A Summary on W. Wordsworth’ s “The Ruined Cottage”
...s tale starts with the words “I see around me here things which you cannot see… She who lived within these walls…” On reading, almost hearing the words I felt deeply involved pleased into the joyful and laborious world of Margaret’s family. But as the story went on I had an indescribable feeling of a gloomy premonition. When I read that Margaret’s husband joined the troop of soldiers heading for the war, I knew everything would go wrong from now on. Every time the Old Man comes to the poor widow, she tells him of her loss: first, her husband, then her children, everything… Having nothing to say, at least, some words of support, the wanderer has “little power to give her comfort” and he is “glad to take such words of hope and consolation from her own mouth as served to cheer” them. I do not see much of help coming from the Old Man, he is like a raven to me “prepared to savage...” at people’s bones. He could not help her but with good words which might be comforting. But his comfort is not even “we are alone in suffering and misery, aren’t we?” Even the ending of Margaret’s tale is sad. She has lost everything she had, and dies alone – this does not create a feeling of relief. “She sle...