The language shown throughout the peace is a vernacular, local dialect, which is noticeable through mistakes with the verb in a sentence, especially the subject. This is shown with phrases such as “she were eleven year old”, showing confusion between the singular and plural. Chatty, colloquial language is also used, which is shown in accented, abbreviated terms such as “I ‘ad” and “never did know”, with an anecdotal style to keep the attention of the reader. The piece is more opinion based rather than fact, and humour is used with the incident with Eva, where the child was “frit to death” by the “wind” that “passed out of it” from a dead body, when she was left in the same room as it to clean the floor. Little formality is shown throughout the piece, and a number of paragraphs are merged together, for instance on line 28 there should have been a new paragraph. We do see a slightly rambling nature as the woman overemphasises certain points. From line 49 to the end of the paragraph there is a shift from the word “she” to “you” to keep the reader involved, and bleak language, such as “terrible”, “horrible” and “awkward” emphasise the primitive nature of the lifestyle and the poor conditions for working, as well as expressing the author’s view of the life of a girl in service. In Shady’s paragraph, there is a direct comparison between the family she serves and the girl herself, emphasising lonliness. The word “dirty, nasty, vulgar old man” and “no decent girl was safe with” suggests an element of sexual abuse, which is looked at further later.
A number of things are revealed about the narrator throughout the piece. From the beginning, we can see that she believes that “good service…were a wonderful training for a lot o’ girls”. However, we also see that she believes that farmers, who are discussed later, “di’n’t know how to treat the people who worked for ‘em.” This is reinforced as the author refers to an incident where a heartless farmer sends a girl to clean a room with a dead corpse lying in it, as discussed previously. This also emphasises the sense of compassion and feeling the narrator has for the girls in service, as if she sees this event as being extremely cruel as well as slightly humorous. We see compassion shown with the phrase “poor little mite”, and an impression that she herself has been in service. A humble, warm attitude is seen as she seems both humorous and at the same time blunt, having no hesitation in calling the shepherd a “dirty, nasty, vulgar old man”, and the farmers “a jumped up, proud lot”, suggesting that these people had money, but not the manners or sense to go with it.
We see a number of things shown in this piece about the lives of girls in service. The narrator makes a point of telling us that although service in large, well established households is beneficial for children, and allows them to see the world and perhaps leave the country, things which few people would ever do previously, girls who entered service for farmers who had only just become ‘middle class’ would end up in isolated, “lonely”, farms with little or no respect given and working for farmers with no manners. Words such as “slaves” are used to emphasise this. The anecdote of Shady is used to illustrate a typical girl’s life in service, as she lived in an isolated cottage where “there was no escape”. The daily routine of a girl is then explained, as “She were woke up at 6 a.m. every morning by the horsekeeper” and then had to “light the scullery fire” and then make tea “for the horsekeeper”. This regimented day continued as “she started to scrub the bare tiles”. This job is made to appear worse as the author describes it as “terrible” as the work was done in isolation, in freezing cold conditions so “the water ‘ould freeze”. At 6.30 breakfast was made for the family, leaving only bread and butter for herself, and then having to wash up “including all the milk utensils and so on”. This exhausting day had only begun as she had to fit “churning” in on the appropriate days, as well as always having to clean the “family’s boots and shoes” as well as make more potatoes for the next morning’s breakfast. Supper had to be prepared, and finally, any free time was spent in isolation “in the cold dark kitchen”, where the dying fire could not be relit. Finally, an element of abuse is brought into the life of the girl in service as “lambing time” meant spending time in the company of the shepherd, who, as explained previously, appears to be sexually abusing the children through the hints given in the passage. The final paragraph finishes on a saddened, resigned note, as we see that for a years work, only five pounds was given, all of which was sent back to the family. We can see from this lifestyle that the child led a very sad, isolated, and miserable existence. However, it is important to remember that the author has only described the life of a girl in service for a farmer, not in one of the “big houses”, which Marshall speaks more positively of. However, his positive attitude is negated throughout the piece as we see that many children as subjected to a life of misery and isolation.
In conclusion, I believe that this is a useful piece of historical evidence in looking at the life of a girl in service. It also examines class consciousness by attacking the farmers and their lifestyle and values. It also explains the poor conditions that girls were subjected to, as well as shedding some light on the identity of the author them self.
