63 pages • 2 hours read
Elizabeth GaskellRuth
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1853A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Volume 1, Chapters 7-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Volume 1, Chapter 7 Summary
Ruth takes care of Bellingham tirelessly. She is not told that Mrs. Bellingham is coming until the older woman arrives. Ruth is worried about meeting Bellingham’s mother for the first time and slips away. Mrs. Bellingham arrives with many servants and medical professionals and entirely takes over her son’s care. Ruth is no longer allowed to go into Bellingham’s room and waits in agony to hear what is happening. Finally, she summons her courage to ask Mrs. Bellingham what is happening and learns that Mr. Bellingham will recover. Ruth is extremely relieved, but Mrs. Bellingham forbids her to go anywhere near her son; she blames Ruth and thinks of her as “the real cause of his illness, his mortal danger at this present time, and of her bitter, keen anxiety” (64). Mrs. Morgan gives Ruth a small room to stay in but insists that she stay out of sight and avoid drawing attention to herself.
Volume 1, Chapter 8 Summary
Bellingham starts to recover but is cranky and demanding and wants to leave Wales as soon as possible. When the doctor confirms that he is well enough to travel and can leave whenever he wants to, Mrs. Bellingham brings up the subject of Ruth with her son. She wants Ruth gone, and Bellingham vaguely tries to defend Ruth, arguing that “Ruth is no improper character, mother; you do her injustice!” (67). However, he mostly wants the situation with Ruth resolved so that he can go home and get on with his life. He agrees that his mother should break off the relationship between him and Ruth. Bellingham even suggests that they leave Wales immediately, and his mother happily agrees.
Ruth has no idea what is going on until she receives a note from Mrs. Bellingham. She is informed that Bellingham has repented and does not want to continue the relationship. Mrs. Bellingham tells Ruth to change her sinful lifestyle and provides her with money. Ruth is astonished to receive the note and even more shocked when she learns that Bellingham and his mother have already departed from the inn. Ruth frantically runs down the road, trying to catch up to the carriage. She gives up and decides to go back to the inn in case she missed something in the note. However, she begins wandering through the woods in a state of shock. When she comes across Mr. Benson, she blurts out that Bellingham has left her and then collapses.
Mr. Benson tries to console her, but Ruth takes off running. She is running toward the river, presumably to drown herself. Mr. Benson chases after her but falls and hurts his back. Hearing his cry of pain, Ruth turns back. When she gets to him, Mr. Benson asks for her help, and Ruth helps him walk slowly back to his lodgings.
Volume 1, Chapter 9 Summary
At his lodgings, Mr. Benson can tell that Ruth is still very distraught. He is too weak and exhausted to speak with her, but he is afraid that she might run off and try to harm or kill herself, as he can tell that “the storm was in her mind, and rent and tore her purposes” (75). He orders her to stay in the lodgings in the name of her mother, and Ruth agrees. Mr. Benson arranges for his landlady, Mrs. Hughes, to provide Ruth with accommodations. Mr. Benson lies awake for most of the night, wondering what he can say and do to help Ruth. When he wakes up, Mrs. Hughes anxiously tells him that Ruth seems to be very sick. Mr. Benson and Mrs. Hughes quickly arrange to care for Ruth during her illness, and her wellbeing is their only priority.
Volume 1, Chapter 10 Summary
Mr. Benson speaks with Mrs. Morgan, who suggests that he write to Mr. and Mrs. Bellingham and tell them that Ruth is ill. Mr. Benson is unsure of what to do, but this seems like his only option. He writes the note and sends it to Mrs. Bellingham, suggesting that the Bellinghams send a maid to help care for Ruth and potentially accompany her when she is ready to travel back to England. Then Mr. Benson goes home, where he learns from the doctor that Ruth is seriously ill.
When Mrs. Bellingham receives the note, she is annoyed. She does not want to send her maid, and the maid haughtily says that she would not want to help Ruth anyway since she sees her as an immoral and sinful woman. The maid, Simpson, suggests that Mr. Benson might not be aware that Ruth has been given money and that the letter is “principally a sort of delicate hint that some provision ought to have been made” (80).
Simpson and Mrs. Bellingham also discuss how they reached out to Mrs. Mason to see if Ruth has any friends or family. Mrs. Mason was only anxious to protect her own reputation and claimed that Ruth was bold and reckless. Mrs. Bellingham becomes even more convinced that Ruth should go to a penitentiary (a shelter and workhouse where women with damaged reputations could live, often in terrible conditions). She writes back to Mr. Benson and tells him that Ruth has been given money and is advised to go to a penitentiary. She does not plan to offer any other type of assistance. Mrs. Bellingham also decides she will not tell her son anything about this exchange or Ruth’s illness.
Volume 1, Chapter 11 Summary
Mr. Benson receives the note from Mrs. Bellingham and writes an urgent letter to his sister, Faith, asking her to come and join him in Wales. He does not tell Faith about Ruth, but he reassures her that he is not ill. He also tells her to sell one of his rare and valuable books to provide more funds to cover her journey. He receives a prompt response that she is on her way, which relieves him.
When Faith arrives in Wales, Mr. Benson goes to meet her and gives her a brief explanation that a young woman has been abandoned by her lover, fallen ill, and is now in Mr. Benson’s care. Faith’s first response is judgmental: she states that “it would be better for [Ruth] to die at once” (84), but when her brother rebukes her, she softens. At the lodgings, Faith has something to eat and updates her brother with some news about their hometown and neighbors. Then the siblings go in to see Ruth. Faith can immediately tell that Ruth is not a bad person and becomes more sympathetic toward her.
Faith takes charge of nursing Ruth. She relays that Ruth is starting to recover and that the doctor has said that Ruth will live. However, Faith is also shocked to report that the doctor has told them that Ruth is pregnant. Moreover, when Ruth heard this news, she seemed happy about it. Faith is appalled and sees this as evidence of Ruth’s lack of morality. Mr. Benson, however, argues that he also thinks this is a good outcome: the responsibility of being a mother will encourage Ruth to repent and live a good life, and he insists that the child is innocent regardless of how it was conceived. Faith and her brother debate this topic for some time, and then Faith becomes interested in more practical matters. She worries about the shame and stigma that the child will have to endure due to being illegitimate and suggests that perhaps the truth about Ruth and her child could be covered up. This suggestion is tempting to Mr. Benson, and the siblings agree to discuss the idea further as Ruth continues her recovery.
Volume 1, Chapter 12 Summary
After a few days, Faith reports to Mr. Benson that she has had a conversation with Ruth. Ruth shared her history with Faith and shared her plans for the future. Ruth hopes to find work as a dressmaker and earn enough to support herself and her child. Faith, however, does not believe that Ruth will ever be able to earn enough to support herself. Mr. Benson wonders if they could bring Ruth home to live with them; Faith is initially doubtful but begins to think that this idea could work.
Ruth insists on sending back the money that Mrs. Bellingham gave her, but she does sell a few presents from Bellingham and uses the money she receives to pay for her medical bills, food, and lodgings. Faith also tells Ruth that it will be easiest if Ruth poses as a widow, and Ruth agrees. She will go by the name of Mrs. Denbigh (the maiden name of Faith and Mr. Benson’s mother). Faith and Mr. Benson send a note back to their home, explaining that they will be returning with a young widow, a distant relative of theirs. Ruth and the Bensons begin their journey back to their hometown of Eccleston. Ruth is very emotional to leave Wales and mourns her lost innocence, reflecting that “she had dreamed out her dream, and had awakened from the vision of love” (97). She also does not realize that Faith and Mr. Benson have very little money and must work hard to afford to help her.
Volume 1, Chapter 13 Summary
Faith, Ruth, and Mr. Benson arrive back at their home and are greeted warmly by their housekeeper Sally. Sally is surprised by how young Ruth is. Sally is particularly devoted to Mr. Benson because everyone thinks he hurt his back as an infant under Sally’s care, and she has always felt responsible for his disability. The Benson house is very clean and cozy, and Ruth goes to bed almost immediately because she is exhausted. Faith and Mr. Benson explain that Ruth will be staying with them at least until her child is born; Sally is wary but willing to accept this plan.
The next day, Ruth quietly observes the household and settles in. Faith gives Ruth a wedding ring to wear. Toward the evening, Sally comes to Ruth and orders her to cut off her long and beautiful hair. Sally is suspicious of Ruth and notices that it would be more common for a widow to have short hair and keep it modestly covered. Ruth humbly submits to having her hair cut off, and Sally feels more sympathy, observing that “I thought we should ha’ had some crying […] you’ve not been so bad to let them be cut off neither” (108).
Volume 1, Chapters 7-13 Analysis
Parental affection and protectiveness—central themes in the novel—can be both helpful and destructive. Ruth will later be an extremely loving and protective mother to her son, but Mrs. Bellingham’s maternal instincts are represented as a more destructive force. Bellingham has been brought up with “indiscreet indulgence, arising from a love centred all in one object” (27), and his mother’s failure to provide adequate discipline or boundaries is part of why he feels entitled to treat Ruth like a plaything that he can throw away. Mrs. Bellingham also displays strong class and gender biases, as well as internalized misogyny, in blaming Ruth entirely while her son was the one to seduce and corrupt her. While Bellingham is initially presented as the romantic hero of Ruth’s fantasies, the intervention of his mother further develops his character, revealing him to be a spoiled and cowardly young man who allows his mother to handle a situation that he should have had the moral responsibility to resolve.
Being abandoned by her lover completes Ruth’s loss of innocence; up until this point in the narrative, she has still naively trusted in Bellingham’s good intentions. Only once she is abandoned does Ruth realize everything that she has lost: She has nowhere to go and no one to help her. Her ruined reputation means that she will be barred from many activities in society, including earning an income, socializing with anyone deemed respectable (as a fallen woman, she could potentially taint other women by exposing them to her lifestyle), and most likely marrying anyone (unless she could find a man willing to overlook her ruined reputation).
Under the crushing weight of her pain, Ruth flees out into the beautiful and untamed Welsh landscape, symbolically suggesting a retreat from the world of civilization and its social and religious edicts. While social norms might condemn Ruth’s behavior, nature seems to provide a space of forgiveness and acceptance. As she collapses in grief, the narrator points out that “long afterwards, she remembered the exact motion of a bright green beetle busily meandering among the wild thyme” (71), and this imagery of the natural world suggests that Ruth finds a connection to purpose and the divine around her. When Mr. Benson finds her, this comparison is heightened: “he saw her, crouched up like some hunted creature, with a wild, scared look of despair” (72). The simile comparing Ruth to a hunted creature suggests her alignment with the natural world and her lack of awareness of the dangers around her; it also builds on an earlier simile in which Bellingham compared her to a wild fawn he hoped to tame.
Mr. Benson acts as a foil character to Mr. Bellingham: unlike Bellingham, he is not handsome, and his disability renders him potentially even grotesque. Because of his physical fragility, he does not embody the traditional masculine ideal of strength and virility; in fact, Ruth needs to provide physical assistance to him. Mr. Benson’s physical vulnerability and need for care are what allows him to forge a bond with Ruth that will last for the rest of her life: his cry of pain “did what no remonstrance could have done; it called her out of herself. The tender nature was in her still” (73). This moment of Ruth turning back from her attempt to kill herself establishes the core of her character: her desire to serve and care for others will allow her to cope with her loss of identity and the trauma of abandonment. The moment of turning back to respond to Mr. Benson’s pain also foreshadows Ruth’s future work as a nurse who will tend to those suffering from illness and agony and her final fateful decision to nurse Bellingham.
Ruth’s illness and the vulnerability that accompanies it parallels Mr. Benson’s physical vulnerability; Faith is moved by the sight of Ruth sleeping innocently and “could no longer imagine her to be an imposter, or a hardened sinner” (85). This moment of Faith finding sympathy upon seeing Ruth lying “still, and wan, and white” (85) evokes imagery that foreshadows Ruth’s subsequent death; her description is very similar to how one might describe a corpse. Whether through illness or death, Ruth’s suffering seems to provide the key to her redemption, suggesting that within the novel’s world, she needs to endure some punishment. Importantly, Faith and Mr. Benson’s life together exists outside of traditional, normative family structures: they live together as unmarried siblings, and Faith’s status as a childless spinster positions her outside of many of the traditional roles expected of a woman at the time. Their unconventional family structure makes it more possible for them to imagine expanding that family to include Ruth and her child.
Two other factors significantly impact the choice to take Ruth into their home: their religious perspective and their economic status. Faith and Mr. Benson do not have much money, but they are willing to share what they have, whereas other characters, such as the Bellinghams and Bradshaws, are much less economically and emotionally generous. Throughout the novel, Gaskell engages in a class-based critique to suggest that characters with less money often have more compassion and empathy.
Mr. Benson’s career as a Dissenting minister is also an impactful factor. Dissenter refers to a range of Protestant Christian sects wherein believers broke away from the mainstream Anglican Church; well-known examples include the Puritans and the Quakers. No specific denomination is ever named for Mr. Benson and his congregation, but Gaskell’s husband was a Unitarian minister, and many scholars believe that Mr. Benson can be interpreted as a Unitarian. As Dissenters, Faith and Mr. Benson have chosen to reject a strongly held social norm (adherence to the mainstream Anglican faith), which primes them likewise to reject the social norm of blaming and shunning an unwed mother. In a sense, they “dissent” from the expected social rejection of Ruth by choosing to welcome her into their family and home.
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