Analysis

• Structure: 6 quatrains each with two rhyming couplets and an AABB Rhyme Scheme. BB Rhyming couplets are consistent throughout each stanza with "said she" The neat structure implies that amidst the conflicting nature of this class divide in Victorian society, it will remain structured and in place as long as until Hardy's readers accept the message of the poem which is that we must not judge those who result to prostitution or other forms of perceived to be immoral income
• The countryside girl is chatty and conversational, and the city girl is more reserved and courteous. Nonetheless, both are polite. Highlighting no matter how you sound Hardy aims to unite the people.
• First stanza: Iambic pentameter to mimic the country accent but also a way to bring a perverse twist on a nursery rhyme. Soon the schools will be teaching young children about the crisis of the class divide if it does not solve itself.
• "Whence such fair garments, such prosperity?" The city girl is applauded for her materialism, much like Myrtle, who transforms into a city girl and who is complemented by Mrs Mckee in chapter 2 for her dress. Raises the debate whether sacrificing morality in a marriage is justifiable for this treatment from others.
• "You left us in tatters without shoes or socks!" Exclamation mark highlights anger and frustration. Much like how Myrtle leaves George Wilson in th VOA with little money, left to dissolve in the shadows.
• "'Some polish is gained with one's ruin' said she" - The city girl has transformed from once a humble farm worker to now someone with notable class and status. Similar to Myrtle who is described to have a "smouldering vitality" as if she is pretending to be part of the upper class, to then achieving an "impressive hauteur" and becoming a product of her environment.
• "You used to call home life a hag-ridden dream" Metaphor emphasises difficulty of rural life - a nightmare of such including witches. Similar to myrtle's description of her marriage at home "he wasn't fit to lick my shoe" - Myrtle's marriage is nightmarish and unsuitable for her so she had to escape.
• "To know not of megrims and melancholy" megrims = migraines. Description echoes the description of the VOA. "A fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat" "Grey land" "spasms of bleak dust"
• process of being ruined. For Amelia, she was outcasted by respectable society as she was deployed as a mistress for a rich man in the city. She left the farm land that she always wanted to leave. Effectively, she was a prostitute. She sold her feminine sexuality for money and materialism. As a result, she is treated with judgement and disrespect. the price to pay for this lifestyle that was perceived to be immoral.
• Process of becoming ruined: Myrtle. Had larger ambitions than her marriage to George Wilson in the VOA. She started an affair with Tom, much like the poem a rich man from the city, and she left the ashen melancholic farmland to visit him. She similarly to the poem sold her feminine sexuality for money and materialism. As a result, it disrupted the natural essence of society as if disdained the class divide. Society could not less this be, so she is killed, left on the side of the road caught between one car going to the VOA and one going to New York.
• Part one: Myrtle's attempt to be upper class: JB and DB in C1 are seen in "white dresses" to symbolise their purity and angelic essences that are associated with the ego of the upper classes. They are natural born elites. Myrtle is a girl from the VOA, so her dress differs. It's a "Dark blue" colour, not natural of the elites. As Myrtle advances through to New York, her dress differs to a "Brown" dress in attempt to be more classy.
• Part two: She then arrives in the apartment and her dress is now "creme-coloured" dress. A further move towards the purity of the elites, but the off-white colour symbolises how she will never quite be a part of the leading members of society who wear pure white. The "ash" has had a permanent stain on her that will never come out in the colour of her dress.
• Both the speaker and Myrtle externally have differed, but on the inside their roots will always remain. The speaker's "hands" "face" and "cheek" have all changed, much like Myrtles "Laughter" "gestures" and "assertions" but on the inside it will not take away from their farmland lives they have lived. For the speaker, her background emerges when she sues dialect "ain't" in the final stanza. For Myrtle, her background emerges when she dies and her blood is mingled in with the ashes around her, taking her soul forever.