This is classic Hardy at his best with just the right
amount of ambivalent irony. The poem commences with a chance meeting in town between
Amelia and an old friend of hers from the country. As they chat, the friend raves about
the way Amelia has been transformed from country bumpkin to an urban lady, sophisticated
in her manners and dress. Amelia, however, in the last line of each stanza refers again
and again to the fact that this has only come through her "ruin." This of course means
that she is now working as a prostitute. Her tone, however, indicates that she is far
from regretful about what has happened to her. She has indeed lost her chastity and
suffered the inevitable moral backlash, but she clearly feels that she is in a more
advantageous position than she was when she was working in the
fields.
Perhaps the last stanza expresses the ambivalent
irony of the poem best:
-- "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.
Hardy's treatment of the
fallen woman in this poem therefore expresses a certain amount of ambivalence through
the way it focuses on how Amelia's life, in some ways, has definitely
improved.
No comments:
Post a Comment