William Wordsworth's "The Ruined Cottage" is a poem about a lady named Margaret and the hardships she faces throughout her life, and how her home reflects the hardships that she faces.
A Wanderer comes upon and Old Man who is sitting near a ruined cottage, and he speaks about the family that use to live there, especially his friend Margaret. He tells us the sad tale of her life and how he watched as the cottage deteriorated along with her. I want to say that the cottage itself represents Margaret's hope. She goes through so much loss and so many hardships, and you can see how she begins to lose her hope in life. You see the beginning of this starting at line 210. The Old Man speaks about how happy he was to come upon the cottage, but not receiving the greeting he expected. Instead Margaret was burdened because her husband had been gone. It seems as if she couldn't keep herself together, that she didn't know what to do without him. He also says that her husband had not been gone two months. I am not sure if Wordsworth is showing that this is a weakness in women in the society. If he is trying to show women that you can go on without a man... but in the end you are left hopeless and with a deteriorating home (Just throwing some thoughts out there.) The Old man narrates how he tries to keep her hopes alive, and comforts her through these hardships that she is going through. Again, it is a male character that keeps her spirits up...
I believe that you're right. Wordsworth is showing the weakness of women in society. Because her husband is gone, Margaret cannot function. Women without men are depicted as helpless and hopeless. She doesn't have the mental or emotional strength to keep herself together. As you have pointed out, the old man is the one to help her through her hard times. This story would have read differently if it were an old woman helping Margaret, but Wordsworth uses an old man for a reason. Margaret has gone from being someone's wife to being this old man's daughter in a way. She has no identity without a man.
ReplyDeleteI too believed that Wordsworth was saying that women are weak within society. To me Wordsworth was not only saying that women are hopeless without men, but also that men are what inspire hope in women alone. The old man repeatedly attempts to give Margaret the hope she cannot give herself. However he fails in his attempt. Margaret dies in the home that paralleled her own struggles. She cannot leave from the place her and her husband lived even when he is gone.
ReplyDeleteI came to this conclusion as well, and I think something else to note is not only how women are helpless without men, but also how men can be affected by the same grief but with very different results than Margaret's. At the end, the Wanderer pretty much says that sad things happen, but life goes on: "...what we feel of sorrow and despair/ From ruin and from change, and the grief/ The passing shews of being leave behind,/ Appeared an idle dream that could not live/ Where meditation was. I turned away/ And walked along my road in happiness." Wordsworth is also showing that when women lose hope, it ruins them, but when men lose hope, they can always get it back and move along. Even after the Old Man tells this sad tale, the Wanderer straight up admits he forgets about it: "...that simple tale/ Passed from my mind like a forgotten sound." And it's pretty telling that the poem ends with the men going back to their resting place.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to conclude what exactly Wordsworth was getting at. On one hand, "Ruined Cottage" can very easily be read as a commentary on female subjugation and the their codependence on their husbands. Her connection to the domestic sphere, her limbo-like confinement therein, could very well be invoked here. And yet Wordsworth chooses to have the Wanderer and Old Man, be the recipients of this woman's hardship. Could this not solely be a lesson for women, but for men as well? It would be immensely helpful knowing, however, what Wordsworth was reading at the time, and if he felt any solidarity with the female writers of his time.
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