Ruth

In the novel’s final section, Gaskell focuses on two key events to develop her themes of empathy, moral nuance, and redemption: Richard Bradshaw’s crime and Ruth’s death. For most of the novel, Richard is a minor character who functions as a parallel to Bellingham. Like Bellingham, Richard is a spoiled and overindulged only son who feels entitled to have whatever he wants; after discovering his crime, Mr. Farquhar muses that Richard’s “education has drained him of all moral courage” (312). Since education is usually assumed to build one up and make one better, the imagery of education “draining” Richard strongly condemns the way he has been brought up. The education and characters of Bellingham and Richard also contrast with the way Leonard is raised, showing that two men who are born legitimately and into “good” families still turn out badly. Therefore, these criteria cannot be taken as indicators of virtue (and, despite social stigma, illegitimacy is not necessarily an indicator that Leonard will grow up to be bad).

Richard’s crime of forgery (forging Mr. Benson’s signature to embezzle funds) is legally and ethically very serious in the novel context: at this time, forgery could carry significant legal punishment and reflected a grave breach of integrity. Thus, realizing what his son has done is a humbling moment for Mr. Bradshaw and functions as a significant symbolic reparation. Mr. Bradshaw felt deeply hurt and betrayed by Mr. Benson concealing Ruth’s past; in a sense, Mr. Benson “forged” her history by inventing a husband and concealing Leonard’s illegitimacy. Richard likewise commits an act of deception, but without the redeeming circumstances or intentions.

Whereas Mr. Bradshaw flatly refused to show mercy or compassion to either Ruth or Mr. Benson, Mr. Benson immediately refuses to punish Richard. Mr. Benson explains that “I should decline taking such a step against any young man without first ascertaining the particulars about him” (299), showing that, rather than insisting on a strict definition of justice, Mr. Benson regards Richard’s action in a contextual and nuanced light, just as he had done years earlier when deciding to take care of Ruth. Richard, much like Ruth, is given a chance to redeem himself and start a new life, learning from his mistakes.

In contrast with Mr. Benson and Mr. Farquhar’s efforts to help Richard and minimize the fallout from his action, Mr. Bradshaw continues to show the same rigid morality. He disowns Richard and tries to persuade Mr. Benson to prosecute him because Mr. Bradshaw has no belief system to work with other than a strict insistence on moral and procedural justice. He tells Mr. Bradshaw that “I have always resolved to disown any child of mine who was guilty of sin. I disown Richard. He is as a stranger to me” (298). Comparing Richard to a stranger, especially in a novel where the love between parents and children is an important theme, illustrates just how cold Mr. Bradshaw can be and why his children have never been able to feel secure in his love. Despite this apparent insistence on justice, Mr. Bradshaw shows gradual character evolution when he begins to attend services again and shows kindness to Leonard after Ruth’s death. Disowning Richard creates a void where Mr. Bradshaw can now seek out a young boy to care for and reimagine the idea of family.

However, Mr. Bradshaw’s ultimate softening only occurs after Ruth’s tragic death. Ruth has repeatedly humbled and abased herself, but she can only fully be redeemed when she sacrifices herself for the man who has mistreated and neglected her. Before her death, Ruth’s reputation had primarily been restored through her persistent work and goodness; she has also survived working in the fever hospital, and so the decision to go and nurse Bellingham represents a more deliberately self-sacrificing action. When Ruth first arrives to nurse Bellingham, she “plac[es] a basin of cold water by the bedside, she had dipped in it her pretty hands, and was laying their cool dampness on his hot brow” (327), with the imagery of water and anointing suggesting a baptism or other sacred ritual and evoking Ruth as a sacred figure who will save and heal Bellingham. Ruth nursing Bellingham during his bout of typhus directly parallels the much earlier scene in which she nursed him while he was ill in Wales; there, Ruth begged Bellingham to let her “put my cool hands on your forehead” (57). In a sense, Ruth’s entire life has come full circle, and she is still fatally trapped by her relationship with Bellingham: he drew her first into a kind of social death and then into a literal one because she was seduced by his demands and ego.

Ruth’s final illness provides a symbolic purification by reducing her to a childlike state and blotting out her memory of her life after she lost her innocence. She displays “a sweet, child-like insanity” (330), sings songs from her childhood, and “never looked at anyone with the slightest glimpse of memory” (331). This fever-induced amnesia prevents Ruth from needing to grapple with her decisions or choices at the end of her life, finally resolving the question of her moral responsibility by reducing her to the state of a child. Her illness and death successfully achieve what nothing else could: everyone who has been judgmental of Ruth while she was alive mourns for her after she is gone. During the funeral service, Mr. Benson decides to read a Biblical passage rather than the sermon he has written, and the passage focuses on a vision of individuals in Heaven having been purified through their suffering. Within a Christian worldview, Ruth’s death marks the end of her suffering; however, Gaskell points out throughout the novel that if the societal stigma were lessened, Ruth might not have had to suffer as much or as needlessly as she did.