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#droppedhimonhishead
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BarkingMadRead
Ruth | Elizabeth Gaskell
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Cuilin Does anybody else feel like in order to make this more palatable to a Victorian reader Ruth had to be punished in some way? Hence the hair being cut, almost like she‘s in prison???? 8mo
IndoorDame @Cuilin I think you‘re right 8mo
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IndoorDame When it says Faith switched to the informal you with Ruth and she didn‘t notice at first… is the implication supposed to be that Faith lost respect for her when she found out about the pregnancy, or that she‘s trying to make the fiction of their distant “family connection” convincing since they gave her a family name and now their reputations are on the line too? 8mo
Ruthiella I think also that Sally is protecting her naive employers. She‘s saying, “if I can see through this ruse, so will others. Let‘s make it work”. 8mo
TheBookHippie @Cuilin YES!!!! This exactly. 8mo
AllDebooks @Cuilin absolutely. 8mo
AllDebooks I have read a lot of Victorian fiction and history and never heard of widows cutting their hair. I went down a Google rabbit hole and found this quite interesting 🤔 https://journalofantiques.com/features/the-evolution-of-mourning-wear/ 8mo
currentlyreadinginCO I felt that, too, and how the punishment failing to shame Ruth changed Sally's desire to punish her in the first place @Ruthiella 8mo
dabbe @Ruthiella Agree 💯. 8mo
Clare-Dragonfly I was skeptical that Sally dropping him could have caused his “deformity” but I searched Wikipedia for “hunchback” and it *can* be caused by trauma! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyphosis 8mo
Clare-Dragonfly @IndoorDame I read it as Sally using the formal “you” with her employers—the Bensons, not Ruth—when they arrived, but as she got comfortable again, switched to the informal “thou” she is used to. I don‘t think she switched pronouns with Ruth. 8mo
IndoorDame @Clare-Dragonfly oh, makes sense. Thanks 8mo
mcctrish “Men on the other hand weren‘t expected to follow the rigid mourning rules” @AllDebooks the world really hates women! Imagine if we didn‘t just want equality and autonomy and decided to get even 8mo
Clare-Dragonfly @AllDebooks Fascinating, thanks for sharing! I‘d heard of deep mourning and half-mourning but somehow I‘d missed the existence of second mourning! 8mo
willaful @Clare-Dragonfly Interesting... I was skeptical too. 8mo
willaful @Ruthiella Also a good point. 8mo
julieclair Such an interesting article, @AllDebooks ! Thanks for sharing. 8mo
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