Ruth Hilton/Mrs. Denbigh

Ruth Hilton is a beautiful, young orphan at the beginning of the novel. Her kind and loving parents died when she was a teenager and left a prominent local man, and a stranger, as her guardian. The guardian does nothing for Ruth except find her an apprenticeship with a seamstress. She has no friends or family and is still grieving for her parents when Mr. Bellingham seduces her. She is also entirely ignorant of any knowledge of love or sex and is motivated by pure, innocent, and natural impulses and pleasure. This combination of factors, in addition to a series of unfortunate events leads Ruth to her “fall.”

Ruth is consistently kind and good, though she starts off the novel without much religious education or moral code. At the beginning of the novel. Ruth follows her natural impulses which usually lead her to merely seek...