The ruined maid

1. The Ruined Maid Stylistic Analysis (Thomas Hardy) By Arifa Khan

2. The Ruined Maid “O’ Melia , my dear, this does everything crown! Who could have supposed I should meet you in town? And whence such fair garments , such prosperi-ty ?” “O didn ‘t you know I’ d been ruined?” said she. “ you left us in tatters, without shoes or socks, Tired of digging potatoes, and spudding up docks; And now you’ ve gay bracelets and bright feathers three!” “ yes:that’s how we dress when we’ re ruined,” said she. “At home in the barton you said “thee” and “thou” And “ thik oon ” , and “ theas oon ”, and “t’ other” ; but now Your talking quite fits ‘ ee for high company!” “some polish is gained with one’s ruin”, said she. “your hands were like paws then, your face blue and bleak But now I’ m bewitched by your delicate cheek, And your little gloves fit as on any lady!” “We never do work when we’re ruined, said she.

3. “You used to call home-life a hang-ridden dream, And you,d sigh, and you’d sock ; but at present you seem To know not of megrims or melancho-ly !” “true, One’s pretty lively when ruined,” said she. “I wish I had feathers, a fine sweeping gown, And a delicate face, and could strut about Town!” “My dear a raw country girl , such as you be, Cannot quite expect that , You ain’t ruined,” said she.

4. About Poet Thomas Hardy was born June 2,1840, in the village Upper Bockhampton , located in Southwestern England. Hardy gained all the interests oh his parents that would appear in his novels and his own life : his love for architecture and music, his interest in the lifestyles of the country folk, and his passion for all Sorts of literature. A Close look at Poem “The Ruined Maid” takes from a dialogue between two girls who previously worked together on a farm. The girl who speaks first is still A farm-hand, and she has just met the other girl, Amelia, by chance in town. She is surprised at how different Amelia looks since she last saw her, but Amelia explains that she has been ‘ruined’. This term actually means that she has become a prostitute. The poem is full of contrasts between the two speakers, as well as between the past life and present situation of the ‘ruined maid’.  The poem has six stanzas of four lines each, or quatrains, and in each of the first five the farm girl speaks for the first three lines. The ‘ruined’ girl replies to her in the fourth line.

5. Formalist analysis The first stanza introduces the young girl ‘s encounter with Amelia. And the girl surprised on Amelia’s change . In the second stanza the girl recollects Amelia’s former life in the country and her departure from it. She stands her past situation in contrast with her present one and the expression “in tatters without shoes or socks” relating to the past and “you ‘ ve gay bracelets and bright feathers three” relating to the present clearly indicate the differences. The third stanza gives an account of another change in Amelia : Her altered language. “but now your talking quite fits ‘ ee for high company!” are pointed out. In the following stanza Amelia’s old village friend describes her former poor physical aspect “hands like paws,……face blue and bleak” and then she contrasts it with Amelia’s new appearance, “delicate cheek” The structural parallelism occurs throughout the poem.In the last stanza this parallelism is broken since here the subject of the girl’s Speech is changed.

6. Stanza one "O ' Melia , my dear, this does everything crown! Who could have supposed I should meet you in Town? And whence such fair garments , such prosperi-ty ?"- "O didn't you know I'd been ruined?" said she. this phrase means – this is better than anything else clothes The first g irl (whose name we never learn) lives and works in the countryside – she addresses her friend in the first three lines In the final line of each stanza, ‘ Melia responds – note how she always uses a word that has something to do with ‘ruin’ This stanza establishes that ‘ Melia has changed since they last met – her change of clothes here suggests she has improved her situation. Prosperi-ty = success – Hardy (the poet) has used a hyphen to show how the friend pronounces the word – we are forced to emphasise the last syllable which highlights the rhyme in the poem

7. Stanza Two -"You left us in tatters , without shoes or socks, Tired of digging potatoes, and spudding up docks ; And now you've gay bracelets and bright feathers three!"- "Yes: that's how we dress when we're ruined," said she. rags This means – removing weeds (docks) with a short knife (spud) This stanza gives us detail about the life ‘ Melia used to live in the countryside. The women had no shoes or socks and were paid to dig up potatoes Now we learn that ‘ Melia has jewellery and feathers in her hat which show she now has more money and belongings

8. Stanza Three -"At home in the barton you said 'thee' and 'thou,' And ' thik oon ,' and ' theas oon ,' and ' t'other '; but now Your talking quite fits ' ee for high compa-ny !"- "Some polish is gained with one's ruin," said she. farmyard Thee and thou mean ‘you’ Thik oon = that one Theas oon = this one T’other = the other ‘ ee = he This stanza tells us that ‘ Melia has changed the way she speaks. When she lived in the fields she spoke in a dialect. This shows us how her life has changed for the better ( melior )

9. Stanza Four -"Your hands were like paws then, your face blue and bleak But now I'm bewitched by your delicate cheek, And your little gloves fit as on any la- dy !"- "We never do work when we're ruined," said she. This simile shows us how hard life was in the countryside. He hands were like animals’ – possibly dirty and rough These words suggest that ‘ Melia’s face used to be ‘blue’ possibly from the cold but also because she was sad. Bleak suggests she had a gloomy look However, now ‘ Melia has softer skin and her hands are no longer roughened by work

10. Stanza Five -"You used to call home-life a hag-ridden dream, And you'd sigh, and you'd sock ; but at present you seem To know not of megrims or melancho-ly !"- "True. One's pretty lively when ruined," said she. Plagued by evil spirits Sock = to take a short intake of breath migraines sadness Clearly ‘ Melia is much happier now – ‘ Melia used to talk about her life using the metaphor ‘hag-ridden dream’ and would ‘huff and puff’ and complain about it. Now ‘ Melia seems happy - she says she feels ‘pretty lively’ which could suggest she is full of life and happy.

11. Stanza Six "-I wish I had feathers, a fine sweeping gown, And a delicate face, and could strut about Town!"- "My dear--a raw country girl, such as you be, Cannot quite expect that. You ain't ruined," said she. The first girl says she wished she had the things ‘ Melia had. In this stanza ‘ Melia has a two line response. ‘ Melia points out to her friend that she can’t have the same life as her because she is not ruined. The word ‘ ain’t ’ shows us that ‘ Melia has not become ‘polished’ or posh like her friend thinks – this word shows her old dialect

12. Lexical Feature In “The Ruined Maid” one rapidly notes that many of its lexical items Belong to distinct language-user and language use varieties. For instance we observe that many of the girl’s words disclose the regional and social background of both young women. Expressions such as “digging Potatoes”, “ Spudding up docks” and “ barton ” belong to a rural lexis and enhance the young women’s social origin that they come from a low, rural social class. Another lexical aspect to be noted is the same lexical sets. Terms such as “bracelets”, “feathers”, “dress”, “gloves” and “sweeping gown” share the same components of meaning. They all are associated with lexical set “female clothing”.

13. Phonological Features As for as rhyming pattern is concerned, two types of rhymes are to be Distinguished. In the first two lines of each stanza we have masculine Rhymes---single stressed syllables----such as ----socks, docks. In two other lines it is the final vowel of the ending words that rhymes C V .The sound of this vowel which is such as “be”, “she”.

14. Cohesion The repetitions like “fits”-------”fit”, “socks -------- sock” acts in fact as a cohesive element linking items together and bringing elements to the attention of the reader . There are other types of cohesion like “my, I, You, such, us, that, we, your” etc whose purpose is to form cohesive links. Conjunctions are another type of cohesive element such as “ and,but ”.

15. Grammatical Level As grammatical analysis the first part of the poem always refer to Amelia,s past (you+ verb in the simple past) the second part introduced by conjunctions and the word “now”, “at present” always refer to Amelia’s present situation. This syntactical structure foregrounds the temporal opposition between past and present.

16. Further points… The title of the poem does not say which maid is ruined – they both are in a sense The tone of the poem is light hearted – it is a casual conversation between friends The first speaker, does not seem to understand the true nature of ‘ Melia ‘ Melia does not seem to want to reveal her true circumstances the her friend

17. This poem… Expresses sympathy for the situation working class Victorian women were in Attacks Victorian attitudes to low class. Reveals the hypocrisy at the heart or respectable society (hypocrisy = claiming to have moral beliefs but acting in a way that says otherwise)

18. The END