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willafulIt's so hard to stick to just one chapter!4mo
mcctrish@willaful absolutely especially when I do not understand the nature of the relationship between Ruth and Sir B who have obviously been sharing a room so it must be more than I think it is 🍆🍑😱4mo
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BarkingMadRead@mcctrish I knowwwww like did they or didn‘t they?!? They must have, but it‘s not even alluded to! We want to know!!!4mo
dabbeI'd love to wipe the holier-than-thou attitude off Mrs. B's face. Things are going from bad to worst for our Tess. I mean Ruth. 😂4mo
mcctrish@dabbe apparently that‘s how women of worth are supposed to act and how Ruth outed herself immediately4mo
currentlyreadinginCO@mcctrish@BarkingMadRead I am confused, too! Is everyone this bent out of shape bc they're just sharing a room together!? Or are we just supposed to understand that they're sleeping together and if so why isn't Ruth conflicted about that ?4mo
IndoorDame@BarkingMadRead@mcctrish right? I keep feeling like I missed the reference and wanting to go back, but aside from just how rude the locals were and the fact that he fussed with her hair and she didn‘t react, I saw nothing. And he‘s rich, his room could have a sitting room or something, right?4mo
willafulI think we're seeing stylistic conventions. Ruth is supposed to be too innocent to even understand but we're supposed to get it.4mo
LibrarybelleI agree,@willaful . I think Gaskell is playing up that Ruth is that naive that she doesn‘t understand what‘s happening. She‘s in love; she thinks B is in love with her. She also keeps thinking B will call for her. Gaskell I think also writes this in that we as the audience can infer what has happened.4mo
mcctrishGood lord@Librarybelle@willaful I can appreciate this isn‘t a romance novel but it feels like Ruth is too dumb to know what‘s going on or I guess I am 🤣🤣4mo
Librarybelle@mcctrish Oh no! I come to this reading knowing a little bit about Gaskell—this book was very controversial when it was published, as Gaskell wanted to show society how cruel they were to women like Ruth—and I keep getting Tess vibes from this. I‘m also incredibly jaded and have read enough 19th century lit to guess what‘s going on. I think Gaskell is trying to show that sheltering your daughters from the world leads them to situations like this.4mo
Librarybelle⬆️ If I didn‘t have prior knowledge, I‘d be wondering the same things as everyone else!4mo
Clare-DragonflyI agree with@willaful and@Librarybelle. It reminds me of Sister Carrie—I read it knowing it was supposed to be super scandalous and not knowing why, and then I was so confused when it became clear to me she‘d had sex with a man, and went back a few chapters trying to figure out when that was mentioned. I think neither Gaskell nor Dreiser could have published anything more explicit; a man and woman sharing a room was enough for their readers.4mo
willaful@Librarybelle overly sheltering on the one hand, but also selfishly putting them potentially in harm's way and then abandoning them, like her mistress did. And.. Thomas was it? He had no words to explain to her what he was (very rightfully) afraid of. Keeping people ignorant keeps them powerless.4mo
LibrarybelleAgreed,@Clare-Dragonfly . I think the audience of Gaskell‘s time would immediately draw a conclusion about sharing a room at the inn.4mo
Crinoline_LaphroaigI'm find Ruth's naivete annoying. I yelled at page stop being so clueless. Also she was given a room stop skulking in the hallway. And stay out of the Dragons way.4mo
rubyslippersreadsI think sharing a room with a man was enough to ruin Ruth, whereas for Bellingham, although his mommy didn‘t like it, “boys will be boys.”4mo
@clare-dragonfly @julieclair @aimeesue @quietjenn @kao @bklover @alldebooks @jewright @cuilin @willaful 4mo