# How common was the "country girl seduced by rich man" melodrama plot?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 18, 2014, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595 "2014-02-18T03:45:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2014, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/1 "2014-02-18T03:45:50Z")
(Spinoff thread from the one about _Evita_.)
When I think of “melodrama”, the usual plots I think about are the “Oh crap I can’t pay the rent and my evil landlord will kick me out what do I do now?!”, the “villain wants to marry beautiful heroine to get hold of her wealth/get revenge and ties her to the railroad tracks” and this:
Heroine is a poor girl from the country seduced by a worldly and handsome man and tempted to leave for the city. Her lover convinces her that he loves her and will “do the honourable thing” and marry her. The lovers travel to the city together and the man abandons the heroine (sometimes also leaving her with a child) and she’s forced to work as a prostitute to survive. She sometimes dies of a horrible disease, commits suicide or is imprisoned or ends up marrying the love interest (a different person from the seducer).
The third plot is what I’m wondering about. In URL=“[http://http](http://http)://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=17114270#post17114070”] this post I said I thought _Evita_ was a relatively modern version of this plot (it is based on a real person’s life but loosely-- most historians believe her reputation as a gold-digger was exaggerated by her opponents) with an amoral heroine. I’ve also come across references to the “country girl” seduction plot in discussions of the white slavery panic and silent movies.
Does anyone know how common this plot actually was?
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### Author:  [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2014, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/2 "2014-02-18T09:06:59Z")
Correction to link [here](http://http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=17114270#post17114070)
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### Author:  [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2014, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/3 "2014-02-18T12:29:07Z")
[The Colleen Bawn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colleen_Bawn) fits the overall ‘innocent country maiden seduced by rich man’ plot, although not the details you give - the landowner is in love with the country girl and marries her, but he thinks his family won’t accept her. In real life he arranged to have her murdered, but in the play everyone lives happily ever after.
Plays about the [Murder in the Red Barn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Barn_Murder) were incredibly popular in the mid-nineteenth century. In real life the difference in social class between the murderer and the victim wasn’t that huge, and the victim wasn’t a virginal young maiden, but I’m pretty sure at least some of the plays stretched those elements for dramatic effect, to make it a ‘wicked squire seduces and murders innocent country girl’ plot.
ETA: In the Red Barn case, while Corder didn’t actually lure Maria Marten off to the city, he told her family that was what he had done, to cover up the fact that he’d murdered her.
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### Author:  [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2014, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/4 "2014-02-18T12:44:12Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#):
>
> [The Colleen Bawn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colleen_Bawn) fits the overall ‘innocent country maiden seduced by rich man’ plot, although not the details you give - the landowner is in love with the country girl and marries her, but he thinks his family won’t accept her. In real life he arranged to have her murdered, but in the play everyone lives happily ever after.
>
> Plays about the [Murder in the Red Barn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Barn_Murder) were incredibly popular in the mid-nineteenth century. In real life the difference in social class between the murderer and the victim wasn’t that huge, and the victim wasn’t a virginal young maiden, but I’m pretty sure at least some of the plays stretched those elements for dramatic effect, to make it a ‘wicked squire seduces and murders innocent country girl’ plot.
>
> ETA: In the Red Barn case, while Corder didn’t actually lure Maria Marten off to the city, he told her family that was what he had done, to cover up the fact that he’d murdered her.
Anecdote time: Nine years ago when I was in Year 5 (girls’ school) I did after-school drama classes and got to do Maria’s famous monologue. It was awesome.
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/5 "2014-02-18T15:40:19Z")
_Way Down East_ is a great silent film version of a similar plot. Ice floe drama at the end!
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/6 "2014-02-18T15:40:44Z")
**Sister Carrie** by Theodore Dreiser has this plot starting out, but then the heroine dumps the villain and becomes a successful actress. IIRC, she doesn’t marry, either. The villain dies alone and broke.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2014, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/7 "2014-02-18T21:35:15Z")
That’s pretty much word for word the Magnolia-Gaylord storyline in every version of\* Showboat.\*
Not to mention its siblings “naive country girl and traveling salesman” from _Oklahoma_ and _The Music Man_ and “naive country girl and ne’er do well” from _Carousel_ and _Elmer Gantry_. Sometimes the man reforms, but often he doesn’t.
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### Author:  [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2014, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/8 "2014-02-18T22:27:48Z")
> [@kunilou](#):
>
> That’s pretty much word for word the Magnolia-Gaylord storyline in every version of\* Showboat.\*
>
> Not to mention its siblings “naive country girl and traveling salesman” from _Oklahoma_ and _The Music Man_ and “naive country girl and ne’er do well” from _Carousel_ and _Elmer Gantry_. Sometimes the man reforms, but often he doesn’t.
Magnolia becomes a singer IIRC but I suppose in the 1890s female singers still had a bad reputation.
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### Author:  [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2014, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/9 "2014-02-18T22:38:59Z")
Here’s another one from real life: [The maid of Buttermere.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Robinson_(Maid_of_Buttermere)) She really was a maid and her seducer was a conman who fooled a lot of people so public sympathy was great.
I suspect it turns up in fiction because it did happen a lot in real life.
See also the remarkable book from Georgian times: [Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris's_List_of_Covent_Garden_Ladies) The ladies were prostitutes. A common theme of their biographies was
their route into the sex trade being ascribed
> [@](#):
>
> to youthful innocence, with tales of young girls leaving their homes for the promises of men, only to be abandoned once in London.
I rather think it was in the interests of “fallen women” to claim this kind of background to make themselves sound more wholesome to their customers.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2014, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/10 "2014-02-18T22:45:31Z")
> [@Morwen Edhelwen](#):
>
> Does anyone know how common this plot actually was?
It goes back at least to Golding’s [_The Vicar of Wakefield_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicar_of_Wakefield) (though that story has a different ending).
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2014, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/11 "2014-02-18T22:50:58Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> It goes back at least to Golding’s [_The Vicar of Wakefield_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicar_of_Wakefield) (though that story has a different ending).
Sorry, Goldsmith, not Golding.
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### Author:  [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2014, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/12 "2014-02-19T00:51:30Z")
> [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](#):
>
> I rather think it was in the interests of “fallen women” to claim this kind of background to make themselves sound more wholesome to their customers.
Regarding the “white slavery” panic, there is an interesting book called [Sin in the Second City](http://www.amazon.com/Sin-Second-City-Ministers-Playboys/dp/0812975995/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392770888&sr=8-1&keywords=sin+in+the+second+city)about the end of the prostitution era in Chicago in the early 1900’s, and the origin of the Mann Act. My take-away was that white slavery was basically B.S. but that various people, including some prostitutes, had a vested interest in spreading lurid tales.
To the O.P., I would also add Lydia’s story from _Pride and Prejudice_.
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### Author:  [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2014, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/13 "2014-02-19T02:02:03Z")
> [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](#):
>
> Here’s another one from real life: [**The maid of Buttermere**.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Robinson_(Maid_of_Buttermere)) She really was a maid and her seducer was a conman who fooled a lot of people so public sympathy was great.
>
> I suspect it turns up in fiction because it did happen a lot in real life.
>
> See also the remarkable book from Georgian times: [Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris's_List_of_Covent_Garden_Ladies) The ladies were prostitutes. A common theme of their biographies was
> their route into the sex trade being ascribed
>
> I rather think it was in the interests of “fallen women” to claim this kind of background to make themselves sound more wholesome to their customers.
Just read that… WOW!
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2014, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/14 "2014-02-19T02:10:06Z")
Not from literature but real life: The most famous closing argument in American jurisprudence is the [Soiled Dove Plea](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soiled_Dove_Plea), a naked and successful argument for jury nullification of the charges against a clearly guilty prostitute in Woodward, Oklahoma, in 1899. Her attorney, Temple Lea Houston, argued from assuming as a clear and obvious fact (though I’m not clear as to whether any such thing actually was in evidence) that the woman had only turned to prostitution because a heartless man had “ruined” her.
> [@](#):
>
> Gentlemen of the jury: You heard with what cold cruelty the prosecution referred to the sins of this woman, as if her condition were of her own preference. The evidence has painted you a picture of her life and surroundings. Do you think that they were embraced of her own choosing? Do you think that she willingly embraced a life so revolting and horrible? Ah, no! Gentlemen, one of our own sex was the author of her ruin, more to blame than she.
>
> Then let us judge her gently. What could be more pathetic than the spectacle she presents? An immortal soul in ruin! Where the star of purity once glittered on her girlish brow, burning shame has set its seal and forever. And only a moment ago, they reproached her for the depths to which she had sunk, the company she kept, the life she led. Now, what else is left her? Where can she go and her sin not pursue her? Gentlemen, the very promises of God are denied her. He said: “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” She has indeed labored, and is heavily laden, but if, at this instant she were to kneel before us all and confess to her Redeemer and beseech His tender mercies, where is the church that would receive her? And even if they accepted her, when she passed the portals to worship and to claim her rest, scorn and mockery would greet her; those she met would gather around them their spirits the more closely to avoid the pollution of her touch. And would you tell me a single employment where she can realize “Give us our daily bread?”
>
> Our sex wrecked her once pure life. Her own sex shrink from her as they would the pestilence. Society has reared its relentless walls against her, and only in the friendly shelter of the grave can her betrayed and broken heart ever find the Redeemer’s promised rest.
>
> They told you of her assumed names, as fleeting as the shadows on the walls, of her sins, her habits, but they never told you of her sorrows, and who shall tell what her heart, sinful though it may be, now feels? When the remembered voices of mother and sisters, whom she must see no more on this earth, fall again like music on her erring soul, and she prays God that she could only return, and must not — no — not in this life, for the seducer has destroyed the soul.
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2014, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/15 "2014-02-19T15:18:32Z")
There’s a [great Tumblr](http://annui.tumblr.com/)with books and newspaper clippings on 19th century prostitution. There’s no commentary, which is too bad, but the sources themselves are fascinating. A lot of it is polemic against “white slavery”.
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2014, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/16 "2014-02-19T17:24:04Z")
The classic music-hall song “She Is More to be Pitied than Censured” (1894, William B. Gray) follows this theme:
> [@](#):
>
> She is more to be pitied than censured,
> She is more to be helped than despised.
> She is only a lassie who ventured
> On life’s stormy path, ill-advised;
> Do not scorn her with words fierce and bitter
> Do not laugh at her shame and downfall.
> For a moment, just stop and consider
> That a man was the cause of it all.
Probably the best-known representative of the genre in song is [“She Was Poor But She Was Honest”](http://monologues.co.uk/003/Poor_But_Honest.htm) (anonymous, late 19th century):
> [@](#):
>
> She was poor but she was honest,
> though she came from 'umble stock,
> And her honest heart was beating
> Underneath her tattered frock.
>
> But the rich man saw her beauty,
> She knew not his base design,
> And he took her to a hotel
> And bought her a small port wine.
>
> […] See him riding in a carriage
> Past the gutter where she stands.
> He has made a stylish marriage,
> While she wrings her ringless hands.
>
> See him there at the theatre,
> In the front row with the best,
> While the girl that he has ruined
> Entertains a sordid guest.
A subplot in Dickens’ _David Copperfield_ (1850) is similar. Little Em’ly eventually leaves her alluring seducer Steerforth when she realizes he won’t marry her, and is just barely saved by her grieving and loving family from being ensnared into prostitution.
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### Author:  [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2014, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/17 "2014-02-21T22:14:54Z")
> [@Kimstu](#):
>
> The classic music-hall song “She Is More to be Pitied than Censured” (1894, William B. Gray) follows this theme:
> Probably the best-known representative of the genre in song is [“She Was Poor But She Was Honest”](http://monologues.co.uk/003/Poor_But_Honest.htm) (anonymous, late 19th century):
> A subplot in Dickens’ _David Copperfield_ (1850) is similar. Little Em’ly eventually leaves her alluring seducer Steerforth when she realizes he won’t marry her, and is just barely saved by her grieving and loving family from being ensnared into prostitution.
A litttle late but thanks so much for that!
BTW anyone know of any stage examples?
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### Author:  [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2014, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/18 "2014-02-24T20:48:32Z")
> [@Morwen Edhelwen](#):
>
> BTW anyone know of any stage examples?
How about opera? There are quite a few ‘fallen women’ who were Seduced and Abandoned in opera (though possibly not always “country woman and city man” specific).
Dumas’ 1848 novel _The Lady of the Camellias_ became a play and then was adapted by Verdi in his 1853 _La Traviata_. Puccini had \*La Bohème \*(1896) and _Madama Butterfly_ (1903)–the last possibly closest to a pure “seduced and abandoned” story.
All the heroines were used and abandoned by men at some point in their histories; some actively worked as prostitutes.
> **[The Lady of the Camellias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_of_the_Camellias)**
>
> The Lady of the Camellias (French: La Dame aux Camélias), sometimes called Camille in English, is a novel by Alexandre Dumas fils. First published in 1848 and subsequently adapted by Dumas for the stage, the play premiered at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris, France, on February 2, 1852. It was an instant success. Shortly thereafter, Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi set about putting the story to music in the 1853 opera La traviata, with female protagonist Marguerite Gautier renamed Violetta Va...
> **[La traviata](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Traviata)**
>
> La traviata (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}Italian: \[la traviˈaːta, -aˈvjaː-\]; The Fallen Woman) is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La Dame aux camélias (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas fils, which he adapted from his own 1848 novel. The opera was o Pia...
> **[La bohème](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_boh%C3%A8me)**
>
> La bohème (/ˌlɑː boʊˈɛm/ LAH boh-EM, .mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}Italian: \[la boˈɛm\]) is an opera in four acts,\[N 1\] composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème (1851) by Henri Murger. The story is set in Paris around 1830 The...
> **[Madama Butterfly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madama_Butterfly)**
>
> Madama Butterfly (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}Italian pronunciation: \[maˈdaːma ˈbatterflai\]; Madame Butterfly) is an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.
> It is based on the short story "Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Luther Long, which in turn...
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### Author:  [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2014, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/19 "2014-02-24T23:53:32Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#):
>
> How about opera? There are quite a few ‘fallen women’ who were Seduced and Abandoned in opera (though possibly not always “country woman and city man” specific).
>
> Dumas’ 1848 novel _The Lady of the Camellias_ became a play and then was adapted by Verdi in his 1853 _La Traviata_. Puccini had \*La Bohème \*(1896) and _Madama Butterfly_ (1903)–the last possibly closest to a pure “seduced and abandoned” story.
>
> All the heroines were used and abandoned by men at some point in their histories; some actively worked as prostitutes.
> [The Lady of the Camellias - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_of_the_Camellias)
> [La traviata - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Traviata)
> [La bohème - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_boh%C3%A8me)
> [Madama Butterfly - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madama_Butterfly)
As an Asian woman I know some people have \*issues \* with Madame Butterfly/Miss Saigon (along the lines of it perpetuates “passive Asian woman devoted to a foreign lover/oversexualised Asian woman” stereotypes. IIRC though Cho-Cho San/Kim was a 15/17-year old in love for the first time with a foreign man-- and everyone tends to LOVE the first person they fall in love with for a while.
And I think the opera makes Pinkerton out to be irresponsible at best and callous at worst (although I do have issues with the colonialist aspect).
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2014, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-the-country-girl-seduced-by-rich-man-melodrama-plot/681595/20 "2014-02-25T00:11:01Z")
I don’t know where this comes from, but I was supposed to sing it (which is why I memorized the words; but the director, unimpressed with my singing – which does **not** often happen in my case! :mad: – decided to cut it from performances) when I played Floyd Allen in a college theater production of [“Dark of the Moon”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_of_the_Moon_(play)):
“A Picture from Life’s Other Side”
A pure gal left her mother
She was fur away from home
She walked the streets of Asheville
So cold and so alone
A man, he come up to her
And he took her by the arm
And said, "Now, I’ll be good to you
“And see you have no harm.”
He took her down a back street
Into a house of sin
And once that poor gal went inside
She never come out again
Just a pitcher from life’s other side
Somebody who fell by the way
A light has gone out with the tide, the tide
That might have been happy someday, someday
Some poor old mother
At home alone
Waitin’ and watchin’ in vain
Waitin’ to hear
From a loved one so dear
Just a pitcher from life’s other side!
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