Tristan, although expressing sympathy for the prostitutes, still feels disturbed by the lives and actions of the prostitutes of the time. She writes, “To brave death is nothing; but what a death faces a prostitute! She is betrothed to sorrow, committed to abjection!- Physical tortures incessantly repeated, moral death all the time, and scorn for herself!” (Tristan)

Prostitutes are perpetually placed in a state of despair, knowing that they are acting against God, committing sin, and shunned by mankind.

Despite this, Tristan heavily blames society for a prostitutes’ place in the world. Their place was created by a division of class as well as a separation of gender. These women were offered no eduction, and even those who were educated had very limited job options. Due to this, Tristan believes that prostitutes could not be deemed immoral for actions that were out of their control.

Thomas Hood, in his poem “Bride of Sighs” expresses this same sympathy for prostitutes. This view is similar to that of Tristan, but rather than blaming society and class differences, Thomas Hood associates the issue of prostitution with a lacking of family and close loved ones.

He blames the men for mistreating the prostitutes, rather than treating them as women, as humans. He writes, in lines 15-20,

Touch her not scornfully;

Think of her mournfully,

Gently and humanly;

Not of the stains of her,

All that remains of her

Now is pure womanly.

Thomas Hood feels great sympathy towards the prostitute, the subject of his poem, who ultimately kills herself by drowning. He wishes for the men who find her to treat her dead corpse with the same gentleness that he speaks of earlier in the poem.

Both Thomas Hood and Flora Tristan note that prostitutes are part of the lower class, and that prostitutes are without a home.. Thomas Hood, however, blames this lacking of a home (lacking of a family) for the desolate & lonely life of a prostitute, where Tristan blames class differences.