The Exiles

Evangeline first muses about “a ruby gemstone ring [that] glowed in the sunlight, staining the white handkerchief it lay on a deep red” (12). The ring, a sign of love from Cecil, becomes the catalyst for her demise. Symbolically, yes—the ring’s heirloom status stains Cecil’s handkerchief, one that Evangeline keeps with her the rest of her life as a reminder of what might have been. Without the ring casting a dispersion on her character, Evangeline’s story would have ended differently. However, the ring, a symbol of Cecil’s wealth and privilege, damns her to a life of servitude and eventually to her death. Twenty-five years later, it is the handkerchief that brings Ruby back to London to find her father, and yet again, he offers the ruby ring. Her denial of it symbolizes her mother’s voice, long dead.

The handkerchief represents the hope that Evangeline would carry with her for the rest of her life. She often touches and caresses it when thinking of Cecil and hoping he will “act honorably and step forward” (47) to save her from her sentence—but of course, he never does. In her darkest moments, Evangeline is always stroking the handkerchief—most noticeably upon feeling her baby kick for the first time and on her way to board the Medea.