Unlike society, Flora Tristan and Thomas Hood both have immense sympathy for the prostitute. Tristan argues that women’s dependencies on men is one of the main reasons prostitution, not only exists, but increases each year. Unlike society, Tristan has sympathy for the prostitutes because she realizes they are the aftermath of such rigid social rules for women. In “The Bridge of Sighs,” Hood describes a prostitute’s deathly jump of a prostitute to redefine her not as some awful outsider of society but a person in order invoke sympathy for her.

Tristan begins her argument with the repeated phrase, “I understand” in regard to dangerous jobs for men such as a sailor or a soldier. The phrases is repeated three times to emphasize its reduction in regard to prostitution: “But I cannot understand the prostitute, surrounding herself, destroying both her willpower and her feelings; delivering her body to brutality and suffering and her soul to scorn!” The line directs her to her main argument: a prostitute’s job can not only lead to physical death but a “moral death” as well, making it a far worse labor than a soldier or sailor.

Tristan feel strong sympathy for prostitutes because she believes women were pushed into this role due to inequality. She describes a prostitute as a woman who has been “pushed” from society because she does not have the same opportunities as men: “Yes, if you allowed her to have the same education, the same occupations and professions as the man, she would not be assailed by poverty more often than he.” Women, of course, were restricted to the home where they were to find a husband otherwise they would have no income. Even when married, the woman only existed in regard to her husband, in which her body became his property.

Once a woman is driven to prostitution, her body becomes a toy to the man. Tristan describes one amusement of the men: “One of the favorites is to make a girl dead drunk and then make her swallow some vinegar mixed with mustard and pepper; this drink almost always gives her horrible convulsions, and the jerkings and contortions of the unfortunate thing provoke laughter and infinitely amuse the honorable society.” The diction “honorable society” is meant as sarcasm, how can men possibly be “gentlemen” with this sort of behavior? How is it the woman’s fault? At the end of her essay, Tristan brings up the numbers: 80,000 to 100,000 women live by prostitution; 15,000 to 20,000 die each year and: “Every year an even greater number come to replace those whose frightful lives have ended.” More and more are become prostitutes.

Hood begins his poem with the mention of a prostitute’s death: “One more Unfortunate… / Gone to her death!” (1 and 4). He capitalizes unfortunate to suggest how it is a name for a prostitute, defining her as someone to feel pity for. He asks for someone to care for her: “Take her up tenderly, / Lift her up with care;” (5-6). This reminds me of the amusements mentions in Tristan’s article. Hood is trying to emphasize that the prostitute is human to and needs care, not someone you can just spit on or do whatever you will to.

To emphasize the sex worker’s humanity, Hood tries to think of her family. He asks: “Who was her father? / Who was her mother? / Had she a sister? / Had she a brother?” (36-39). These lines all rhyme together making the questions rush into each other. Hood is pondering the life the prostitute must have had before she worked on the streets. After all, the sex worker probably had a similar life to other middle-class women in London.

What is most irksome is Hood’s understand that the prostitute’s death was probably better than her life. As stated before, about a quarter of prostitutes die each year. Hood suggests their death is their only chance at peace: “Glad to death’s mystery, / Swift to be hurled– / Anywhere, anywhere / Out of the world!” (67-71). The repeated “anywhere” emphasizes the prostitute’s desperation to leave this cruel world and how can you not pity that?

Hood and Tristan both make good cases on why to sympathize with prostitutes. Tristan focuses more on the social and economic issues that cause the creation of the prostitute. Hood focuses on the emotionally of the prostitute to bring her back to a human level into society. Both pieces complement each other well.