From the novel Houskeeping by Marilynne Robinson: Compare and contrast Ruthie and Lucille - Essay Example

of Lecturer 8 July, A comparison and contrast between the characters of Ruthie and Lucille In Marilynn Robinson’s Housekeeping, the characters of Ruthie and Lucille are similar in some regards and the two sisters also have contrasting characters. It therefore becomes pertinent to vividly analyze the similarities and differences between the characters of Ruthie and Lucille in this short paper. It is clear from the novel that, Ruthie is the protagonist of the novel, but Lucille seems to be the initiator of the actions in the novel.

Lucille seems to be an antagonist to the protagonist in so many ways as she opposes Ruthie in some scenes of the play. One of the ways that Lucille antagonizes her sister was when she told her to reject Sylvie and improve herself as she said that, “Families are a sorrow, and that’s the Truth.” (Robinson 159). While Lucille utterly rejected the lifestyle of their aunt, Sylvie, Ruthie accepted Sylvie’s unconventional lifestyle and even modeled her life after that of Sylvie. In the novel, it could be seen that though Ruthie easily endears herself to people, but she is idiosyncratic and eccentric.

Lucille on the other hand is more conventional than her sister, Ruthie and only endears herself to people that would be of help to her. The two of them, Ruthie and Lucille experience trauma at one point or the other in the novel. They had to live with the experience of losing their mother at an early stage of their lives and having to live with different relatives at one point or the other. It should be noted that, these events affected their maturity into adulthood. The two of them both returned to school but Lucille is more focused than Ruthie.

This could be seen when Ruthie agreed to miss her examination in order to accompany her aunt, Sylvie to the lake (Robinson) Lucille is a character that wants to achieve things like every other person and for this reason she told her sister, Ruthie that they need to improve themselves. Ruthie on the other hand does not believe that there is any need for her to achieve like everyone else as she believes that there is no need to live any other way than taking one moment after the other. It could then be said that Lucille’s life was in order as she lived a well-planned life, while Ruthie on the other hand, lived a life without plans.

While Ruthie seemed comfortable with Sylvie’s unconventional housekeeping, Lucille on the other hand did not feel comfortable with Sylvie’s odd way of housekeeping (Robinson). Ruthie could be described as someone that lived an aimless lifestyle as she took this after their aunt, Sylvie. Lucille still had a better sense of direction than Ruthie as this can be seen when she followed her home-economics teacher and she lived a stable feminine lifestyle. Lucille was not too comfortable with the lack of order in the life of Sylvie and this was the reason that she returned to school and concentrated more on her studies, thus breaking the sisterly bond between her and Ruthie.

Thus, Sylvie’s unconventional lifestyle was actually the turning point for Lucille. On the other hand, the unconventional lifestyle of Sylvie did more harm than good for Ruthie as she could not help but copy the eccentric lifestyle of her aunt. Work Cited Robinson, Marilynne. Housekeeping. New York: Bantam Books, 1989. Print.