Elizabeth McKinney

Dr. Cullen
American Literature
4/8/14
The True, Real, and Public Woman portrayed in Ruth Hall
Fanny Fern's novel Ruth Hall, although largely a sentimental novel, is
full of social and political commentary. The most notable aspect of this
commentary is the social role of the ideal woman, as seen through the
depiction of the main character, Ruth Hall. Written during a time of rapidly
changing female societal roles, this character embodies several of the roles
seen as a part of the Woman Movement, which are identified by Susan
Cruea, author of "Changing Ideals of Womanhood During the NineteenthCentury Woman Movement." Ruth's life foreshadows the development and
progression of the Woman Movement, as she begins as a True Woman and
then portrays the transition from True Woman to Real Woman and finally to
Public Woman, despite only living during the True woman time period. The
final stage is New Woman, but Ruth never reaches this phase. However, Ruth
also negates the goals held by the women who actually were members of the
Woman Movement because of her eager acceptance of her role as a mother.
Cruea argues there are four stages of the Woman Movement. The first
is the True Woman, who is defined as "the symbolic keeper of morality and
decency within the home" (188). Cruea continues this definition by saying
woman were "superior to men when it came to virtue" (188). Although Ruth

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does not fill all of these requirements, she does fit with some of the more
important expectations from this ideal. For example, she was moral and
decent and was a faithful wife and dutiful mother.
In the beginning of the novel, Ruth is happily married to a good
husband and has two daughters. Somewhat following the model of the True
Woman, Ruth is obedient and loving towards her husband and a caring,
affectionate mother to her daughters. Barbara Welter, in her article "The Cult
of True Womanhood 1820-1860," explains society's perception of the True
Woman ideal:
If anyone, male or female, dared to tamper with the complex virtues
which made up True Womanhood, he was damned immediately as an
enemy of God, of civilization, and of the Republic. It was a fearful
obligation, a solemn responsibility, which the nineteenth-century
American woman hadto uphold the pillars of the temple with her frail
white hand. (133)
The damnation is clear through Ruth's interactions with her husband's
parents, who neither like nor approve of Ruth. In one of their first
interactions, Mrs. Hall tells Ruth "it is a great pity you were not brought up
properly" (19). Welter's statement also lends itself to the idea that a woman,
despite being expected to have the strength to keep men in line, was also
considered weak and frail, and therefore needed a man to protect her. Ruth,
while married, is constantly sick and weak and unable to take care of herself
and her children.

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Furthermore, Mrs. Hall seems to agree with the following sentiment, as
presented by Welter: "submission was perhaps the most feminine virtue
expected of women" (138). Welter continues by stating "woman understood
her position if she was the right kind of woman, a true woman" (139).
Welter's ideas about "the right kind of woman" can be see reflected in Judith
Fetterley's critical book Provisions, in which Fetterly offers commentary on
the short story "The Angel Over the Right Shoulder" by Elizabeth Stuart
Phelps. Fetterley says Mrs. James, the main character in the story, is a "good
wife" because she put her needs after her husband's, and ensured her
opinions, desires, or needs "would not form a part of the decision-making
process" (204-05). Harry allows Ruth to break away from this stereotype by
making sure her needs are met, such as when he hires a nurse for her and
Daisy (Fern 27).
Another reason Mrs. Hall dislikes Ruth is because of their religious
differences. Ruth attended boarding school, where she mainly wrote
compositions rather than studying the bible or learning to keep a house.
Welter states "women were warned not to let their literary or intellectual
pursuits take them away from God" (135). The Hall family is Calvinist, and
although Ruth is religious and believes in God, she does not have passages
from the bible memorized and does not attend religious services. Since Ruth
spent her childhood away from her father, she studied writing rather than
religion. This takes Ruth further away from the True Woman model.
Furthermore, Mrs. Hall makes no attempt to hide her disapproval for

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Ruth's equality with Harry. Because Harry loved Ruth, he was willing to let
Ruth stand by his side as an equal partner, with equal say in their household
matters. Mrs. Hall felt that Ruth was corrupting Harry and stealing him away
from his parents; she says "I remember the time when he used to think me
perfect. I suppose I shall be laid on the shelf now" (18). Soon after this
statement, the reader learns that Mrs. Hall does not have a problem with
Harry getting marriedshe has a problem with Harry marrying Ruth. Mrs.
Hall states "had he married a practical woman I wouldn't have cared
somebody who looked as if God had made her for something" (18). In other
words, Mrs. Hall thinks Ruth is too pretty to make a good wife, which is an
opinion that actually disagrees with the True Woman ideal, since wives were
chosen mainly for their looks and virtues. By creating an attractive female
character who is still intelligent and self-sufficient, Fern is portraying a
character who accurately fits the criteria for an influential member of the
Woman Movement, particularly in the Real Woman phase.
The second stage of this movement, the Real Woman, began as a
result of the Civil War. Because so many men were fighting during this time,
women had to take more jobs; furthermore, because so many men died
during the war, many women found themselves suddenly widowed and in
need of an income (Cruea 191). Real Womanhood also encouraged women,
single or married, to be educated, and to use this education to support
themselves. Ruth portrays this phase well, since she is educated, marries for
love, and is able to support herself, despite living before this time period.

McKinney 5
As the novel progresses, Ruth's husband dies and Ruth is left without
any familial support, and she can be read as prefiguring of a Real Woman,
trying to be independent from men. First, Ruth decides to be a teacher, and
applies at school houses as well as searches for pupils on an individual basis,
through acquaintances. She could not find pupils, however, and was not
hired as a teacher at a school, so she finally contacts several papers to see if
they will hire her to write for them. She succeeds here, finding a job with
"The Standard" (125) and quickly finds she very much enjoys writing, though
she is paid poorly. Her writing and growing financial stability liberates Ruth,
and even while she is still only newly a Real Woman, she has started her path
to Public woman.
The freedom found in the employment of the Real Woman led to the
development of the third stage: the Public Woman, which began in the late
1860s. Women shouldn't just have jobs; they should have jobs that have a
cultural or social impact. Cruea gives the example of the novel genre, which
"enabled a great number of women to contribute their voices to a
traditionally male-dominated culture." Novels also gave female readers
"access to a wider world of thought and action" (196). Ruth foreshadows this
stage the most, since her newspaper writings force readers to understand
the social, economic, and familial statuses of women. She urged women
especially to take a close look at these roles and to ask themselves whether
or not they were happy. Towards the end of the novel, Mrs. Hall tells her
neighbor Ruth's book is "highly immoral" and "very silly, a great part of it,

McKinney 6
beside [sic] being very bold, for a woman" (203). Mrs. Hall's comments on
and attitude towards Ruth reveals the negative reputation of Public Women,
even from the perspective of another female. This general disapproval lead
to another part of the Public Woman's mission, which was to remove the
negative connotation the term "public woman" held, since it originally
referred to a prostitute. Through culturally-aware careers, women hoped to
give themselves a better name.
Women's accomplishments in the Public Woman time interested Martin
Schultz, so in order to determine just how prevalent females became in the
workplace, he studied newspaper ads from 1800-1849 and published his
findings in an article titled "Occupational Pursuits of Free American Women:
An Analysis of Newspaper Ads, 1800-1849." The results include the number
of women's ads, the percentage that each category makes up of all women's
ads, and the percentage that each category makes up of all sex-identifiable
ads. Schultz's findings show a definite bias in occupational ads, as well as an
overall increase in the ads for female employment from the late 1700s to the
early 1800s. This implies that the employment opportunities for women
increased, generally, as a result of the Woman Movement. The occupation of
poet or writer, however, decreased for females during this period, from
twenty-eight percent in the eighteenth century to just over twelve percent in
the nineteenth century (600). Taking these statistics into account makes
Ruth's accomplishments as a writer even more impressive, since she was
battling a male-dominated workplace, a slimmer job market for female

McKinney 7
authors, and the traditional opinions concerning female roles in general.
Despite her newfound independence and quick advancement through
the stages of the Woman Movement this section of the book shows that Ruth
has latched onto the most traditional and most critical component of the True
Woman: her motherhood. Jennifer Harris addresses Ruth's feelings towards
motherhood in her article "Marketplace Transactions and Sentimental
Currencies in Fanny Fern's Ruth Hall," saying, for Ruth, "childbearing and
child rearing seem almost innateeffortless and so much an expected
course of events that the birth of Ruth's second and third children are not
even mentioned" (347). Ruth has a natural tendency towards motherhood,
and this sentiment doesn't leave her throughout the entire novel, no matter
what other hardships Ruth faces, such as her husband's death.
In fact, after Harry's death, Mr. Ellet and Mr. Hall argue over who has
the moral and legal responsibility to provide for Ruth and her daughters
financially. Neither man wants that duty, but Mr. Hall says he is willing to take
Katy and Nettie, so that he and Mrs. Hall can "try to bring them up in a
sensible manner; but, in that case, I'll have none of the mother's
interference" (Fern 66). When Mr. Ellet presents this option to Ruth, she
forcefully refuses, saying "my children are all I have left to love; in pity do not
distress me by urging what I can never grant" (68). Even when Ruth is
widowed, sick, and has no hope, she clings to her mothering nature and will
not give up her children.
In order to care for her children and not rely too heavily on her father

McKinney 8
for money, Ruth writes for several papers with low wages and much
frustration. Throughout this section of the book, Ruth is most accurately
classified as a Real Woman. Finally, Ruth is approached by a publisher, Mr.
Walter, and becomes a successful Public Woman by publishing her writings
exclusively through Mr. Walter's company and by proving she is able to
provide financially for her children when not held back by men. This fact is
very clearly and bluntly stated by the only image in the entire novel: a bank
note stating Ruth has 100 shares in a bank (209). Ruth earned this money on
her own, with her own talents and skills, through the help of a man who
disregarded her gender, rather than by a man who held her back because of
her gender.
As a female, Ruth's writings have an impact on many people, even
before Mr. Walter helps her. Ruth receives hundreds of letters from her
readers, fan and hate mail alike. In the height of her journalistic success,
Ruth receives two offers at one time for her articles to be published as a
book. Both publishing companies offer to pay her a flat copyright amount or
a royalty fee per book sold. Ruth wonders which method of payment would
be better, and she thinks "it was a temptation; but supposing her book
should prove a hit? and bring double, treble, fourfold that sum, to go into her
publisher's pockets instead of hers? how provoking" (153). Ruth is completely
aware of her success as an author and she is no foolshe won't let male
publishers benefit from her writing more than she does. Although both
situations are unfavorable to the ambitious heroine, Ruth would rather

McKinney 9
continue writing articles for papers where she is underpaid than lose her
hard-earned, well-deserved money to anyone. She knows her words have an
effect on her readers, and that she is playing a role of some sort in the
societal movements of the time, and she refuses to spoil her reputation to
giving into the men she is writing against. Thus, the novel ends with Ruth as
a Public Woman.
The final stage, which began in the 1880s, is the New Woman. This
phase focused on the complete liberation of females "from the social
expectations and conventions forced upon them by tradition" (Cruea 198).
They demanded "greater access to education, employment, and economic
and civic rights, and in changing expectations concerning personal behavior"
(199). In these terms, Ruth does not match the criteria for the New Woman,
as she does not strive for equalityshe only wants to be able to support
herself and her children. Additionally, the New Woman movement didn't
reach full force until the 1890s, forty years after Ruth Hall was published
(198).
Because Ruth Hall is mostly autobiographical for Fanny Fern, it is
important to consider Fern's own journalistic and historical writings
concerning the evolution of the True Woman. For example, in
"Independence," Fern equates women's rights with the freedom of America
and of America's citizens (314-15). Another example follows on page 316
with the article "Shall Women Vote?" which addresses the topic named in the
title. These articles parallel the aspirations of the New Woman, which was

McKinney 10
admittedly ahead of Ruth's time, but Fern has already demonstrated her
social savvy by writing Ruth Hall, which was a shock to many readers
because of its social and political implications. In fact, Stephen Hartnett
comments in his article "Fanny Fern's 1855 Ruth Hall, the Cheerful Brutality
of Capitalism, & the Irony of Sentimental Rhetoric" about the historical
context this novel is situated in. Although he describes Ruth Hall as
sentimental fiction, he acknowledges it does have historical weight. He urges
readers to "read through the sentimental prose to the historical crises
preceding the prose" (11). Doing so will allow the reader to understand the
significance of Ruth'sand therefore Fern'srole in the Woman Movement.
It is evident that Ruth depicts the average woman described in these
three stages of the Woman Movement in many ways. She also serves as a
fictionalization of Fanny Fern's own sentiments concerning women's rights,
marriage, and motherhood. Ruth's evolution as a female in terms of the
Woman Movement is representational of the movement itself, as Ruth moves
through three of the four phases of the movement. As Fern lived through
these tumultuous times, so she wrote Ruth Hall: intelligent, witty, politically
aware, and socially driven.

McKinney 11
Works Cited
Cruea, Susan M. "Changing Ideals of Womanhood During the NineteenthCentury Woman
Movement." Atg 19.3 (2005): 187-204. PDF.
Fern, Fanny. Ruth Hall. Ed. Joyce W. Warren. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP,
1994. Print.
Fetterley, Judith. "Elizabeth Stuart Phelps: The Angel Over the Right
Shoulder." Provisions: A
Reader from 19th-century American Women. Bloomington: Indiana UP,
1985. 203-15. Print.
Hartnett, Stephen. "Fanny Fern's 1855 Ruth Hall, the Cheerful Brutality of
Capitalism, & the
Irony of Sentimental Rhetoric." Quarterly Journal of Speech 88.1
(2002): 1-18. PDF.
Harris, Jennifer. "Marketplace Transactions and Sentimental Currencies in
Fanny Fern's "Ruth
Hall."" Atg 20.1 (2006): 343-359. PDF.
Schultz, Martin. "Occupational Pursuits of Free American Women: An Analysis
of Newspaper
Ads, 1800-1849." Sociological Forum 7.4 (1992): 587. PDF.
Welter, Barbara. "The Cult of True Womanhood 1820-1860." American
Quarterly 18 (1966):
132-50. PDF.

McKinney 12

McKinney 13
Annotated Bibliography
MLA

Cruea, Susan M. "Changing Ideals of Womanhood During the

Bibliograp

Nineteenth-Century

hy entry

Woman Movement." Atg 19.3 (2005): 187-204. PDF.

Summary

Cruea's article offers a summary, analysis, and explanation of

of source

the four phases of the Woman Movement that occurred during

the nineteenth century. These phases include the True Woman,
Real Woman, Public Woman, and New Woman. The first three
phases apply most directly to Ruth Hall, but the last was after

Relevance

the time period of the book.

The description of each of these phases is incredibly helpful to

to

my analysis of Ruth Hall and central to my thesis.

argument
MLA

Fern, Fanny. Ruth Hall. Ed. Joyce W. Warren. New Brunswick:

Bibliograp

Rutgers UP, 1994. Print.

hy entry
Summary

This novel is the main text for my essay. The book tells the story

of source

of Ruth Hall, a single mother living in the early 1800s. The

protagonist struggles with cultural gender roles throughout the
entire novel. Also included in this text are newspaper articles
written by Fern, which reveal another layer of depth in her

Relevance

argument about women in the nineteenth century.

The character Ruth Hall is a more than adequate representation

to

of the women who lived during this time, which makes this novel

McKinney 14
argument

a useful and exemplary source to use as a supplement to my

argument.

MLA

Fetterley, Judith. "Elizabeth Stuart Phelps: The Angel Over the

Bibliograp

Right Shoulder." Provisions: A Reader from 19th-century

hy entry
Summary

American Women. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1985. 203-15. Print.

Fetterly offers critical commentary on a short story titled "The

of source

Angel Over the Right Shoulder" by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. The

story follows a woman's struggle to maintain her identity as an
individual author while being a mother and wife. The story ends
with the narrator accepting her role as mother and wife as being
more important than her personal identity. Fetterly argues that
her decision leaves her weak and powerless, just like all other

Relevance

examples of the True Woman.

This short story follows the experiences of a woman who is

to

similar to Ruth Hall, but her story ends differently from Ruth's.

argument

This provides an interesting contrast to Ruth Hall. Furthermore,

Fetterley's critical analysis offers a new perspective to the
condition of the True Woman.

MLA

Hartnett, Stephen. "Fanny Fern's 1855 Ruth Hall, the Cheerful

Bibliograp

Brutality of Capitalism, & the Irony of Sentimental Rhetoric."

hy entry
Summary

Quarterly Journal of Speech 88.1 (2002): 1-18. PDF.

Hartnett places Ruth Hall in a historical, rhetorical, and political

of source

context. Using both contemporary and historical perspectives,

McKinney 15
Hartnett analyzes Fern's writings and claims that despite being
Relevance

sentimental, they are politically savvy and rhetorical.

This is relevant to my paper because of the historical

to

connection. Although Ruth Hall is fictional, there are very

argument

obvious historical cues that drive the work, and I will use
Hartnett's statements to back up my own theories.

MLA

Harris, Jennifer. "Marketplace Transactions and Sentimental

Bibliograp

Currencies in Fanny Fern's "Ruth Hall."" Atg 20.1 (2006): 343-

hy entry
Summary

359. PDF.
In this article, Harris argues that Ruth Hall is able to determine

of source

her own value as a member of society, without having a male

partner. She explores the development and growth of Ruth's

Relevance

character throughout the novel.

The most important part of Harris's article in terms of my own

to

paper is her discussion of the role of motherhood in a True

argument

Woman's life.

MLA

Schultz, Martin. "Occupational Pursuits of Free American Women:

Bibliograp

An Analysis of Newspaper Ads, 1800-1849." Sociological Forum

hy entry

7.4 (1992): 587. PDF.

Summary

Schultz discusses the occupations that were available for

of source

females in the first half of the nineteenth century in his article.

He looked at newspapers to find advertisements seeking females
for a specific job, compiled the data, and compared the

McKinney 16

Relevance

numbers.
These statistics are significant for my argument because they

to

reveal the slim job market for female authors during Ruth's

argument

lifetime, which further shows how difficult it was for Ruth to

succeed as a writer.

MLA

Welter, Barbara. "The Cult of True Womanhood 1820-

Bibliograp

1860." American Quarterly 18 (1966): 132-50. PDF.

hy entry
Summary

Welter explains in her article that men needed women to keep

of source

them stable, moral, and grounded. Because of the weakness of

men, women were required to be extra religious, moral, and
stable. Welter argues that this is what eventually led to the
Woman Movement: women were valued by men, but not treated
as equals, and with this realization, women also realized they

Relevance

deserved to be treated as more than equal to men.

Welter's article was one of the first written about the True

to

Woman, so her ideas are central to my argument about

argument

explaining how Ruth's character developed throughout the

novel.