SOURCE: "The Social Problem," in The Fallen Angel: Chastity, Class and Women's Reading, 1835-1900, Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1981, pp. 22-43.

In the essay that follows, Mitchell discusses Gaskell's Ruth as a novel that attempts to respond to the problem of prostitution, in part by criticizing the presupposition that "fallen women" should be ostracized from society and by suggesting that the general public has a certain responsibility for this problem.

During the 1840s there was a sudden proliferation of books and articles about prostitution. It seems an odd opening for the Victorian era until we realize that the interest was a sign of increased public decency rather than the reverse. Though authors treated the great social evil with sometimes surprising frankness, they did so because they were coming to see the prostitute as a problem instead of an inevitable part of the social order.

Most of this writing...