What would you do if you wanted to move up in society, make money, and improve your status? Most likely, you would get an education, a job that you are qualified for through that education, and your status in society would naturally improve after that. However, what if you lived in a time when as a woman, one of your only options to make money was to go into prostitution? Throughout history and across cultures, prostitution has existed and been an understood part of society. In different places, and at different times, prostitution has been regarded with varying levels of respect. For example, between the Victorian era in Great Britain and contemporary society in America, prostitution has come to mean (and been portrayed) very differently.
In 1902, Thomas Hardy published a poem entitled “The Ruined Maid”. It depicts the interaction between a farm girl-turned-prostitute named Melia, and a girl she used to know when they were both maids. The prostitute has gone from rags to riches, as told by each stanza. It is easiest to understand when breaking it down bit by bit. The first stanza reads,
“O ‘MELIA, my dear, this does everything crown!
Who could have supposed I should meet you in Town?
And whence such fair garments, such prosperity?”-
“O didn’t you know I’d been ruined?” said she.
The first three lines in the stanza are the maid speaking to Melia, and she clearly takes note of Melia’s new attire, which is rather fancy. When one initially begins to read the poem, it is not entirely clear that she is a prostitute, in fact, based on most of society’s preconceived notion of what a prostitute should look like. When someone pictures a prostitute, they do not think of fancy dresses and appearing to be wealthy. When Melia responds to the maid, her tone seems condescending, as if she is not ashamed of the fact that she is “ruined”, but rather, she is somewhat proud about her new-found status.
The next staza reads,
“You left us in tatters, without shoes or socks,
Tired of digging potatoes, and spudding up docks;
And now you’ve gay bracelets and bright feathers three”-
“Yes: that’s how we dress when we’re ruined,” said she.
When the maid says that when she last saw Melia, Melia barely had clothes, you catch on to the fact that she was at a low point financially in her life. Therefore, she must have resorted to prostitution as a means of escaping her meager lifestyle. When Melia responds by saying, “that’s how we dress when we’re ruined”, it is hard to detect her tone. However, it seems as though she is talking down to the maid once again, so as to convey the idea that she just ‘wouldn’t be able to understand’ from the outside looking in on her situation. You don’t know if you should feel sorry for Melia, as the way she gained her material lifestyle was by giving up her purity, in a sense.
The maid continues on,
-“At home in the barton you said ‘thee’ and ‘thou,’
And ‘think oon’, and ‘theas oon,’ and ‘t’other’; but now
Your talking quite fits ‘ee for high company!”-
“Some polish is gained with one’s ruin,” said she.
The way one communicates says a lot about his or her status or personality, so it is not surprising that her speech and mannerisms have changed since her switch in professions. When the maid says she is fit for high company, it may be perceived as a compliment, but for the reader, knowing that the reasons for her advancement in society is due to prostitution, it can also be somewhat of a hypocritical statement. Melia responds to all this by saying “some polish is gained with one’s ruin”. By this, she means that you become a more refined woman by choosing this life, which is defined by selling yourself- another hyperbole in the whole idea of prostitution as a “respectable” path.
-“Your hands were like paws then, your face blue and bleak
But now I’m bewitched by your delicate cheek,
And your little gloves fit as on any lady”-
“We never do work when we’re ruined,” said she.
This stanza continues to create the sense of disconnect between what the lifestyle appears to be, and what it truly is. Melia speaks with what can be interpreted as a condescending tone again, and says that she never has to work as a ruined woman- making the lifestyle sound like one of pure leisure and luxury.
In the next stanza, the maid comments that Melia used to complain of their lowly lifestyle, and that she seemed terribly unhappy with their circumstances. She continues on to say that Melia seems too happy to even know what it would be to feel sad or melancholy. To this, Melia says it is true- “One’s pretty lively when ruined,” she said.
The final stanza reveals Melia for who she truly is. The maid expresses to Melia that she wishes she had “a delicate face, and could strut about town”, to which Melia replies, scathingly, “My dear- a raw country girl, such as you be, cannot quite expect that. You ain’t ruined.” The entire poem, Melia maintains a sense of pride in what she does, and remains disconnectd from the maid in that they now represent two very different worlds. However, her very last sentence holds the key to her true beginnings- she uses the word “ain’t”! This in itself juxtaposes what she tells the maid just before. Melia tells the girl she couldn’t possibly understand this lifestyle, and that there is no way she ever could- despite the fact that Melia herself came from the same roots as the maid.
What is important to take away from this poem, in spite of everything that Melia says in opposition, is that prostitution was a resort for her to get out of a meager lifestyle of manual labor. For this reason, she is proud of where she is, as opposed to when she worked alongside the other maid. This idea somewhat fits with what we picture when we think of a “contemporary” prostitute, mostly because of the media. One particular example is a movie called Pretty Woman.
Pretty Woman (1990), was directed by Gary Marshall, and starred a young Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. The story is about a businessman, Edward, who works in a legal but morally bankrupt job, and happens to meet Vivienne (Julia Roberts) on Hollywood Boulevard. He hires her as an escort to accompany him to work events while he is in Los Angeles for business. Eventually they fall in love, and have a “happily ever after” ending. What is most intriguing, however, is the way Vivienne is depicted, and the way she operates in her lifestyle.
In the beginning of the movie, Vivienne and her friend( who is also a prostitute) Kitt are standing in their usual spot, when another prostitute encroaches on their space. The prostitute, Rachel, says something about Vivenne “being new”, which right off the bat gives the viewer the sense that Vivienne is not yet a hardened long-time professional. Also, when Vivienne discovers that Kitt has used their rent money to buy drugs, Vivienne is furious- this shows that not only does she seem to have a sense of priorities; but that she is somewhat responsible despite her chosen trade.
After Vivienne and Edward meet, and she comes back to his hotel room with him, he asks her to stay the whole night. She agrees, and they sit, talk, and get to know each other a bit. The following scene is the one that best emphasizes the line between innocence and corruption on which Vivienne treads. She lies on her stomach, eating snacks, watching an “I Love Lucy” rerun, laughing unabashedly in almost a child-like way. However, as soon as Edward turns his attention on her, she mutes the television and she proceeds to perform fellatio on him. Even as she unzips his pants, however, she turns to the television, giggling at the scene unfolding. This made her appear as a ‘real’ person, in a way one would never expect of a prostitute.
Edward asks her the next day to stay for the week, to which she agrees, as long as he pays her $3000. As part of their agreement, he buys her many new outfits that are befitting of a lady, as opposed to a prostitute. By the end of the film (and of their week together), she appears entirely different. Her hair is blown-out, her makeup is classy, and every outfit she wears is flattering and high-end. She even has begun to walk in a different way, and speaks with an air of sophistication.
At the end of the movie, when she leaves the hotel, she is saying goodbye to the manger, with whom she had become quite friendly. In a moment that reminded me very much of Melia from “The Ruined Maid”, rather than saying something expected like “It’s been a pleasure” or “It was nice meeting you”, she simply says, “Stay cool”, in a way that once again reminds the viewer of someone much more innocent and even childish than she would be expected to be, based on her profession. In a sense, Vivienne’s “Stay Cool” is quite reminiscent of Melia’s “aint”.
These two depictions of prostitutes in different times and places are in some ways quite similar, and very different in others. Melia, the ruined maid, was from a lowly background, doing farm work and having barely any clothes (and the ones she had were not by any means nice). Similarly, Vivienne was from a small town in Georgia, where she only made it through the 11th grade in high school, and worked on cars with the boys. In both stories, the women resort to prostitution as means of getting by. However, it is unclear how long it took Melia to rise to the level of society she is in when her and the other maid reunite. Vivienne, on the other hand, had not been a prostitute long, and based on her attire and living quarters, was not doing as well as Melia was for her time. It wasn’t until Edward came into the picture that Vivienne experienced social climbing as a prostitute. In the scene when Vivienne privately celebrates the fact that she will be paid $3000, one can see a similar trade (perhaps greed) in her, which no doubt fueled Melia’s social climb as well.
Perhaps the biggest difference between the women, however, is the fact that Melia has apparently become her profession, whereas Vivienne is not defined by how she makes her living. Throughout the film, Vivienne has little quirks, like enjoying I Love Lucy, or flossing her teeth, that make it clear that she still has a side of her that has not been infested by her profession. Melia, on the otherhand, speaks, acts, and looks the part of the “ruined” woman, rather than separating her personality from her trade. The fact that in the movie Pretty Woman, the prostitute was pictured as having a conscience, and being lovable for her personality, gives the opposite feeling that “The Ruined Maid” does- The Ruined maid serves as a warning against prostitution, in the sense that it has completely changed Melia and has demolished her personality outside of what she does. Pretty Woman makes the prostitute endearing and likable, which makes it seem much less of a problem that she has chosen to be a prostitute.
-Rachel Olshausen
