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Difficulty: HardTone, Voice, and Speaker Persona

Read the following excerpt from Thomas Hardy’s poem "The Ruined Maid" (1901) carefully.

"O 'Melia, my dear, this does everything crown!
Who could have supposed I should meet you in Town?
And whence such fair garments, such prosperi-ty?" —
"O didn't you know I'd been ruined?" said she.

— "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.

— "At home in the barton you said 'thee' and 'thou,'
And 'thik oon,' and 'theäs oon,' and 'tother'; but now
Your talking quite fits 'ee for high compa-ny!" —
"Some polish is gained with one's ruin," said she.

Which of the following best describes how the relationship between the speaker’s voice and the authorial tone functions in the passage?

  1. A
    The speaker’s pride in her new appearance directly conveys the author’s sincere promotion of urbanization and modern fashion as means of female empowerment.
  2. B
    The speaker’s flat, matter-of-fact replies indicate a sense of grief and psychological dissociation, reinforcing a tragic and moralizing authorial tone.
  3. The speaker’s nonchalant, repetitive responses contrast with the author's underlying satirical tone, exposing the hypocrisy of a society where social elevation requires moral compromise.Answer
  4. D
    The rustic interlocutor's envious voice represents the author’s personal disillusionment with country life and his desire to escape to London.
  5. E
    The contrast between the colloquial dialect of the rural friend and the polished speech of the town speaker serves purely to label their different social classes without commenting on Victorian morality.

Answer

The correct answer states that the speaker’s nonchalant, repetitive responses contrast with the author's underlying satirical tone, exposing the hypocrisy of a society where social elevation requires moral compromise.
The correct answer is the choice describing the contrast between the speaker's nonchalant, repetitive responses and the author's underlying satirical tone. In the poem, 'Melia answers each observation about her improved dress, speech, and status with a calm, refrain-like statement about being 'ruined.' This persona's untroubled demeanor is not endorsed by the author as a simple, positive change; rather, Hardy uses the irony of her 'ruin' resulting in superior social polish and comfort to satirize Victorian moral standards, which condemned fallen women while offering few honest livelihood options for rural working-class women.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the speaker's persona and dialogue.
The town speaker, 'Melia, responds to her country friend's observations with calm, repetitive, and matter-of-fact assertions about being 'ruined.'
Understanding the speaker's overt attitude is the first step in assessing tone.
2
Identify the author's attitude and the presence of irony.
The poet juxtaposes the friend's description of rural misery (tatters, spudding up docks) with 'Melia's sudden prosperity (garments, polish), revealing that 'ruin' has improved her life.
This juxtaposition creates situational and verbal irony, signaling a disconnect between the speaker's words and the author's deeper message.
3
Synthesize the speaker's voice with the poem's overall satirical theme.
The author uses 'Melia's nonchalant voice to satirize Victorian societal expectations, which condemned 'ruined' women while ignoring the economic desperation of the rural working class.
This connects the speaker's persona directly to the authorial tone, matching the correct choice.

Key Concept

Distinguishing the speaker's voice from the author's tone to identify irony and satire
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Topics

Tone, Voice, and Speaker Persona

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