56 pages • 1 hour read
Jane HamiltonThe Book of Ruth
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1988A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Ruth Grey Dahl
The novel’s chief protagonist and first-person narrator, Ruth Grey, is a dynamic character who transforms appreciably throughout the course of the novel. She is characterized by means of her own narration. She describes her physical appearance in unkind terms:
My eyes are squinched together; they’re small and gray and they don’t open all the way wide. My mouth isn't too much better off. It’s tight like a closed drawstring laundry bag. There’s nothing special about my nose: it’s small and sits on my face like someone set it down and forgot to come back for it (12).
She has “quite a bit of curly hair which looks like a hedgerow people can’t see over” (247). When the local ne’er-do-well Ruby Dahl falls for Ruth, she notes that “he was the first man in the history of the universe that noticed my feminine lure” (127).
Ruth never had a father figure in life, owing to her father’s abandoning the family when Ruth was only 10 years old. Ruth is not shown much maternal affection by her mother May, who disparages Ruth in her actions and words. Ruth claims that May doesn’t think Ruth’s brain functions properly, though it’s clear Ruth’s skill is of a literary nature and is overshadowed by her brother Matt’s more “practical” academic studies.
Ruth’s most formative experiences come from working for a blind woman, Miss Finch, who exposes her to classic works of literature that give Ruth ways to think about the world and her own relationships. After Miss Finch moves to a nursing home, Ruth continues to maintain regular written correspondence with her Aunt Sid, who is one of the only independent, confident, and well-educated women in Ruth’s life. Aunt Sid expresses great confidence in Ruth, whose experiences and feelings she validates in her letters. The optimism imparted by Aunt Sid stands in stark contrast to the negative outcome of Ruth’s marriage to Ruby. Though Ruth idealizes Ruby because she is attracted to the idea of being in love, she is ultimately scarred by the tragedy that unfolds with her mother.
By the end of the novel, Ruth, expecting her second child, has developed a sense of confidence, compassion, and realism that gives her hope and courage as she faces a future without her husband.
May Grey
May is one of the principal antagonists of the novel, though she is a dynamic character who is not without redeeming qualities. She is unremittingly caustic toward her daughter, Ruth, and her son-in-law, Ruby, though the latter occasionally deserves such treatment. Nevertheless, at the birth of her grandson, Justy, May reveals herself to be an exemplary grandparent. She also works very hard to support her family, though she earns a modest wage as a finisher at the local dry cleaners. Finally, May’s upbringing reveals the cause for her personality traits.
The oldest of eight children born to a modest family, May grew up in humble circumstances in rural Illinois. She was forced to take on the brunt of the household work, and she does the entire family’s laundry. She even has to move in with her aunts for a period of time after her younger siblings are born because her family does not have sufficient time and resources for her. May also lost a sibling at a young age, and another moved to France.
As an adult, May is estranged from her entire family, though Ruth maintains a relationship with May’s sister, Aunt Sid. It is Aunt Sid who provides insights into May’s childhood, explaining how she used to spy on her older sister from closets playfully. According to Aunt Sid, May fell in love with a handsome man named Willard Jensen, whom she met at church. The married and lived an idyllic life until he received a draft summons during World War II, never to return.
May’s second marriage to Elmer Gray is decidedly less idyllic, especially after he abandons his family while his children are young in favor of living with his brother in Texas. May is as attentive to her son Matt as she is dismissive of Ruth, despite Matt’s obvious attempts to distance himself from both of them. May’s only adult friend is Dee Dee Foote, though Ruth suspects that May is attracted to Dee Dee because of their shared loneliness and because Dee Dee’s comparatively poor circumstances allow May to feel superior.
Though May’s treatment of Ruth is overbearing, cruel, and often unwarranted, May makes occasional conciliatory gestures, such as during Ruth’s wedding and with Ruth’s son, Justy, that reveal May to be a multifaceted character who is not incapable of love, but who is hardened by her experiences.
Ruby Dahl
Ruby Dahl is a wayward alcoholic who is perpetually out of work for several reasons, including a bad temper, poor work ethic, and lack of intelligence and formal training. When Ruth first meets Ruby, she explains that “he looked as if he lived in the water […] he needed nothing to be happy except water, a few beers, some damp cigarettes, and the moon shining down filling him with the pure light” (113). He has wide blue eyes, crooked, rotten teeth, and brown hair that is matted by his signature Cubs hat. Together with May, he acts as one of the novel’s chief antagonists, whose behaviors propel the events of the plot. Also like May, Ruby’s upbringing explains much of his behavior and circumstances when he meets Ruth.
Ruth learns of Ruby’s history during a visit from his social worker, Sherry, soon after their marriage. Ruby was born to a family of modest means. As an infant, Ruby nearly drowned as a result of his mother drinking and falling asleep in the bathtub. After he survived, Ruby’s mother doted on him excessively by way of penance. Ruby’s father physically abused him while his mother tried to protect him. Ruby struggled in school, and he didn’t make much of an effort to succeed either academically or with manual labor, and so became a bully. As an adult, he worked at a gas station before getting fired because of an argument with his boss.
Ruth meets Ruby during a rare occasion when she is out on the town with her friend, Daisy Foote. Ruby demonstrates an immediate, physical attraction to Ruth during their first encounter. He forces himself on her during their first date, leaving her confused and hurt. In part because of it was her first sexual experience, Ruth remains enamored of Ruby to the point of obsession and continues to see him.
When the two get married, Ruby’s immature behaviors and inability to hold down a job push May to a breaking point. She scolds him excessively in front of Ruth and Justy during the fateful Sunday dinner (including reminding him that she paid his hospital bills when he decided to jump into a river in December), pushing Ruby to his breaking point that results in both May’s death and a near-fatal attack on Ruth herself. Not much is provided in the way of closure with respect to Ruby at the end of the novel (Ruth is told by Aunt Sid that he is going either to jail or to a mental hospital, depending on the results of a court trial); however, it is precisely this lack of closure with which Ruth knows she will have to life the rest of her life, especially since she recognizes that the two are still married.
Though Ruby is a highly developed character (by virtue of his close relationship to his wife, the narrator), he does not change or develop in any meaningful way. Rather, his fatal attack on May is simply a continuation of the same patterns that led him to slaughter her favorite hen.
Aunt Sid
Aunt Sid is a secondary choir teacher who acts as a foil to May. Rather than criticizing Ruth at every turn, Aunt Sid is uniformly supportive and inquiring. Though she lives forty miles away in DeKalb, Illinois, she corresponds with Ruth regularly in writing, a practice which begins when Ruth is in the third grade.
Ruth introduces Aunt Sid in her first chapter, beginning by announcing that, “sometimes Aunt Sid shocks me into seeing myself in a new light” (5). Aunt Sid is tall and statuesque, with blonde hair that she wears in a French twist. Aunt Sid teaches choir at a local school in her city of DeKalb. She is unmarried and without children, thus representing for Ruth a fresh, unique version of femininity that is independent and unencumbered. Ruth admittedly idealizes Aunt Sid, and in her childhood dreams, Aunt Sid adopts her.
Aunt Sid and May have been estranged from one another ever since, according to May, Aunt Sid took more than her share of heirlooms from a deceased relative. Aunt Sid is the youngest of their parents’ eight children, and she admits both to having more opportunities than May when she was young, as well as to having playfully spied on May as a child. It is from Aunt Sid that Ruth learns about her mother’s past (including her first husband) from her otherwise reticent mother.
Ruth moves in with Aunt Sid when the former is recovering from the injuries she sustained from Ruby in Honey Creek and awaits the birth of her second child. Aunt Sid remains unwavering in her support for Ruth up through the end of the novel, even encouraging her to go back to school to earn a college degree.
Daisy Foote
Daisy Foote is a local girl and the daughter of May’s friend, Dee Dee Foote. Daisy has a reputation for exploiting her good looks to earn male attention and gain favors from them. Ruth describes her as attractive and otherworldly:
But Daisy was spectacularly beautiful. She was in my grade and she had dark hair that curled around her face, and big black eyes with thin feather plucked eyebrows, and she put green makeup on her lids […] so she looked like she was from somewhere else—the moon, for example. Everybody couldn’t help looking at her when she walked straight down the hall (89).
Though Ruth envies Daisy’s looks, she is sufficiently astute to observe that “There wasn’t anyone who truly loved her. She didn’t have strong attachments to her partners. She used her men for their money […] and if she was lucky she was finished with them before they got tired of her” (126). Daisy occasionally gets in trouble for her wayward behavior, including drunk driving. It is Daisy who introduces Ruth to Ruby, whom she met in a mandated driving safety course after an altercation that involved drunk driving. Daisy eventually moves out of Honey Creek to attend beauty school in Peoria, where she meets her husband, Bill.
Despite her lascivious behavior and carefree attitude, Daisy is a constant friend to Ruth. She is Ruth’s bridesmaid in her wedding to Ruby, and godmother to Justy, for whom she cares while Ruth goes on a vacation to visit her Aunt Sid.
Matt Grey
Matt Grey is Ruth’s younger brother, who graduates from high school in 1973 alongside his sister. He is recognized universally by his high school teachers for his intelligence, especially in math. He keeps a calculator on his belt, which Ruth suspects is “in case he needed to figure out something quickly, like an emergency” (81). Matt moves to Boston after high school to attend MIT, after which point he seldom communicates with his family.
Ruth displays little understanding of Matt’s true personality and interest. Matt exerts a particularly negative influence on Ruth and her family when May and Ruth share a uniquely happy moment dancing together with a broom, and, when Matt returns home and sees the two, Ruth claims that, “he looked at us like we were a couple of perverts. He didn’t need to say one thing. He shook his head, went into the bathroom, slammed the door” (85). Ruth highlights this moment because it demonstrates May’s obsequiousness toward Matt.
Matt is a static character whose emotional distance from his family remains unchanged throughout the novel. He is a nearly flat character in the sense that he exerts little influence over the plot, except to the extent that he incites Ruth to anger when she is young. Her jealousy leads her to physically abuse her brother. She claims, “Matt had the words, but my arms had the muscles to put him flat on his face” (16). Because of Matt’s characteristic reticence, the reader does not learn much about him that is not filtered through Ruth.
The most illustrative details about Matt (and the only time that we hear Matt’s own voice) is through a letter written by him to their Aunt Sid, which Ruth finds in Aunt Sid’s home in DeKalb. The letter, however, reveals little that the reader doesn’t already respect, specifically that Matt had misgivings about Ruth’s marriage to Ruby, which he calls “catastrophic” and likely to lead to “nothing but unhappiness” (337). He also admits to finding the company of both his mother and sister stifling, owing to Ruth’s physical abuse and his mother’s “sickening, clutching” adoration (332). Despite his self-righteousness, Matt is never demonstratively or explicitly disparaging of his family, preferring instead to absent himself by moving to Boston and seldom communicating. Matt demonstrates a degree of fraternal commitment to his sister when he visits her in the hospital and continues to call regularly when she is released into the care of her aunt.
