A fallen woman sympathetically portrayed would seem a less-than-ideal choice for a Victorian heroine. Yet novelist Elizabeth Gaskell courageously created just such a portrait in her 1853 novel RUTH. Overturning conventional "double standard" assumptions of the day, Gaskell draws a heroine whose emotional honesty, innate morality, and love for her illegitimate son are sufficient for redemption.
Ruth Hilton is an orphaned young seamstress who catches the eye of a gentleman, Henry Bellingham, who is captivated by her simplicity and beauty. When she loses her job and home, he offers her comfort and shelter, only to cruelly desert her soon after. Nearly dead with grief and shame, Ruth is offered the chance of a new life among people who give her love and respect, even though they are at first unaware of her secret - an illegitimate child. When Henry enters her life again, however, Ruth must make the impossible choice between social acceptance and personal pride.

In writing Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell daringly confronted prevailing views about sin and illegitimacy with her compassionate and honest portrait of a 'fallen woman'.