- One factor that contributed to the difficulty of coming-of-age for Victorian children was the way that they were treated much like adults, despite their actual class rank as children. This age-defying treatment shows throughout Ruth Hall, and it became much clearer as a theme through our research.
- In Ruth Hall, Katy is held to an adult-like standard at various points. One instance of this is when she is asked to travel across town by herself, to request some money from her grandfather so that Ruth can make rent (Fern, 87). Katy’s childhood is no excuse for refusing this task, regardless of the obvious risks that come along with traveling through the “crowded street” alone as well as the adult-ish nature of asking a relative for a payment which might dictate the feasibility of their entire living situation.
- This trend continues later in the text, when Mrs. Hall orders Katy to “be seen and not heard” despite her overwhelming sadness at the time (Fern, 129). This reads to us as an active suppression of Katy’s natural, childlike emotions resulting from the absence of her mother; Katy’s inability to express her true feelings in the presence of her caretakers at this point may very well have been a detriment to her growth.
- Our research echoes the notion that children, like Katy, weren’t given much special treatment from adults when it came to many matters; an intriguing secondary source that we found showed that children as young as 10 years old were being handed down capital punishment for crimes as silly as stealing a spoon (Duckworth, 40).
- Thus, an overarching theme of the Victorian coming-of-age story, showing through this analysis, is the necessity for children to forgo certain aspects of a typical childhood. For Katy in Ruth Hall, these forgone aspects were her emotional transparency and innocence to financial matters typically left to adults. For children at large in Victorian England, a major forgone aspect was any resemblance of forgiveness handed down by law enforcement as a result of their juvenile nature.
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