Ruined Maid and Les Grands Seigneur

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Compare the ways in which The Ruined Maid and one other poem of your choice explores female characters WOMEN ARE SEEN AS OBJECTS • ‘We played at courtly love’ – suggestion that marrying her is all a game and she is their prize. • ‘toy, a plaything, little women’ – no emotional connection to her, once she is wedded and bedded she is just,’ a bit of fluff’. • Isn’t allowed to work but just look pretty, ‘we never do work when we’re ruined’. • ‘one’s life is pretty lively when ruined’ – sarcasm if told what to do – be with men RUINED FOR OPPOSITE REASONS – MARRIAGE • Before she was married she had a status, she was higher up, ‘out of reach’ • After she was married she loses her status because she is no longer worth striving for, ‘I became’ enjambment • She is seen as beautiful, ‘a damsel and the peach’ – something sweet and sensual • Now no beautiful imagery, ‘only a bit of fluff’ something so disregarded and unnecessary’ - needing to be disposed • Oppositely she is ruined and disregarded because she chose not to marry. • ‘You aint ruined’ – sense that she is envious that the other farm girl can be no naive (could remind herself of her). Now she is seen as a second class citizen and cannot marry or have a family because she is married • ‘You blue and bleak face could’ - unhealthy because she is unhappy because she has no life or status DIDNT TAKE WHAT THEY WERE DOING SERIOUSLY • Although the reader is like to feel sorry for the poet, ‘we played’ tells us that she saw her loves as a game. Could suggest that she liked all the attention. • She saw them as toys too, ‘my hurdy gurdy monkey men’ • Now she realises what she has done wrong and is has set in she still shows now sign of sorrow, ‘o you didn’t know I’d been ruined’ the breezy tone is heavily ironic. • ‘You aint ruined’ – suggesting she was like her and wanted all these clothes and privileges

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