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The presentation of loss through Ruth, in the novel Housekeeping
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The abandonment and absence illustrated in the
novel demonstrates the fragility of human relationships, and is noteworthy not only because
of the lyricism of its prose, but also for its stark presentation of loneliness
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‘My name is Ruth’1 is the decidedly detached first sentence of this novel, and not only sets
the tone of separation from the reader within it, but also sets the underlying motif of religious
references
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This sentence is remarkably alike to the first sentence of
Moby Dick; ‘Call
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Ishmael’2 however there are comparisons between these sentences that
help analyse the separation from the reader and Ruth
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The first sentence
of Housekeeping tells the reader what we should call Ruth; it is the way one would talk to a
stranger
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In the Bible Ruth is known as
a humble woman, who, by marrying Boaz becomes the great grandmother of Kind David,
and therefore is in the direct line of Jesus’ family
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It is no coincidence that
this religious name is Ruth’s name; Ruth follows Sylvie into the unmitigated wandering, just
as her biblical counterpart Ruth does with her mother in law Naomi
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,  Housekeeping  (London:  Faber  &Faber  Limited,  2005)  p
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2
 Melville,  H
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mother through suicide, and although the biblical Ruth did not lose her mother, she does
indeed replace her, and forms an attachment to Naomi in place
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Ruth’s name is not the only way that loss is presented through her character; loss of oneself is
a recurrent theme in the novel
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The two elderly ladies are often described as
completely reliant upon one another, and almost indistinguishable from each other too
‘Someone got up from the table and put wood in the fire’ (p
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The loss of self is a light
example within the characters of Lily and Nona, and is a lot clearer in the presentation of
Ruth’s character when Ruth and Sylvie are alone for one of the first time
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105)
...
105) admits Ruth, and this sentence when analysed, can open a whole new
meaning to the idea of Ruth and loss
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After Ruth
admits this truth to Sylvie, she recoils in horror of being brought to attention and comforts
herself with ‘It was a source of both terror and comfort to me that I often seemed invisibleincompletely and minimally existent’ (p
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Ruth is here described as a divisible substance,
and because of this Ruth is almost ghostly; how can Ruth be present with other people, and
exist, if the structure for even knowing herself doesn’t exist in her mind
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3

 Caroll,  R  &  Pritchett,  S
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340  
4
 Bennet,  A  &  Royle,  N
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106  

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Throughout the novel however it is clear that Ruth likes to lose herself; the overrun
boundaries of the self are presented as redemptive ‘It is better to have nothing, for at least
even our bones will fall
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159)
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The very lack of presence of Ruth is the reason why many suggestions
have come forward as to where Ruth’s voice comes from; ‘tragedy involves an encounter not
only with death of a character…but also with the idea of our own death’5
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Perhaps Ruth is dead, speaking to us from
the afterlife, that she somehow died with Sylvie when leaving Fingerbone
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214)
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Whichever theory Robinson intended to be exact, the point that is clear to us is that Ruth is
gone
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Ruth has vanished from any concrete situation that one could
imagine her in, and all that is left is her voice
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This is why there are so many meditations on what would happen if
certain people in the novel did or did not disappear
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195) to Sylvie
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This is how Ruth
feels about her own mother’s disappearance and why Ruth tries to avoid memory so much
‘Memory is a sense of loss, and loss pulls us after it’ (p
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5

 Bennet,  A  &  Royle,  N
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106  

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The presentation of loss through Ruth in this novel is endless and absolute, and through the
fluidity of the transparent eyeball narrative one reads the words of Ruth’s mind, and one feels
her loss and her absence from herself and from everybody

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