Ophelia

Ophelia is nobody important. She is a mere fish peddler who walks the same dusty 1880s London streets as other ordinary hawkers who would sell anything from tabloid to sex. Product of a drunkard and a sweatshop seamstress, she has been working ever since her basic schooling concluded at the age of eleven. Plain features, drab clothes, and lowly birth, she imparts no memorable impression save that of a sweet, cheerful nineteen-year-old girl who has managed to keep a clean soul up until now.

Having failed to sell all her fish today, Ophelia comes home late, irked and fatigued. Her mother seems evidently displeased, as she expects her daughter to return early to help her sew ninety pairs of gloves to be delivered later that week. Though it is much work, the piece rate is meager. Sweatshop owners rationalize the cheap pay by saying that women are only working to supplement their husbands' wages. This is not at all the case in Ophelia's family, where her mother is the main source of income and her father a drain on their economy.

Dutifully, the girl sews for a good length of time, dropping in and out of a slumber as her mother carries on a monologue about Ophelia's possible engagement to a local baker who owns a shop nearby.

"...you mustn't muck this up, ye hear? This marriage is our lifeline. Not only you'll get to live in a decent house, you'll have a steady allowance and become mistress of a bakery shop-doesn't that sound much more respectable than fishmonger? You can then help me out by sending money for your brother abroad..."

"Marrying for money isn't so different from prostituting oneself, mother. There should be equality..."

"There you go with that New Woman trash again, it's poisoning your head. What good is a ballot if you're starving? What can equality do for lowly women like us? Nothing. Similarly, what use is a woman's property if it's controlled by men? No, the only way a woman can have some power is if she holds property and she herself not property of men. But since it's quite impossible to have both, you're better off opting for the money."

Ophelia inclines to respond, but keeps quiet, as her drunken father swaggers through the door of their squalid shack and demands that her mother gives him money for another round at the tavern. The woman refuses and would not budge even as he shakes her forcefully by the shoulders. Being so used to this scene, Ophelia turns a deaf ear to her parents' damning each other. But this time the man strikes his wife so hard that she falls down and cracks her skull on the hard floor. Ophelia snaps out of apathy and rushes to her mother's dying body, screaming 'bloody murderer' at the top of her lungs.

Her mother dies within less than half an hour; the money she desperately clings to would nicely take care of her burial expenses. Her father is arrested as he runs away and is sentenced to prison for a mere six months on the account of "crime of passion". During his brief incarceration, he is raped and bludgeoned to death by other inmates. Meanwhile, Ophelia and her eight-year-old sister become drifters, having been evicted from their squalid sack since Ophelia cannot afford to pay rent with her meager income. In the bleakest times, Ophelia contemplates drowning herself and her sister in the Thames but stops herself short, partly because the polluted Thames reeks like a cesspool, and mostly because she cannot bring herself to kill her innocent little sister who has not done anything wrong except being born into the wrong sex at the wrong place and wrong time.

Ophelia was ready to prostitute herself when she finds a godsend 'wanted' advertisement needing a house servant in the newspaper. Literacy comes in handy after all, thinks Ophelia as she requests an interview with the potential employer. The employer turns out to be an inexperienced, middle-class, newly wedded wife, who is extremely eager to receive Ophelia-someone whom she hopes will clean out the cobwebs and turns her house into a respectable place suitable for her social standing. The moment she is hired, Ophelia throws herself into work. Her aching back and chapped skin do nothing but fuel the desire to earn more money. Fortunately, her mistress is a reasonable person and generally treats Ophelia kindly, or at least as kindly as her Mrs. Beeton's book-her second bible-dictates. The master, a Dandy nobleman-in-decline who married his wife chiefly for money, leaves all practical matters to her while he proudly indulges in hedonistic pleasures. Behind closed doors, the husband and wife would argue, or rather, the wife would express her dissatisfaction with their infrequent consummation and the husband would evade the matter or do his part perfunctorily. Ophelia scorns at their marriage as utter middle class hypocrisy, but knows well enough to keep it to herself.

One pleasant afternoon, as Ophelia is scrubbing the floor, her mistress orders her to have the valet prepare the carriage for her going out to the weekly charity work. Ophelia inquires her what time she would return so that she can prepare supper.

"No need, I'll just dine out." Putting on her feather silk hat, she adds, "I am visiting an orphanage today....you have a little sister who's in one, don't you?" To this Ophelia says yes.

"How horrendous! To think that her first critical years of childhood would be so irrevocably scarred. Growing up without a mother's nurture is absolutely detrimental to children. You must make haste to bring her out of there and strive to be the best surrogate mother to her."

"Yes, madam. I hope that you will be very kind as to instruct me in the matters of virtue, so that I may in turn bring her up to be virtuous." Over her five weeks here, Ophelia knows all too well the power of the flattery. As predicted, her mistress beams:

"With the liberalist New Women running amok these days, it's quite a delight to find a young woman who still values virtue. I commend you for preserving your chastity and not fall prey to temptation even though you've been through a terrible tragedy."

Ophelia claims that much of it has to do with her mistress's blessing, which puts the woman in such good spirits that she allows Ophelia to leave as soon as she is done with her scrubbing and then prances off to comfort the poor orphans. The girl is gladly obliged and heads out to visit her sister afterward. As she is halfway to her destination, Ophelia suddenly remembers the water kettle that she forgot to remove from the stove and rushes back as fast as her feet allow.

Having done so, Ophelia prepares to leave but stops dead in her tracks as her ears pick up moaning noises coming from the living room. Peeking through the crack on the wall, Ophelia discerns two nude figures coupling, one none other than her master. Feeling angry on her mistress's behalf, Ophelia decides to spy on them. She catches a glimpse of the prostitute's face as the person climbs into the carriage which shocks and disgusts her. Her brother! Ophelia runs after the vehicle and drags her brother by the collar into an alley. As it turns out, her brother was expelled from his apprenticeship and has to prostitute himself since he is too shameful to return home. Hearing about what happened to his family strikes him with grief. While her brother weeps, Ophelia calculates:

"Maintain your liaison with my master. But hint that you expect 'gifts' from him, as well as an allowance, then gradually coax him into buying you a flat. Correspond with him frequently. I will write the letters and all you need is to initial them." Seeing her brother's unconvinced look, Ophelia deftly adds, "please do as I ask. I'm quite sure my mistress won't be happy to know the person responsible for her husband's lack of consummation. Neither will the court, so please be discreet."

For over a year, Ophelia's brother does as he is told until Ophelia feels that they have milked the man dry and that she has gained a solid trust from her mistress. After securing the property rights to the flat, Ophelia presents her mistress's the incriminating letters written by her master-which she had saved from previous correspondence-under pretext that she had stumbled upon them while cleaning in his study.

Thanks to the Matrimonial Causes Act and Married Women Property Act passed some decades ago, the furious mistress is allowed a relatively smooth divorce and able to keep her property in tact since she receives her inheritance through an annual allowance. Though she chooses not to sue him, he is sentenced to two years of hard labor in prison on account of homosexuality, during which he dies from syphilis.

Ophelia is joyous when she can finally bring her sister to her flat and patch up their little family. Yet, much to her distress, her brother has become a hopeless opium addict, an addiction he had picked up from spending time with the master. Ophelia spends a good amount of money trying to cure his addiction to no avail. Her brother later dies from swallowing raw opium, though whether he commits suicide or does it accidentally is unclear. Blaming herself for his death, Ophelia sells the flat and uses most of the money to send her sister to a boarding school. Ophelia stays by her mistress for a while, who remarries not too long after the divorce since she believes that she must always fulfills her role as a good wife and mother. By this time, thoroughly disillusioned about the glamor of middle class society, Ophelia declines to be her mistress's housekeeper and leaves the house.

Shortly after, a new fish stall appears at the old marketplace. Customers who shop there compliments the quality of the seafood as much as they do the sweet personality of the vendor. However, that is as much as they can remark about her. Nothing else is known, since she is nobody important and wants to stay that way.