Elizabeth Gaskell

Ruth Elizabeth Gaskell

Ruth is the second novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, the activist wife of a reformist Unitarian minister in Manchester, England. Controversial in its day, the novel straightforwardly and realistically tracks the fortunes of Ruth Hilton, who is outside the social and political establishment and is victimized by it yet ultimately triumphs over it. The novel is among the first to deal openly and deliberately with the conditions of fallen, downtrodden women in mid-nineteenth century England. The novel opens with orphaned, impoverished, lonely Ruth employed as a seamstress in a sweatshop in an industrial town. The girls labor long hours for low pay, and the orphans among them lack any means of escape on idle Sundays. Happenstance brings Ruth to the attention of wealthy, bored, and indolent young Bellingham, who is infatuated with her beauty, of which she herself is aware but in innocence, without guile or vanity. He pursues her relentlessly, being careful not to alarm her, appearing, seemingly casually, on her free Sundays. In her solitude, she has no adviser or guidance, and she is ultimately easy prey. Her employer, Mrs. Mason, who might have offered protection or wisdom, discharges Ruth for fraternizing with him, rendering the girl homeless, resourceless, and completely at Bellingham's mercy.