The poem "The Ruined Maid" depicts a conversation between two former farm workers, one who remains a farmhand and one named Melia who has become a prostitute. They contrast Melia's current situation, in which she wears fine clothes and speaks properly, with her past poverty and rough lifestyle. While the farmhand envies Melia's new appearance, Melia explains that her change in circumstances is due to being "ruined" and that her new livelihood allows her more liveliness than her past life. The document provides analysis of the poem's themes and use of language, phonological elements, and grammar to develop contrasts between the past and present.

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 girl (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