Chap 3 - Violence in Maggie Flashcards
2 types of persons
: those who shout (mother) & those who resign.
Yves Carlet, Stephen Crane, les couleurs de l’angoisse,
: « Le seul mode de communication semble être, dès les premiers chapitres du roman, une violence animale qui s’exerce même à l’intérieur de la cellule familiale (puisque la mère et le père, le fils et la mère s’affrontent physiquement), et la seule alternative une sorte d’autisme né de la résignation et de la défaite. »
Thomas A. Gullason,
the animal imagery reinforces “Crane’s view of slum life as a jungle”.
→ Think for example of this quote: “Maggie, with side glances of fear of interruption, ate like a small pursued tigress.”11.
Innocence & violence ; children’s savagery
Note in chapter 1 how children are said to fight like prehistoric men
Children keep fighting but no one ever stops them
⇒ Adults never interfere in the quarrels and are no role models.
The first chapter draws upon a contrast between children characters who embody evil figures.
Physical wounds accumulate, graphic description of bodies, we see the wounds and the blood.
Innocence & violence ; children’s savagery
Note in chapter 1 how children are said to fight like prehistoric men
Children keep fighting but no one ever stops them
⇒ Adults never interfere in the quarrels and are no role models.
The first chapter draws upon a contrast between children characters who embody evil figures.
Physical wounds accumulate, graphic description of bodies, we see the wounds and the blood.
They wish to act like men, they want to perform their manhood, and make it visible in their attitude and words
An allegorical fight
The street war opposes two factions: Rum Alley (to which Jimmie belongs to) and Devil’s row. The fight is a perfect illustration of the survival of the fittest, one has to fight physically to survive.
Violence is repeated, The never-ending violence contaminates all groups.
Names of Rum Alley and Devil’s Row
Rum Alley and Devil’s Row are allegorical names as they embody the vices that plague the Bowery: alcohol and evil characters.
→ Those names may have been influenced by British painter and satirist, William Hogarth, who did two famous engravings « Gin Lane » and « Beer Street » (1751) ⇒ Note their titles which stress the vices that plagued the slums of London in the 18th century: poverty, intemperance and cheap liquor. Hogarth made a caricatural and grotesque depiction of slum life
Hogarth
→ Hogarth depicts how cruel the world is for children
In « Gin Lane », a half-naked infant falls from his mother’s arms and almost dies. The mother is mannish.
→ The Church is not helping people. The beadle is indifferent to the the orphaned boy just as in Maggie.
→ Hogarth and Crane point to the physical and mental degeneration of parents, the perversion of life in poor neighborhoods and the absence of any form of salvation.
Violence as a mode of existence
jimmie
Jimmie is characterized by quick-temper, violence, and vanity, a boy who is quite used to violence as a means to justify himself
He never feels safe, and violence is a necessity to him. He believes the world to be hostile to him
He is cynical
Violence as a mode of existence
Sexual violence
Jimmie, like Pete, is interested in sex and sensual pleasure. He has no marital perspective
Jimmie and Pete are like brothers characterised by vanity. They believe in violence as means of self-justification, and are highly interested in seducing women for sexual purpose.
Violence inherited : domestic violence
Jimmie
Jimmie’s violence can find its root in his family background.
Mrs. Johnson behaves like a monster rather than a motherly figure when she scolds her children ⇒ Graphic violence. The mother takes pleasure in harming her child. Alcohol is the very catalyst that provokes the mother’s child-abusing violence.
Father and son fight even before they speak.
Violence inherited : domestic violence
House is a battlefield
The mother feels “volcanic wrath” toward the father”. She is like a natural phenomenon impossible to master. “supreme wrath” Ch 3 p. 14.
The household is characterised by constant noise
Violence is performed like a spectacle that people don’t see but hear, not visual but audible : people in the doorway gathering
The noise contaminates the whole building : the other “inhabitants of the tenement had all yawned”
Fights provoke physical injuries
Home is a dangerous place for children :
Both Jimmie and Maggie fear for their life.
⇒ Children are always uncomfortable at home and scared. They see their parents as demons : “fiends” 16.
The setting reinforces the gloomy dimension of the scene, with the mention of the moon, illuminating the scene, like in a horror movie.
Conclusion
Maggie a Girl of the Streets has been criticised for its episodic style and transgressional dimension
Some critics argue that readers have no sympathies with anyone in the story as the novella offers no morality but only a sheer observation of Maggie’s downfall. Maggie is often analysed as a series of tableaux, as different scenes and paintings. 9 episodes make a series of impressionistic vignettes. Crane described the novel as being « a succession of sharply outlined pictures, which pass before the reader like a panorama
Panorama
as an art form was popularised by British painter William Hogarth (1697-1764) in his plate-series like
The Rake’s Progress, 1735, which explores the career of a rascal (fripon) in 8 plates (planches).
The Harlot’s Progress in 1732 is another famous series which delineates the descent of an innocent girl to prostitution and whose fate is somehow similar to Maggie
