But at the same time, a woman that once used to be poor, now dressed in overly elaborate clothing and beautiful appearance could be labeled as “fallen”, since prostitution was the only way to buy such clothing from a woman of a poor background. The Victorian Era was extremely judgmental on women, in fact women had only two options; she was either a virgin or she was a mother, anything other than that was subject to critique and ridicule by the society. 

 "To the Life of the Victorian Woman." Victoria's Past. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Apr 2012.     http://www.victoriaspast.com/LifeofVictorianWoman/LifeofVictorianWoman.html

One more unfortunate...Gone to her death!

           Found Drowned by George Ferederic Watts is one of the many Victorian paintings that focus on the fascination with “fallen women”. During this time period, prostitution was an easy way for women to make money, but at the price of being ostracized by society. Being branded as a “Fallen Woman” meant that a woman could not go on to enjoy a normal life. She was considered “stained”, unfit to marry into a good family or to raise one. These women were left with little options and as such, many chose to end their lives.

            The painting’s setting takes place at night time, with London’s landscape shown in the background. The woman’s isolation from society is apparent and she chooses to take her life during the night so that her actions will be hidden. The tragic circumstance of her being cast away by the city leads her to take this action. In an ironic way, in this solitude, she finally gains a sense of peace away from the city that stigmatizes her.  

          Death by drowning in the Thames River is symbolic of these “fallen women” being baptized and cleansed. Water has a purifying element; it is reminiscent of how John the Baptist would baptize people and absolve them of their sins. By portraying these women in this fashion, Victorian artists are showing mercy to these women and forgive them of their past transgressions. Their faces in these paintings show a serene, peaceful visage attained only in death and with peace of mind.

           The woman portrayed in this painting is beautiful, which is quite far from how drowned bodies would look. During this time period, suicide by drowning was a common thing and people were quite aware of the bloated and grotesque conditions these bodies were found in. Yet, Victorian painters chose to embellish these women’s tragic deaths. More people could sympathize with a tragic drowned maiden with an angelic face, rather than a hideous, decaying body.

            She is modest in clothing, a style the artist chooses to portray her in to emphasize that she is just a simple woman with tragic circumstances. In her life, she may have worn fanciful, colorful clothing that marked her as a prostitute, but in death, these plain clothes show that she is no different from the other women of society. In her hand so holds on to a necklace, perhaps a memento from a loved one that she could not part with even in death.

            The unfortunate lives of these women were made popular in paintings such as this and in poems like “The Bridge of Sighs” by Thomas Hood. Victorian society had popularized the notion that many “fallen women” would throw themselves off the London Bridge due to their shame and guilt. Painters and poets of this time period sympathized with these women, adorning their tragic fates by romanticizing their situations and deaths. They provide a criticism of society, bringing to light how these women are forced to choose this way of life: live in poverty, working in dangerous factories where they faced a crippling future or walk London’s nightly streets, offer themselves up to men for easy money and be branded a prostitute.

This painting can be found at: http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/watts/paintings/2.html

For more paintings on fallen women, visit: http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/fallen.html

O Rose thou art sick...

           “The Sick Rose” by William Blake is about a tainted “rose” and how it has been infected by an “invisible worm”. Underneath the horticultural façade of this poem, I've interpreted the “rose” as a maiden and the parasitic “worm” that saps her life can be thought of as either a man or a disease that man has brought upon her. Regardless of which ever one it is, the important detail about this is that “…his dark secret love/Does thy life destroy” (7-8).”    

            The image above is Blake’s illustration and he gives us a clue on the nature of this poem. In the image, you can see a woman emerging from a rose, looking healthy and happy with her face shown. She is surrounded by the flower, in a protective sort of way. The two other women above her are bent over and look ill or in despair. They are surrounded thorns, indicative of their pain. They are also hiding their faces, perhaps of their guilt and shame. The worm in the upper left corner has a phallic shape and it's position is much higher than the two women, suggesting the higher positions men held over women. 

Has found out thy bed

Of crimson joy:

And his dark secret love

Does thy life destroy   

                                                       (6-8)

            The second stanza is quite powerful because of the underlying meanings within it. The “worm” can then be thought of as a phallic symbol, when put together with “…thy bed/Of crimson joy:” (5-6). The “worm” is deriving pleasure from entering the “rose” at nighttime, a symbolism for intercourse. The reference to the “crimson joy”, when coupled with the statement regarding the bed, can be thought of as the losing of one’s virginity and the blood that flow when the hymen is broken.  

            Symbolically, if the “rose” does represent a girl, and the “worm” a man, in this time period if they are conducting a secret affair at night, then it can be easily guessed that the woman’s life is being destroyed in many ways. A woman can be thought of as a “fallen woman” if she engages in pre-marital sex, and therefore her reputation could fall, she would not be respected by society, marry into a respectable family and would be more likely to commit suicide for fear of having no future. In this way, her life is being destroyed.  

            Another view of this is to see the “worm” as a venereal disease that the woman has contracted due to the nightly visitations of a man. This is connected with the view that the “worm” enters the “rose” and slowly destroys her life. The woman could be unaware of the disease she has contracted, due to the worm’s “dark secret” (7). In this sense, her life is being destroyed because of the “crimson joy” that she has partaken in.

            In this poem, the speaker puts the blame of the rose’s condition on the nightly visitations of the worm. In other words, the speaker is actually letting the audience know that it is not the fault of the “rose” but rather that of the “worm”. In this sense, William Blake is telling us that the “worm” or in this case, the actions of a man are to blame for the downfall of this “rose”.

An Insight: A Closer Look at the Life of Oscar Wilde

 While reading The Picture of Dorian Gray I wondered more on the life of Oscar Wilde. What kind of man was he? What did other writers think of him? After writing such a novel how was he seen as an individual in the Victorian Era? I started searching and luckily came across an article written by Andrew McCracken titled, The Long Conversation of Oscar Wilde. McCracken gave an argument of how Wilde used Catholicism in his pieces, who didn't become part of the Catholic until the final days of his young life. 

The article gives a brief biography of Wilde's early life. Moving to Oxford University  from Dublin, Ireland  to study under novelist Walter Pater. While studying with Pater Oscar Wilde was captivated by the aesthetics of the Catholic ritual. Because of his new infatuation with the Catholic religion Wilde met a new Catholic by the name of David Hunter-Blair who wanted to convince Wilde to join the Catholic church. Unfortunately Wilde said that to join the Catholic church would mean for him to surrender his two greater Gods, "Money and Ambition." Wilde was only interested in the "romantic" part of the religion, not actually becoming a part of it. He had other things in mind.

It wasn't shocking to find out that when he first entered society in London they embraced him with open arms. He had great taste and opinion in art, he dressed finely, and lent his advice to the fashions. In the 1880s, to my surprise, Wilde got married and had two sons over the course of two years. He wrote short stories and novels for children that were well received and all seemed right in his world. That was until he reached the 1890s and his life began to spiral downwards. 

The year 1891 when The Picture of Dorian Gray was released to the public. It caused a frenzy because many claimed the book to be about Oscar Wilde's life himself. McCracken writes that the average book reviewer would say the novel was "a poisonous book" filled with "moral and spiritual putrefaction," saying that the book "hints...at disgusting sins and abominable crimes." Reading that I thought it was a harsh review of the book. Of course I had to take into consideration that during the Victorian Era, especially in high-class London society, the book wasn't exactly what Wilde should be writing about. The audience wasn't ready for this kind of book, they had their own sensibilities to think of. The one thing that really stood out me was McCracken's view on Wilde's novel, saying the theme of the book is  "a theme that lies at the heart of Catholicism: the ruin of the soul brought about by sin."

I think Wilde knew what he was doing when he wrote the novel. After studying the Catholic religion and experiencing it he wanted to write about the conscience of the sinner. However, it wasn't just Dorian Gray that brought attention to Wilde's other life, but the subtle use of Catholicism in his other works. Sadly because of the life Wilde wished to live he was sentenced to two years of excruciating labor at Reading Gaol– just for being a homosexual. While serving his sentence in prison McCracken says Wilde faced real life sin and suffering. His time in prison must have awakened his spirit of some sorts because after his release in May 1897 he sent a request for a 6 month retreat to the Jesuits of Farm Street. Did Wilde wish to revive his broken spirit with the Ignatian spirituality? It's possible because on his death bed he was accepted to the Catholic church.

Overall, I found the article interesting that McCracken was explaining how Catholicism really inspired Oscar Wilde's work. His life is an interesting one and to read how towards the later years of his life he was persecuted and banished from a society that once loved to hear and read his opinions. I highly recommend this read, gives a new perspective on the man who wrote such an amazing novel (in my opinion).