《街头女郎玛吉》中的悲剧性冲突_刘秀丹

―
钱妄苗  方
．．：
，
．
 皆


．
二
－
一
．
味 Ａ钱Ｖ  节
、＇
，号  ．
．
．
／，


渴
訟
？
游 单位代码
亩
＇
ｉ
Ｖ 分类号
’
：
：
：
１顧．４  ：
１朋４６ 
 巧＾

 ；
扣 韋
＇
非奇巧古；卢
、
密级无Ｖ 学 号  

．
０３８９
－
２０
心２
－
！１１１
止
：，
．
．
：
与．
ｒ
＇


心
於
＇
一 
兴＇
－如＇
、
— ．
ｃＴｖｉ
＇
ｉ
乂
次
吟，产：
冀禱．

‘ －
＾、
＇
■
；



■
将Ｗ時托乂净 

ｒ


巧
＇
焊
．． ’
；．
＾  －
、．
 ＇
＇
：
＾ 
＇
一
■ ’
  扩


＇－
＾
－
／
＇
＾
．
一－

－
＇＿－
，、：
一 ；
‘
．．

一
ｎ
．
 — －

、占
＇－

■ ．
 命 Ｊ
．
ｔｉｌ ＾
．
＇ ＇
－
；
．
：．
．． ■


款一
＇、－
护义 

椿
－
－
－
＇
 －
、
：
硕 ± 学位论文 岩祭
、
巧一
社
－
ｉＶ 

二
＇
：
：
＂
题目：吝德头女郎延古》中的蘇胤性沖突 

：
Ｔｉｔｌｅ： Ｔｈｅ Ｔｒａｇｉｃ Ｃｏｎｆ
ｌｉｃｔｓ  ｉｎ  Ｍａｓｓｉｅ： Ａ Ｇｉｒｌ ｏｆｔｈｅ Ｓｔｒｅｅｔｓ

 
、
请辩


－
人？
 ，
、
、
兴技；
＂為三
Ｖ
．

一
Ｘ
－？ 

？

、
Ｗｒ
．
？＊？、 ‘
‘ ，．
ｉ
Ｓ
、、
■


？
一
．．
 為祭茫
凉接
＇
声ｓ  ｖ
－

．


—
Ｖ绣敦完
＇
片巧義．
 巧Ｈ




巧
、
｜
７淹巧吿揉占
－＇

．．：．
‘ ＇

＾
、
．
；
／ ， 
：
；，
＞户 卢
．．．

Ｉ
＇＾ ■

—
＇
■
‘ ：
－
．＇
Ｖ
．
．
：
卢、．
 Ｖ  ， 

：
／．
早

啤人
＇
非
Ｘ
哮
请
姓
名
ｒ．
为１养丹


韶汽
Ｊ父這巧
＇
师控
—
＇
公
－＾
指
教
ｒ
：
；
，；
．
李公昭
教


－
式丘 
＇
’
＾
－＇一
’
－一
’二
－
气苦安 ｒ
：


＇
师、
＂＾

：
．．：
．１＾．合作导
，：：另
，

夺兮


５
－
 －
－

．
－

．
？＇、、 

－
、Ｃ
、
 ＾
＿
己二
业适适宣义又
＂
专；
ｋ
；名称
 靈堂 —
皆
苗 

占
％
蟲Ｖ
—
？
处 
＇
－
＇－
＾
：
、
ｗ
＾．
、
、： 
；  
研
占

 Ｖ
乂 壤睾立学

心
？ 

、
．苗ｆ 
．究
方向
：
．
节
争
：＇
 

心
或
此
片．
＇
‘
％ 

＇
＇ ‘
？．
卢

＇
所 —
在
学
院
：
外语学院国

乂公－
．
奇
毒
－


Ｊ


■
知
；＇
＇
：：
：
＼：
％三／；
＾
兴Ｈ 论文提交  年 
＇
－－
心＾
－


产
２１２
自期０１５月
撫致
、．：
禹每  讀
：
－
毒
－
，
、； 

．
与 ＞ 
－
，
■ －
；

心
■
．，
．
‘
￣．
：＾＇、＼  

三
安
．．、

，
＇
心
．
．．
、
‘
，
ｒ，
：


泻

ｖ
 爲帮

 心
－
貧巧
＇
＇
：
＇
公
？
．
巧：
＾

一
 Ｔ
沪

吗
－
、．
裸
．
扩
‘
心
、文
－
？
备 
午
：＇？
术



’
、
． ‘
．
一？－  －
、？
右．
１
？
，
．
．
；
’ ＇ ．
． 
．
＇＾、／
－


— ’  真
巧ａ
． ‘ ／
，一、
… ：
？
．－
户
＇
、
．
，、 ’
＇
？沪
，，
；
Ｓ
ａ 

．


占
吉
产心
‘
．．
．
．．
．：
■
一
．？．．
＇
■ ，
軒．
Ａ
．－
；／；．ｖ
…
續
 ，
鶴令打Ｎ苗為
？
：
公
心。
＞１．．
、 

？
The Tragic Conflicts in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
《街头女郎玛吉》中的悲剧性冲突
Under the Supervision of Professor Li Gongzhao
Submitted to School of Foreign Languages, Hangzhou Normal University
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Master of Arts
Hangzhou, China
December, 2015
The Tragic Conflicts in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
ABSTRACT
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, published in 1893, is set in slums and concerned
with a girl of the streets. Most of the studies on the book focus on the theme,
characterization, feminism, symbolism and the like. Attempting to find a new angle,
this thesis tries to probe into Maggie’s tragedy in the view of the conflicts and their
influence between the individual and the environment.
First, this paper discusses the background of the late 19th century America,
illustrating the changes in American economic, political and ideological fields at that
time. Then it discusses the conflicts between social classes and Maggie’s struggle
with the conflicts. Thirdly, the paper elaborates on the ideological conflicts caused by
the new ideas in replacement of the old and Maggie’s strive for the survival in the
crevice. Finally, this paper attempts to clarify women’s weakness that resulted in
Maggie’s tragedy in such a gender inequality environment of the patriarchal society.
Based on the above analysis, the last part makes a conclusion: the essence of
Maggie’s tragedy is embodied in her despair in pursuit of higher social status, her
contradiction between the new and the earlier puritan values, and her weak
personality in those various social conflicts. Maggie’s tragedy reflects the status quo
of the underclass people of the whole Gilded Age America, and hence the tragedy of
the time.
Key words: Maggie; Conflict; The Gilded Age; Tragedy
i
《街头女郎玛吉》中的悲剧性冲突
摘要
《街头女郎玛吉》是十九世纪后期美国著名小说家斯蒂芬・克莱恩的代表作。
这是一部首次以贫民窟为背景，以街头女郎玛吉为主人公的短篇小说。小说以通
俗的俚语真实地向人们展示了镀金时代下整个美国所滋生的种种矛盾冲突，以及
美好善良的贫民窟女性代表在种种社会矛盾冲突挤压下的悲惨结局。女主人公玛
吉的悲剧也正是当时美国的时代悲剧，反映了美国的现实。
本论文以十九世纪末美国处于镀金时代的大背景为基础详细论述了这一时
代大背景下女主人公玛吉在当时各种社会矛盾冲突中自我理想的破灭。首先，从
经济方面入手论述了当时贫富悬殊情况下引起的社会地位方面的冲突以及这种
冲突对玛吉产生的影响。再次，从思想方面论述了当时新旧思想交替的冲突以及
玛吉在这种夹缝中求生存的矛盾。最后，从女性主义角度分析了当时男权社会下
女性的软弱、不自立以及女性的“他者”身份，进一步揭露了在这种性别不平等
的环境中所造成的女性悲剧。玛吉的悲剧同时也是在种种社会矛盾冲突的挤压下
从希望到迷茫再到绝望的过程。
作为贫民窟下层的女性代表，玛吉悲剧的实质体现于玛吉悲剧的形成过程中。
在各种社会矛盾的影响和挤压下，玛吉从一开始的希望到后来的迷茫再到最终的
绝望。因此，玛吉的悲剧是体现了当时整个镀金时代美国下层人民的悲剧，体现
了时代的悲剧，也是作者克莱恩自然主义下直观现实的具体体现。
关键词：玛吉；冲突；镀金时代；悲剧
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGLISH ABSTRACT.........................................................................................i
CHINESE ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………...iii
INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………1
CHAPTER ONE
THE CONFLICTS IN SOCIAL CLASSES……………………….....6

1. The Conflicts between the Poor and the Industrial Capitalists………..........6
2. Maggie as A Poor Girl………………………………….………………...7
2.1 Maggie’s Dream…………………………………………………….......8
2.2 Disillusion of Maggie’s Dream………………………………………..11
CHAPTER TWO
THE CONFLITS IN SOCIAL THOUGHTS………………………17

1. New Ideas and American Puritan Values………………………………….17
2. Maggie’s Contradiction between Two Values……………………………..18
2.1 Maggie’s Degeneration………………………………………………..19
2.2 People’s Attitudes toward Maggie…………………………………….21
CHAPTER THREE
THE CONFLICTS IN SOCIAL ROLES……………………………24

1. Man and Woman…………………………………………………………….24
2. Maggie as a Woman………………………………………………………..28
2.1 Maggie’s Personality…………………………………………………..28
2.2 Maggie as the Other………………………………………………….. 30
CONCLUSION………………………………………………………..................35
WORKS CITED…………………………………………………………………37
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………...............................40
iv
INTRODUCTION
1. Stephen Crane and his Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

Crane’s debut novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (shortened as Maggie
hereinafter) is written for the first time in the context of urban slums, describing a
story about a poor girl named Maggie forced into prostitution, and reflecting the dark
side of American society. The novel was written in the late 19th century, when
America was witnessing the frontier expansion and unprecedented development of
industrialization and urbanization after the Civil War. However, the superficially
prosperous society cannot cover many increasingly serious social problems:
polarization between the rich and the poor, intense industrial and labor relations, the
trade between power and money leading to political corruption, and the unlimited
expansion of individual’s greed for money, demoralizing the whole society. Crane
began his writing against this historical background.
Maggie, a novella about a beautiful young girl named Maggie, was set in the late
19th century—when Americans were witnessing the changes of their country into a
so-called “Modern America”1. Crane lives together with the poor people in Bowery in
order to write Maggie. Crane is a reporter attracted by the pariahs, and he is also
fascinated to help prostitutes escape the corrupt New York policemen. At that time,
the image of Maggie is in his mind and inspires him to write down her story. Maggie
is his maiden work published in 1893. The plot of the novel is simple. The heroine is
a girl living in a New York slum, a working girl in a tailor shop and also like a flower
living in a suffocating, impoverished, gloomy and filthy home. Maggie’s parents are
tipplers, and always fighting with each other when they are drunk. Maggie’s brother
Jimmy is a small champion in fighting among neighbors. However, he always gets
bumped heads or bruised shins. Maggie lives in such a house like a prison and her
working conditions are not much better than at home. Life is like a barbed chain
1 The features of this period: increasing industrialization, deepening urbanization and high development of
technology and science.
1
constantly tormenting this kind-hearted girl. When Maggie comes of age, she
naturally pursues her own ideal life in her mind. One day, Peter comes to her home
and gives her hope. Peter’s generous appearance and unconventional mien fascinate
this naive girl. Maggie deems that Peter is an honorable man and a perfect companion.
Consequently, she soon moves over and begins to live together with Peter. Maggie
never dreams of Peter as a fighting ace the same as her brother, a proud walk man, a
whoremaster hanging out all day in brothels, and a guy who squanders money like
dust just for a moment of joy. Several times of dallying with Maggie, Peter abandons
her. Maggie wants to go home, but it is impossible. Her mother could not comprehend
why she runs away from home, blindly accusing her of being a disgrace to the family.
Without any money to live, Maggie is forced into prostitution. But Maggie refuses to
take insults and humiliation and ends her life as a result.
2. Literature Review of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

There are a few essays that discuss the novella either at home or abroad in
Crane’s Maggie. As the first American naturalistic novel, most of the researchers
analyze it from naturalism. Some scholars also analyze Maggie’s tragic fate with the
theory of sociology and feminism.
In view of the fact that Crane’s Maggie frequently serves as an emblematical
example of American naturalistic literature, Donald Pizer wrote “Stephen Crane’s
Maggie and American Naturalism” in 1965, discussing Crane’s characterization of
Maggie, and proposed that the slum does have effects on Maggie (186-193).
Some critics also analyzed Maggie’s fate by using the theory of sociology and
feminism in order to explore the relations between the current social ideology and the
female characters’ destiny (Fudge, 43-50). And the relations between the current
social ideology and the female characters’ destiny also reflected the continuous
consultation between female bodies and machines (Seltzer, 96).
Domestically, the studies of American naturalistic literature begin relatively late
compared to those in other countries, in particular the studies of Crane’s works. Not
until the late 1980s have Chinese scholars started their researches in this field.
2
Generally speaking, Chinese scholars pay much attention to Stephen Crane and
his essays on naturalism. Plenty of scholars also analyze the novel from the point of
environmental determinism. Some influential ones are illustrated as following:
Zou Zhiyong elaborates the naturalistic characteristics in Maggie: A Girl of the
Streets, claiming that “Maggie grew up in a typical ‘naturalistic’ family
background…and around her were people as merciless as animals” (37).
Yang Zhenyan attempts to analyze Maggie’s fate in his essay “The Naturalism in
Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets”. He claims that it is the expansion of
individual’s desire for money that makes their loss of personal ethics. Maggie is the
product of such a social environment (61-62).
Some scholars analyze Maggie--the protagonist from feminist perspectives. Xiao
Xixi in “‘The other’ in the Slums—Analysis of Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the
Streets”, analyzes Maggie’s life as being doomed in such a society (4).
He Yizhou and Tang Jingwen sort out several kinds of humanism from Stephen
Crane’s novels, and analyze the factor attributing to his plural humanism in “Stephen
Crane’s Humanism and its Manifestation” (37-38).
My argument is that the essence of Maggie’s tragedy results from her despair in
her pursuit of social status, her contradiction between the new and earlier puritan
values, and her own weak personality. In this sense, we can say that Crane
realistically portrays the relationship between Maggie’s fate and her surroundings as
she is too weak and fragile when facing the powerful destructive social forces. Thus,
Maggie’s tragedy can also be considered as a social tragedy.
This social tragedy will be analyzed and made clear through the following three
significant conflicts: the conflict among social classes as reflected in Maggie’s
hopeless struggle for survival and for personal dignity. The conflict in social thoughts
as reflected in her struggle against the hypocritical puritan values, and finally the
conflict in social roles as reflected in her weak characters and her female identity as
the Other. The above analyses would hopefully bring about the conclusion that it is
these conflicts that have broken down Maggie and finally cast her into thorough
desperation.
3
My thesis will mainly analyze the development of the character’s fate from
aspects of social conflicts, aiming to reveal the relations between the big collective
society and individuals, indicating that the fate of the individual is inextricably linked
with the social environment. Understanding the social context will help us
comprehend Maggie’s personal tragedy more easily. It will highlight Maggie’s
hopelessness by analyzing various conflicts Maggie experienced.
This thesis consists of three parts. Part one is devoted to the discussion of the
conflicts in social class in the Gilded Age, and its influence on Maggie. Part two is an
illustration of the conflicts in social thoughts and its influence on Maggie’s life. Part
three is an analysis of the conflicts in social roles caused by the patriarchal rules and
its influence on Maggie. The miserable consequence of the three conflicts is Maggie’s
total desperation towards her life and her future, which is the cause of her destruction.
3. The Purpose and Originality of This Thesis

The main purpose of this paper is to study the young girl’s own contradictions
under the influence of several aspects of conflicts in Gilded America and also to
analyze the final tragic suicide ending caused by these conflicts. Based on the
economic and political background at that time, the social conflicts are not only
related to people’s class status and their gender roles, but also to the moral
environment they live in. Through the analysis of various conflicts reflected by
characters in the novel, as well as how these conflicts affect Maggie’s fate, we hope to
find a new way to understand Crane’s thoughts in this slum novel. The thesis
emphasizes the fact—that the fate of a person is inextricably linked with that time,
and at the same time the paper urges people to pay more attention to the lower classes,
especially the vulnerable groups.
This paper takes Maggie as the subject of study and the originality of this study
lies in combining the social conflicts with the analysis of the contradictory nature of
Maggie herself. Stephen Crane analyzes naturalistically the status quo of the people at
the bottom of society, as well as the heroine’s changes of feelings under the
4
circumstances. It is necessary to understand the existing state of the disadvantaged
women through this novel.
5
CHAPTER ONE
THE CONFLICTS IN SOCIAL CLASSES
During the 19th century, realism became a dominant literary trend in European
literature According to realists, it is novelists’ duty to faithfully report in their works
what they have seen and heard and their works should function like cameras or
mirrors to reflect most accurately the reality around them2. Greatly influenced by the
realistic trend, Stephen Crane is always trying to present truthful descriptions of what
he has seen in his life and what he has perceived from nature and society in all his
works. He lived in a transitional historical period, during which there were various
kinds of social conflicts, Crane portrays such a complex social reality, naturally and
inevitably. This chapter is intended to provide a brief account of the conflicts in social
classes caused by the historical transition from the capitalist social system to the
monopoly capitalist social system at first, and then a detailed discussion on their
reflections in Maggie’s life.
1. The Conflicts between the Poor and the Industrial Capitalists

As a result of economic development and market competition, American
capitalism makes the transition from free competition to monopoly. The monopoly
has led to many social problems, in which workers, farmers and consumers are
severely affected. Moreover, monopoly intensifies the social conflicts (Zhang, 2014).
Here, we will involve the social situation in the late 19th century. With the rapid
development of America’s economy, poverty is widespread and impossible to be
ignored in the Gilded Age. By the early 20th century, America experienced a profound
social change. The immigration lasted for half a century and utterly changed
American cities. A large number of slums emerged at that time. Manhattan had a
population close to 500,000 in 1850; however, the population grows by 200,000 in
2 Such as William Howells, Henry James, Mark Twin.
6
1870. Therefore, as is demonstrated through surveys and statistics, New York has
three and a half million people by the end of the century (Jackson, 920-923). About
two-thirds of them live in tents, with 20 to 30 thousand young people living on the
streets (Lens, 191). Americans begin to realize that the poverty problem becomes
more serious in a new form with the rapid accumulation of slums. New York is split
into two parts, the rich area and the poor area. Part of middle-class thinks that people
in underclass may seriously threaten their elegant and noble life. The middle class
begin to condemn the slum dwellers, claiming that they are social cancer, declaring
that them as a dangerous class and the source of social unrest, and affirming that
slums are the hotbed of social conflicts (Bremner, 1992). People are reluctant to talk
about the poverty problems and poverty is placed in a sensitive position in the
developed America. It seems that people who defend the poor would be condemned
by the public. However, poverty becomes real, visible and tangible at that time.
The poor people hope that they can live a middle-class opulent life through their
hard-working, while the people of middle class consider that the poor at the bottom
will disrupt their quiet life, confirming that they are the reason for social unrest. The
lower class mainly consists of farmers, handicrafts-men and factory workers, and their
limited material conditions determined their living standard, while their living
standard will decide what kind of people they will become and what kind of thoughts
they would have. Crane’s works make a further explanation of the coexistence of
prosperity and deterioration, and of wealth and poverty in the age.
2. Maggie as a Poor Girl

In the late 19th century America, the lifestyle of the middle class has a
tremendous impact on the Americans. Maggie, being a true daughter of the Bowery
Slums in the late 19th century naturally dreams to be rich. In the novel, Maggie envies
these elegant girls of the middle class, and she always carefully watches the
well-dressed women in the street. She also longs for the jewelry those women wear in
the street. Born in a slum, Maggie does not receive much education, and her family is
full of violence and oppression. There are many fighting scenes described in Maggie,
7
in which the three children always hide themselves under the table or in the corner.
But even in such a bad environment, Maggie still has her own ideas and dreams.
Maggie imagines that she can leave the boring work place and even gets away from
her poor family. She is eager to lead a upper-class life and desires to gain attention
from the upper-class gentleman. However, in the late 19th century, when America
experienced social transformation and entered a period of rapid industrialization, the
wealth of society increases rapidly and gives rise to consortiums in society. As it
seems like a full-powered motor at the time, America appears a variety of typical
conflicts along with the development of inflated capitalism. Child labor, the
polarization between the rich and the poor, unemployment and other social problems
grow with each passing day (Dowling, 2007). Because of the false prosperity in the
United States and the resulting social instability, it inevitably makes people’s dreams
like castle in the air. Maggie’s dream is bound to become a bubble in the end.
2.1 Maggie’s Dream

Living in the 19th century America, Maggie’s dream has a close relationship with
American Dream in the society. American Dream is consistent with Maggie’s
individual dream in the pursuit of material satisfaction. As a result, we have to be
familiar with the source of American Dream first.
The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, the set of ideal
(Democracy, Rights, liberty, Opportunity, and Equality) in which freedom includes
the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility for the
family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers. In the
definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, he states that
the American Dream is a dream of land, each person has a better, richer and more
fulfilling life, and those who have the ability or achievement are always full of
opportunities (11). American dream stems from the development of the history of the
United States. From the boarding of May Flower to the new continent, American
dream took root in people’s mind, gave a person power and encouraged them to make
their own achievements. At that time, the American Dream is the power of
8
encouraging people to overcome the difficulties and obstacles, and as a catalyst for
encouraging people to realize their dreams. However, after Civil War, the American
dream was more of an illusion than reality, especially for the poor from lower class.
The most important part of the American dream is that it gives them hope and courage
to overcome sufferings, which turns out to be something illusory and fraudulent. The
belief degraded from a pursuit of personal thoughts to a pursuit of material wealth.
The advanced development of industrialization leads to the generation of monopoly
capitalism in the Gilded Age. Most of the wealth is in the hands of a few capitalists,
and the underclass people become poorer and poorer. Social problems are becoming
more and more fierce. The American dream which promised people wealth and status
has become a nightmare, especially after the 1890s. It was a time that America
monopolistic capitalism developed to a higher degree higher stage with economic
crisis breaking out often and many people driven out of work; a time when social
wealth was possessed exclusively in the hands of monopolistic capitalist with
common people in severe poverty and a time when the vast west became less and less,
and people had to turn their eyes to the cities with an illusory hope of being wealthy.
Whereas, cities were not places full of gold and silver, but filled with crime, violence,
vanities, slums, and desires. For the majorities, there were almost no possibilities to
realize their dreams because the value workers created with their hard-working was
mostly exploited by the capitalists, leaving a little to keep them alive. In addition,
people focus on material success rather than spiritual perfection. And they desired for
the life of upper class and a luxurious life (Qin, 2004).
The discussion on Maggie’s dream will develop on the following two aspects.
Firstly, from the aspect of material, Maggie aspires for materialistic satisfaction,
as Crane describes, “She began to note, with more interest, the well-dressed women
she met on the avenues. She envied elegance and soft palms. She craves those
adornments of person which she saw every day on the street, conceiving them to be
allies of vast importance to women” (30). In the second chapter of Maggie, Crane
shows clearly what material or food sustenance means to Maggie from her memory of
her early childhood life. Maggie, as well as her family members, has the so-called
9
dinners which contain nothing except potatoes, which, however, still means much to
the children, who are so hungry that they would eat anything available. Maggie’s little
brother, Tommie, would gorge his stomach with feverish rapidity, the
grease-enveloped pieces (10). Maggie has her dish just like a “pursued tigress” with
the fear of interruption and deprival from others. From the scene above, it is obvious
that Maggie has been suffering from starvation in her early age, and she has the
strongest desire to change the living environment (21).
Secondly, from the aspect of spiritual need, since childhood, Maggie longs for
the feeling of safety, respect and care. To have a better understanding of Maggie’s
spiritual status, it is necessary to have a close observation on Maggie’s growing
environment. Crane puts Maggie in a slum named Bowery with parents engaging in
frequent and furious fights. Crane describes the scene when the Mr. Johnsons who
come back home through “the gruesome doorways,” “crawled up dark stairways”, and
“along cold, gloomy halls”. Mr. Johnson, “with a newly-ladened pipe in his mouth,
crouched on a backless chair near the stove” (13). In response to their miserable life,
Mr. and Mrs. Johnson all turn to alcohol which could provide them with temporary
relief and escape from the reality just as Mr. Johnson says “why do I come an’drin
whisk here this way? Cause hone reg’lar livin’hell” (45). As usual alcoholism and
abuse always occur at the same time, together with quarrels. They could not likely to
create a peaceful family environment. As victims of the parental abuse and family
quarrels, Maggie is so afraid of her mother that she dares not to see her. She even
considers their mother as “sated villain”. Growing up in such a family environment,
Maggie develops a character of insecurity and inferiority. She strongly desires for
spiritual fulfillment and she is in severe need of sense of security and care. Maggie
also receives no respect from her family members. When Maggie blames Jimmy for
his fights with the slum guys. “Ah, what deh hell!” crys Jimmy, “shut up er I’ll smack
yer mout, see”, as Maggie continues her lamentations, Jimmy suddenly swears and
sticks her. “the little girl reeled and, recovering herself, burst into tears and
quaveringly cursed him. As she slowly retreated her brother advanced dealing her
cuffs” (12). Without any respect, Maggie always receives beatings and curses of her
10
family members. Having no sense of safety and lacking in respect and care in daily
life, Maggie is driven to another extreme and seeks comfort in her imaginary mind.
“her dim thoughts were often searching for faraway lands where, as God says, the
little hills sing together in the morning. Under the trees of her dream-gardens there
had always walked a lover” (35). She seldom speaks any words but often tends to fall
into her own perfect world.
Regarding the spiritual fulfillment, what Maggie desires is love, which she
severely lacks in from her childhood. She dreams that there always walks a lover
under the trees of her dream-gardens who could cherish her whole-heartedly (35). She
hopes somebody could love her, protect her, and provide her with warmth. Besides, as
a slum girl, Maggie always feels inferior to the people of higher classes. Poverty
intensifies Maggie’s sense of lowliness, humbleness and shamefulness, which even
leads to Maggie’s self-doubt. Maggie hopes an identity and recognition of higher
social status, which she thinks could only be given by Peter. When Jimmy and Peter
boast of their so-called heroic deeds, Maggie perceives that “here was the beau ideal
of man” (35) and she anticipates that “he would come again shortly” (39).
2.2 Disillusion of Maggie’s Dream

Contrary to Maggie’s dream, the cruel reality drives Maggie’s fate to another
side. Maggie’s material and spiritual aspiration pulls Maggie out of her home and
induces her to a world, which actually is filled with darkness and hypocrisy. When
Maggie’s imaginary world collapses, Maggie undoubtedly is crushed to death. In this
section, Maggie’s disillusionment with her dream would be discussed in detail,
illustrating Maggie’s tragedy step by step.
2.2.1Disillusionment of Maggie’s Dream in Material

According to the above analysis of Maggie’s dream in material, Maggie thinks
that Peter is the person, who could realize all her imagination in the material. In
addition, there is also a close relationship between Maggie’s dream with the social
11
conditions of that time. Therefore, we will analyze the disillusionment of her dream in
material from the following two facts.
On the one hand, Peter, who is considered to be the “beau idea of man” in
Maggie’s imaginary mind, proves to be a labor to serve the others. Peter, the seemly
wealthy character, is dreadful that he would be unemployed after Maggie’s brother’s
fights in the bar where he works (75). It is not easy for Peter to possess a decent job,
and he is afraid of losing his job. When Maggie’s family throw her out of house, she
turns to Peter, “Oh, Peter,” she says brightly, “oh, my Gawd,” cries he, “what deh hell
do yeh wanna hang aroun’ here fer? Do yeh wanna git me inteh trouble?” Peter
glances with profound irritation. His countenance reddens with the anger of a man
whose respectability is being threatened (100). Peter, the bartender, even is considered
by Maggie a rich man from the upper class, which apparently proves Maggie lives in
severe poverty. During Maggie’s cohabitation with Peter, Nothing changes about the
living condition of Maggie. She still lives in that broken house with dust-stained walls,
and the scant and crude furniture, which Maggie feels so shameful about. All the
beautiful and luxurious clothes are beyond Maggie’s reach. All she has is admiration
or even jealous of graceful ladies in the street. Maggie could never attend those
hilarious events, even could not find a place to live in and food to eat. She is on the
edge of starvation and homelessness.
On the other hand, in the late 19th century, the majorities of people are subjected
to impoverishment (Xiao, 2000). It can be seen in the novel when Peter goes to the
theater with Maggie, “the vast crowd had an air throughout of having just quitted
labor. Men with calloused hands and attired in garments that showed the wear of an
endless trudge for a living” (43). The audience spends five, ten, or perhaps fifteen
cents for beer. There is mere sprinkling of kid-gloved men who smokes cigars
purchased elsewhere. We can see that the majority of the crowd is composed of
people who show that all day they strove with their hand. There is no hope for some
ordinary individuals to gain material success through hard work. And for girls, the
only two options for them are being a prostitute or a labor. When Jimmy asks Maggie
“Mag, I’ll tell yeh dis! See? Yeh’ve edder got the go the hell or go the work” (31).
12
Maggie attempts to work in a clothes industry, while her mean wage could only
support her daily life. Crane describes the boss of the factory , “usually he submitted
with silent dignity to all which he had to go through, but, at times, he was goaded into
comment. ‘what deh hell,’ he demanded once. ‘look at all dese little jugs! Hundred
jugs in a row! Ten rows in a case an’bout a thousand cases! What deh blazes use is
dem’” (50). Maggie has to work in the “hot, stuff” room (49) for only five dollars.
The employer of the factory seems like a capitalist, who squeezes his employers to the
maximum.
Above all, in Maggie’s dream of material comfort, we could clearly see that, for
one thing, Peter is not the suitable partner, who can satisfy Maggie’s material
demands. When Peter’s promised wealthy world collapses, so does Maggie’s
luxurious dream. For another, it is difficult for people to receive material satisfaction
through hard work in the late 19th century. The factory manager exploits his workers
with long hours and low pay. All the above facts contribute to Maggie’s illusionary
day dreaming in material.
2.2.2 Disillusionment of Maggie’s Dream in Spirit

From the above analysis of Maggie’s dream in spirit, we can see that Maggie
longs for a sense of security, respect, care and love in the harsh environment.
However, Maggie pins all her hope on Peter, thinking that those spirit satisfactions
could only be given by him. So when Jimmy abandons Maggie in the end, her dreams
in spirit cannot be realized any more. Here, we will analyze the disillusionment of
Maggie’s dream in spirit from the process of Peter’s abandonment of her.
In the first place, Maggie has a strong desire for spiritual fulfillment. Growing up
in a harsh environment, Maggie seriously needs love, care, protection and sense of
security. Besides, like her parents, Maggie also learns to escape reality in her own
way. Unlike her parents who resort to alcoholism, Maggie, bury herself in fantasy and
imagination. Those imaginations enable her to be temporarily peaceful. Maggie is
always dreaming and hoping there would be a gentleman who will pull her out of all
spiritual sufferings, compensate all the love and care she has missed through her
13
childhood to adulthood, truly cares about her feelings and fills in all her blankness of
her heart. She is waiting for somebody with capability, power, and love for her.
In the second place, Peter successfully attracts Maggie. From the preceding
description, Maggie strongly desires spiritual fulfillment. Under such a spiritual status,
it is reasonable that the brave Peter catches Maggie’s attention at first sight. Peter
shows Maggie courage, bravery, dignity, and his arrogance towards society. In
Maggie’s eyes,
There was valor and contempt for circumstances in the glance of his eye. He waved his
hands like a man of the world, who dismisses religion and philosophy, and says “Fudge.”
He had certainly seen everything and with each curl of his lip, he declared that it
amounted to nothing. Maggie thought he must be a very elegant and graceful bartender
(33).
Peter is a powerful man who distains the strength of a world with his fists, and a
man whose knuckles could defiantly ring against the social cruelty rules. This
arrogant and powerful characteristic that Peter possesses is what Maggie badly needs
and admires because fear and terror always haunts Maggie. Maggie is totally captured
by Peter when Peter shows his interests and concern towards her. Peter begins his
seduction with praise for Maggie’s appearance. For a simple girl, those words are so
effective and influential. Later Peter boasts of his male power by telling his stories of
fighting with whoever infuriates him. This kind of superiority and courage means a lot
to Maggie who has been inferior and timid for all her life. Most importantly, Peter
continues to express his care and love to Maggie. He invites Maggie to many places
including zoo, park, museum or even theatre in which Peter flaunts his higher social
status belonging to Maggie through his words and expressions. And all those
behaviors makes Maggie believe that “he was extremely gracious and attentive. He
displayed the consideration of a cultured gentleman who knew what was due (44).
Peter wins Maggie’s heart step by step.
14
In the third place, Maggie lives together with Peter. Maggie’s spiritual
dependence upon Peter reaches a climax when she is faced with the mess caused by
the fights of her brother and mother, especially when the drunken Mrs. Johnson
humiliates and curses Maggie as, “Yeh’ve gone teh deh devil, Mag Johnson, yehs
knows yehs have gone teh deh devil. Yer a disgrace teh yer people, damn yeh...” “Go
teh hell now, an’ see how yeh likes it. Git out.I won’t have sech as yehs in me house!
Get out, d’yeh hear! Damn yeh, git out” (37). The drunken Mary utters the most
malicious and intolerable words to eject Maggie from home. What’s more, Maggie’s
brother, Jimmie, who is buried in his bruised fore-arms, shows no concern about
Maggie’s matter when Maggie turns her eyes to him for help. Peter, at this critical
moment, displays a totally different attitude towards Maggie. He says gently with
understanding and sympathy, “Deh oFwoman ‘ill be all right in deh momin’. Come
out wid me! We’ll have a hell of a time” (57). Undoubtedly, Maggie chooses to go
with Peter to escape the mess momentarily. “She went” (58). Just in the night, Maggie
breaks with her usual life space and her family members, and Peter, eventually,
seduces Maggie successfully.
Finally, Peter eventually abandons Maggie. Maggie puts all her dreams of being
respected, cared, and loved on the fragile and illusory relationship between her and
Peter. She hands her own future and destiny to Peter. She asks Peter whether he loves
her or not, however, she never realizes that the affirmative reply from Peter is a
perfunctory answer. During those three weeks, Maggie gradually loses her
independence and self. “Maggie was pale. From her eyes had been plucked all look of
self-reliance. She leaned with a dependent air toward her companion. She was timid,
as if fearing his anger or displeasure. She seemed to beseech tenderness of him” (75).
Not until the moment that Peter abandons Maggie and leaves away with his former
lover Nell is Maggie suddenly pulled back to the reality that there is no any real
emotions between her and Peter. Her last hope vanishes when Peter shouts “Oh, go
the hell” to Maggie.
To sum up, Peter abandons Maggie step by step, while Maggie’s dream in spirit
gradually becomes fantasy. What makes situation worse is that Maggie’s family
15
members and neighbors shows no sympathy, acceptance and understanding towards
Maggie when Maggie returns home for protection. At this moment, the spiritual world
of Maggie collapses. Maggie’s dream of higher social status, more happiness and
more recognition disillusion, which has been an accelerated force towards Maggie’s
destruction. Without hope and dreams, Maggie is like a walking ghost who wanders
nowhere.
16
CHAPTER TWO
THE CONFLICTS IN SOCIAL THOUGHTS
Along with changes in social economy and politics in the transitional period goes
a dramatic development in ideology. The new idea of consumerism becomes popular
and develops quickly with the development of technology. So after discussing the
conflicts in social class in the previous chapter, we will turn to the conflicts in social
thoughts in the Gilded Age America, and then we will make a study of its influence
on Maggie.
1. New Ideas and American Puritan Traditions

The most proper words here to describe American’s social thoughts in the late
19th century would be two lines from a British poet of the same age, Matthew Arnold,
in his “stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse”: “wandering between two worlds, one
dead the other powerless to be born” (67). In Maggie, it is possible to read the decline
of the nineteenth-century philosophy of puritanism and the rise of a modern
psychology of “self-esteem”. Crane’s novel represents some of the first volleys fired
in what Warren Susman calls “one of the fundamental conflicts of twentieth-century
America”: a “profound clash between different moral orders,” “between
two-cultures-an older culture, often loosely labeled Puritan traditions, and a newly
emerging culture of abundance” or consumption (Keith, 781). An old society, together
with its all beliefs, principles, values and moralities, are declining and diminishing,
however, the new society of new codes is nowhere to be found. And people’s spiritual
world is undergoing violent conflicts and crisis in such an age.
American Puritanism traces back to the earlier settlement of the North American
mainland. Most passengers in the “May Flower” were puritans who brought to the
new land a philosophy of life and a point of view. Since then, Puritanism took root in
the New World and became the most enduring shaping influences in American
thought and American literature (Jan, 508-526). Puritanism constituted a major part of
17
the tradition and convention of America and certainly put a great influence on the
thought of American in all ages. As the years passed, Puritanism has been given
different marks in different social context and background, especially after the Civil
War when the economy and science began to boom.
The influence of moral tradition of Puritanism should not be ignored to
understand the tragedy of Maggie. Maggie herself, together with her relatives and all
the neighbors, is linked in the so-called traditional moral dignity and grace, which, to
some degree, recesses in the latter half of the century. Though Maggie never thinks
she is a bad woman committing such a shameful sin, her sexual relationship before
marriage with Peter is considered as the most unaccepted sin from the traditional
morality. Committing such a sin, Maggie could never be forgiven by the society, even
by her closest family members.
As the long-believed faith seems to be replaced by the new ideas, people get into
piles of doubts. On the one hand, people become skeptical of some of the traditional
beliefs. The simple, self-disciplined and the pragmatic spirit in puritanism exhibit
very little on Maggie. On the other hand, they are reluctant and uncertain when
accepting the consumerism culture. Maggie is easy to accept the new ideas in the
confrontation of this change; she dares to follow her heart and pursue money, love
and dignity, while her ambitions are killed by her parents’ traditional chastity value.
2. Maggie’s Contradiction between Two Values

Maggie is caught between the old and new era, and like most people in the
Gilded Age America, Maggie accepts the idea of consumerism easily while at the
same time holding on some traditional puritanism thoughts. Because it always goes
through a long period of time before a new idea becomes orthodoxy, Maggie lives in a
period that consumerism and traditional puritanism exist in people’s mind at the same
time. The conflict in thoughts is actually a fighting between the new and the old
thoughts, and the fighting reflected in Maggie is her premarital sex behavior and the
traditional puritan values against her premarital sex. Maggie stands between the split
of two thoughts and falls into the clash. The tradition of earlier puritan values
18
represented by Maggie’s mother and her neighbors fails to pass on to Maggie but
strongly demands Maggie’s obedience. When Maggie stands between, both sides
abandon her and denounce her. No one gives out a hand when Maggie is falling.
On the one hand, Maggie’s tragedy has a great relationship with her acceptance
of the idea of consumerism, and the idea of consumerism acquires material things and
yearning for dignity. On the other hand, Maggie is spurned by the traditional puritan
values especially the idea of chastity in people’s minds. “She did not feel like a bad
woman. To her knowledge she had never seen any better” (77). She herself thinks she
has no wrong, but to the people around her, she has no self-respect. To the people, the
most important thing of a girl is her dignity and reputation. So in the novel, Maggie’s
premarital sex behavior disgraces and tarnishes her whole family, and they abandon
Maggie and think that Maggie is not belonging to this so-called decent family, in
which decency can be seen as the most important thing than anything else.
2.1 Maggie’s Degeneration

At the very beginning, Maggie, blossoms in a mud puddle, grows to be a pretty
girl. None of the dirt of Rum Alley seemed to be in her veins. And even the
philosophers up-stairs, down-stairs and on the same floor, puzzled over it (16). The
dirty environment of the Bowery slums leaves no influence on Maggie. Beside a good
appearance, Maggie also gets a job in a factory which makes collars and cuffs.
Though the hard job itself is not so decent with low salary and social position, at least
it prevents Maggie from committing the sin of idleness. Judging from the traditional
puritan values, the pure Maggie now is attractive and beautiful. So there comes a time
when the young men of the vicinity say that Mr. Johnson’s girl is a pretty good looker
(44). However, the girl is not satisfied with her uptight life and not fully aware of the
so-called puritan morality. Moreover, there is no warmth and love in their family, all
things her mother teaches her is nothing but humiliation and abuse. Living in such a
bad family environment, Maggie becomes vulnerable, negative, menial, and lacking
of care and safety. It can be seen in the ninth chapter when Jimmy seizes his alcoholic
mother and sends her to home, Maggie stands in the middle of the room and gazes
19
about her, the usual tidy tables and chairs have taken place, the crockery is broken
into fragments, the stove has been broken and leans idiotically to one side, and a pail
have been upset and water spread in all directions (36). From the above descriptions,
it is obvious that Maggie is living in a place filled with violence and stress. Therefore,
when Peter with his blue-breasted coat, edged with black braid, buttoned close to a
red puff tie appears before Maggie, she thinks he is the ideal man like a knight who
symbolizes superiority and wealth and will help her out of all sufferings. When the
moment comes that Maggie should make a choice between her family and Peter, she
goes away with Peter and steps out of room with disappointment. This step out of her
home is, on the other hand, the decisive step towards her downfall and tragedy. The
traditional moral values of her surrounding, of family and neighbors, will not allow
and forgive her misbehavior. And what wait Maggie are hatred, homeless and
alienation from people around her. As Keith observes, “for the late nineteenth-century
morality of character was sexist, and the ultimate sin in slum literature was a woman’s
loss of purity. Bad habits were supposed to leave a deeper stamp on women and
feminine vice was of greater repugnance ” (762).
From the above referred, it is apparent that woman’s purity is of utmost
importance in the assessment of a woman’s virtue. A good woman should be pure and
should not have premarital sexual experience. Woman should not have sex with
anybody except her husband. Committing such a sin, she would never be a good
woman again and be forgiven. Maggie’s loss of virginity means that she disobeys the
traditional demands on women’s purity, which certainly causes despise, curses and
alienation towards her. In the late nineteenth-century, people hold that the ultimate sin
in slum literature was a woman’s loss of purity. There was for the middle class a
hierarchy of virtues, and a woman’s chastity, even a poor woman’s, was highly
fetishized (Keith, 762). People could sympathize with street boys, romanticize their
pluck and resourcefulness, and admit that they often have “a rather good time of it,”
but people states plainly that “with...girl-vagrants it is different”. According to
Charles loring Brace, slum boys’ characters could be redeemed with a change of
environment and refined influences, but girls, in losing their purity, experienced a
20
“deeper” “fall,” from which they could never recover (Brace 114-17, 55-56). Thus in
the story of the slum girl, the moral stakes were higher, the fall greater, and the
chances of redemption less probable. The transformation of a girl into “a girl of the
streets” provided the most dramatic action.
2.2 People’s attitudes towards Maggie

The society is full of hypocrites among people. One of the moral codes that
people pursues is “decency,” which means to be recognized and accepted by others.
Life is like a play, everyone should do their best to behave rationally so that they are
acceptable by others (Sartre, 58). And this decency view can be seen on the people
around Maggie. Thus, even from Maggie’s closest family members, her mother and
brother, Maggie receives nothing but despises and isolation instead of forgiveness and
care after the seduction, which drives Maggie out of the home and to the street.
Firstly, Maggie’s mother is a typical slum virago and drunkard. As a response to
Maggie’s premarital sex, Maggie is driven by the puritan tradition values. Maggie’s
mother always scolds and curses her, in the novel, when Maggie backs home the last
time, she stands in the middle of the room and as if unable to find a place on the floor
to put her feet. Mrs. Johnson’s loud, tremendous sneering brings the neighbors to their
doors. Mrs. Johnson paces to and fro, addressing the doomful of eyes, expounding
like a glib showman at a museum. Her voice rings through the building, “Dere she
stands! Looke out her! Ain’ she a dindy? Ain’ she was so good as to come home teh
her mudder, she was!...” the cries wheels suddenly and ended in another burst of shrill
laughter (63). However, in order to maintain her own dignity and to accept others’
recognition, she shapes herself as a decent and pitiful mother. Mrs. Johnson always
screams to attract a large group of neighbors to listen her scolds on her daughter’s
dishonorable behaviors. Maggie’s cohabitation with Peter really shames her family. In
order to defend her family’s decency, her mother refuses to get Jimmy’s advice to get
Maggie back home, and evicts Maggie out of the house without mercy.
Secondly, Jimmy, on the one hand, he always publicly damns his sister because
of his own social plane (Westbrook, 591). On the other hand, he argues with himself
21
and comes to a conclusion that “his sister would have been firmly good have she
better known why. However, he feels that he should not hold such a view and throw it
hastily aside” (53). Instinctively, Jimmy understands Maggie and thinks Maggie’s
fault is not so serious that it cannot be forgiven by others. Jimmy believes that Maggie
scandalizes him, and it is totally unacceptable to him of his own sister’s dishonorable
behavior. When Maggie is driven into a corner by her mother’s abuse, she turns to her
brother, “The girl seemed to awaken. ‘Jimmy…’ --He drew hastily back from her.
‘Well, now, yer a hell of t’ing, ain’yeh?’ he said, his lips curling in scorn. Radiant
virtue sat upon his brow and his repelling hands expressed horror of contamination”
(63). Here the hypocritical traditional ethics on Jimmy reflected incisively and vividly,
and at last Maggie leaves home the second time and protects her family’s decency.
Maggie’s brother Jimmy also stands on the side of the traditional puritan morality,
and he believes that all women are likely to be cheated by men except for his sister. It
is hard for him to accept the fact of his sister’s degeneration. He stands on the top of
the morality together with others and uses these moral principles to censure his sister
Maggie.
Besides, except for the traditional puritan ethics showed by Maggie’s family, the
people around her always treat Maggie indifferently, and they all criticize Maggie’s
dishonorable behavior in the names of the noble morality. It can be seen in the
fifteenth chapter when Maggie is about to leave home. The crowd at the door falls
back precipitately. A baby falls down in front of the door, and wrenches a scream like
a wounded animal from its mother. Another woman springs forward and picks it up,
“with a chivalrous air, as if rescuing a human being from an oncoming express train”
(63). Here, Maggie is seen as a devil that would kill a baby and hated by all the people
around her. Maggie’s dishonorable behavior seems to be even scarier than anything
else, as if they will be cursed to death the moment they touch Maggie. This view of
traditional puritan decency view spreads all over the slum, and they all fight against
Maggie, who is looked as an unchaste woman.
Finally, the hypocritical traditional puritan ethics is also embodied in Peter, who
is Maggie’s only lover. Jimmy abandons Maggie when she is in a desperate situation,
22
in which Maggie is abandoned by her relatives. However, Peter seems just greatly
attracted by Maggie’s beauty and thinks her as a vase so as to maintain his dignity.
Maggie’s beautiful appearance greatly feeds Peter’s vanity. This, in turn, is easier for
us to understand Peter’s rejection of Maggie in the situation, and for Peter, Maggie’s
existence becomes a threat. However, Peter does not consider that he has ruined
Maggie. “If he had thought that her soul could never smile again” (65), he believes
the mother and brother, who are pyrotechnic over the affair, to be responsible for it.
Besides, in his world, souls did not insist upon being able to smile. ‘What deh hell’ he
says (65). Even if Peter knows Maggie’s desperate situation has a deep stake in him,
he excuses himself shamelessly. Peter chooses to keep himself at a safe distance from
Maggie in order to win his dignity in front of people.
From all the above analysis, people have the same attitude to Maggie’s
degeneration, which is undoubtedly a result of Maggie’s destruction. If Maggie’s
mother and brother could treat Maggie as a child who just loses her way and goes
astray for a short period and provides her with a warm home when she needs it
desperately, Maggie would not have been expelled to the street. If the neighbors could
consider Maggie as a victim who is seduced by a deceptive man but not a fallen
woman, Maggie might not have been a prostitute. Crane’s description of human’s
selfishness, indifference and hypocrisy is a great irony of the Gilded Age America.
23
CHAPTER THREE
THE CONFLICTS IN SOCIAL ROLES
We have discussed the facts that the social economy may progress from
laissez-faire capitalism to monopoly capitalism and that people in the slum are
influenced by two different ideas. One is the new idea that focuses on consumerism
and based on liberalism and hedonism, another is the traditional puritan values based
on puritanism. And their divergence embodied in the novel is people’s attitudes to
Maggie’s premarital sex. From people’s attitudes we can see that Maggie, the slum
female, is forbidden to have premarital sex. However, their attitudes are completely
different from man, who can be kept out of the affair in their cohabitation relationship
with woman. Therefore, it will be necessary to analyze this distinction between
woman and man. Woman, as a member of society, is suppressed by man for a long
time, and man always holding the dominant position in the late 19th century America.
There is no exception in the New York in spite of the fact that it is developing into a
more developed society. So with the purpose of revealing this conflict between social
roles in Maggie clearly, we will give an account of the unequal social status of male
and female. Then the influence of this conflict on Maggie will be presented in detail.
1. Man and Woman

According to the above analysis of Maggie’s degeneration and people’s
indifferent attitudes towards her, we can see people in the late 19th century America
hold a completely different view on man. Hence, we have a need to know the
differences between man and woman in the late 19th century America. And it is a
forever topic that people have debate and discuss for a long time. As Simone D.
Beauvoir has been put, “Women” is a word containing social connotation.
One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. No biological, psychological, or economic
fate determines the figure that the human female presents in society. It is civilization as a
24
whole that produces this creature, intermediate between male and eunuch, which is
described as feminine (30).
In Beauvoir’s view, at the moment of birth, the only difference between man and
woman lies in the organic construction. Whether one becomes a man or a woman, is
not determined by his or her biological, psychological, or economic status, but by
social acknowledgement. Since it is men who have been playing a dominant role in
human civilization for an widely long time and it is also men who have been running
social mechanism and have chosen the religion of human society to serve their own
interests, men assertively think that they have the right to define what kind of woman
a female must be according to their points of view and their needs (Darwin, 1927).
Woman, being basic components of society, is therefore compelled to accept this
patriarchal principle. As this patriarchal opinion has gradually been implanted into
their minds, women accept it unconsciously and become obedient to this convention.
Consequently, they themselves come to behave and think according to it.
1.1 The Male and Female Roles in the Novel

Maggie, the first important female role, as a representative of women in slums,
has the inherent feminine characteristics. The conflicts in social roles reflected in the
novel are distinguishing features between male and female. On the one hand, Maggie,
as a daughter, is kind and obedient, and helps her mother take care of her family; on
the other hand, Maggie, as an adult woman, she always imagines that a charming
prince could fall in love with her. In addition, man, as an important role, is also
embodied in the novel. Because of man’s dominant position in the human civilization
in the late 19th century, and their attitudes towards women are always changing and
unstable. In man’s point of view, women are born obedient to them. It is the common
characteristic of male and female in the male dominating society.
Mrs. Johnson and Nell are the other two important female characters in the novel.
Mrs. Johnson, Maggie’s mother, is a complete drunkard, and the only source of her
life is her husband, who is also a bad-tampered drunkard. In Maggie, after a fight
25
between Mr. and Mr. Johnson, Mrs. Johnson comes and moans by the stove, and she
rocks to and fro upon a chair, shedding tears and crooning miserably to the two
children about their “poor mother” and “yer fader, damn’is soul” (16). The author
writes the character of Mrs. Johnson’s dependence on man makes her lose
self-reliance, and sends her into the depth of despair. Drinking makes her get a
temporary relief from the cruel reality. Except for Maggie’s mother, the girl named
Nell seems graceful in manner, but all things she owns are not received by her own
hands, and she just takes advantage of man’s vanity. Generally speaking, Nell is also
a woman who depends on men. However, at that time, men also live a poor life in a
terrible environment, not to mention the weak women. So, Maggie, as the
representative of those weak women, is doomed to be a tragedy and also the tragedy
of women in the whole slums.
Jimmie, the first important male role, hardens into a tough guy, and is presented
in the first part of the novel; he serves as a foil to Maggie’s experience in the rest of
the book. The book begins with Jimmie’s rock fight as a kid. After witnessing three
chapters of child abuse and other slum adversity, we are told:
the inexperienced fibres of the boy’s eyes were hardened at an early age. He became a
young man of leather....
He clad his soul in armor by means of happening hilariously in at a mission church
where a man composed his sermon of “yous”...
He maintained a belligerent attitude toward all well-dressed men. to him fine raiment
was allied to weakness, and all good coats covered faint hearts (25-26).
Jimmie does not give in to surrounding temptation and he is simply “hardened”

against the harsh environment. His soul is clad in armor against the world, “in
defense.” Jimmie struggles to preserve a sense of superiority as he is subject to the
abuse of drunken parents, the insults of religious missionaries, the hypocrisy of
wealthier and better-dressed men, and the unvanquishable powers of the police. He
becomes a “man of leather”; he feels “obliged to quarrel”; he turns “his sneer...upon
26
all things”; he considers himself “above” aristocrats and Christians, he imagines that
his “down-trodden position...had element of grandeur” (25-26). Although Jimmy
grows up in such a threatening and hostile environment; he prefers using his fists to
fight the reality and not humbly depend on others. Although he is also scolded by his
parents when he fights with others, he has an indomitable and stubborn heart. “After a
time his sneer grew so that it turned its glare upon all things…in defense, he was
obliged to quarrel on all possible occasions. He himself occupied a down-trodden
position that had a private but distinct element of grandeur in its isolation” (25).
Jimmy, he himself is an indestructible warrior and he never asks for help from others.
Except for being an indestructible warrior, Jimmy also has strong senses of
self-esteem and self-reliance, and he takes brave attitude toward the unbearable reality
(Fitelson, 190). He shows his active confrontation to the society so bravely that he
could even curse the swaggering police, who are the symbols of authority.
Peter, the second important male role, with “his hair curled down over his
forehead in an oiled bang,” his “bristling mustache,” his “red puff tie, and his patent
leather shoes” (17), suggests, as one editor of Maggie notes, “the Bowery boy”, a
tough of the lower East Side who dressed as a ‘dandy’. In the opening scene, when
Jimmy is attacked by the boys from Devil’s Row,
“down the avenue came boastfully sauntering a lad of sixteen years although the chronic
sneer of an ideal manhood already sat upon his lips. His hat was tipped with an air of
challenge over his eye. Between his teeth, a cigar stump was tilted at the angle of
defiance. He walked with a certain swing of the shoulders which appalled the timid” (6).
As a member of the Rum Alley, he always fights for her friends when they are
under attack. The night when Peter goes to Jimmy’s home, he boasts of his heroic
deeds and shows his power, self-confidence and pride. Maggie perceived that he is the
“beau ideal” of a man. “Here was a formidable man who disdained the strength of a
world full of fists. Here was one who had contempt for brass-clothed power; one
whose knuckles could ring defiantly against the granite of the law. He was a knight...”
27
(20). Peter stands for physical prowess, bravado, fearlessness, worldliness, contempt,
defiance and so on, and these values are essentially the ones we saw Jimmie develop
as he harden against the harsh environment.
To sum up, the men in the slum all embody their tough features, while women
are comparatively weak. The difference between male and female are shows clearly in
Maggie. Next, we will analyze the main female role in the novel and how the gender
difference affects her.
2. Maggie as a Woman
2.1 Maggie’s personality

From the above analysis, Maggie, as a weak woman in the late 19th century New
York slum, has characteristics of the female at that time. In addition, Maggie has her
own personalities, which mainly displays in the following three aspects.
Firstly, Maggie is innocent. According to Crane, Maggie is a girl who blossoms
in a mud puddle. She is also born in a very poor family in the slum, but she grows to
be a rare and the most wonderful production of the district as well. None of the dirt of
Rum Alley seems to be in her veins. When Maggie asks Jimmie to go home, she is
kicked by him. When the mother screams and fights with the father, the kids go
stealthily to the corner, she whispers to Jimmie whether he is hurt much (13). Maggie
is kind to her family. Her purity and kindness impels her to help the family to live a
better life. When a young man of the slum says, “Dat Johnson goil is puty good
looker.” then her brother remarks to her: “Mag, I’ll tell yeh dis! See? Yeh’ve edder
got t’go on d’toif er to t’work” (31). Therefore, she goes to work, having the feminine
hate to the alternative. Jimmie introduces her to Peter, the innocent girl considers that
Peter is such an elegant and ideal man, even when Peter goes away with a woman of
brilliance and boldness in a bar, she does not care either. Maggie is just dazed, and
dimly realizes that something stupendous has happened. She wonders why Peter sees
fit to remonstrate with the woman, pleading forgiveness with his eyes. She is
astonished to see the noted air of submission about her leonine Peter. When the other
28
boy talks to her, she still innocently waits for Peter to come back. She pays no reply,
and just watching the doors. Maggie is still staring at the doors when the man flatters
her, the forlorn girl “went along a lighted avenue. The street was filled with people
desperately bound on missions. An endless crowd darted at the elevated station stairs
and the horse cars were thronged with owners of bundles…the pace of the forlorn
woman was slow” (93). Maggie does not realize the hypocrisy of the men around her
and provides the chance to be seduced by Peter, and that is the important reason for
her sad destiny. Her tragedy is due to the fact that she could not make correct
judgment reasonably on what happens in her life.
Secondly, Maggie is cowardly. Maggie is a little bit timid. After her mother
accuses her of having gone to the devil and tells her to get out, the girl’s weakness
becomes more severe. When we next see her, “Maggie was pale. From her eyes had
been plucked all look of self-reliance. She leaned with a dependent air toward her
companion. She was timid, as if fearing his anger or displeasure. She seemed to
beseech tenderness of him” (39). Peter’s condescension to her is now not merely
heart-warming. It is a “marvel” (39). Three weeks after having left home. Maggie’s
“air of spaniel-like dependence had been magnified” (40). When Nell appears at the
hall and coaxes Peter away, when her mother and brother denounce her in front of the
tenement neighbors, and when Peter tells her to leave his bar, Maggie never once puts
up a fight. She is remarkably coward; she does not chase after Peter and Nell or even
opens her mouth; from the very start of her involvement with Peter, from the very
moment she begins to admire him and to be intimidated by him, she begins to doubt
herself. The relationship progressively diminishes her and leaves her vulnerable to
complete misuse. That is why, when people throw her away, she seems cowardly to
accept the result.
Thirdly, Maggie has a sense of inferiority. When she has a crush on Peter, she
watches him “furtively, with half-closed eyes, lit with a vague interest” (33). Maggie
dares not to lift her head to look at Peter, she always have no confidence in facing
Peter. When she contacts with Peter who comes to her twice wearing different suits,
she is admired, “as thought of Peter came to Maggie’s mind, she began to have an
29
intense dislike for all her dresses” (49). Her deep inferiority give her strong desire for
happiness, even has a little vanity, “she began to note with more interest the
well-dressed women she met on the avenues. She envied elegance and soft palms. She
craved those adornments of person which she saw every day on the street, conceiving
them to be allies of vast importance to women. She begins to see the bloom upon her
cheeks as something of value” (49). When she is abandoned by Peter, she returns
home and finds her mother blustering, she just stands shivering beneath the torrent of
her mother’s wrath, and is driven out again. She goes to Peter but is treated violently,
still, she does not realize to be independent and leaves Peter, the forlorn woman
timidly turned to strange person for help, but the man does not risk it to save a soul.
Pity Maggie pays price for her inferiority, committed suicide.
From the above analysis, we note that Maggie’s personality reveals the feature of
weakness of women. Combining with women’s Other role that is promoted by
Simone de Beauvoir in his The Second Sex, we can clearly see that except for
Maggie’s own vulnerability, her female identity as the Other also attack her
confidence and make her loss of self-respect.
2.2 Maggie’s Female Identity as the Other

2.2.1 Woman is the Other
In order to have a better understanding of Maggie’s female identity as the Other,
here, we will give a brief introduction about “woman is the Other”. In the introduction
part of The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, she proposes a question “what is a
woman?” To answer this question, she quotes many famous definitions as following,
“The female is a female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities”, said Aristotle; “we
should regard the female nature as afflicted with a natural defectiveness.”
Benda in his Rapport d’Uriel: man can think of himself without woman. She cannot
think of herself without man (3-4).
30
In the above famous definitions, Aristotle’s words imply that the female, from
the old times, is considered inferior with natural shortcomings. In the Bible, as we all
know, female is regarded as a rib taken from Adam. Just as Benda predicates that man
could think of himself without woman, but female could not identify her without male,
that is to say, woman is attached on man. Simone de Beauvoir develops those ideas
and concludes that “woman is the other”, woman is the incidental and inessential part
compared with the essential man. In practice, the term the Other means that woman is
inferior and dependent on man. Woman is manipulated and governed by man and
deprive of their subjective selfhood. Thus the Other is not the character which the
woman is born with or willing to accept but is imposed on the woman through the
traditional and cultural possibilities by the patriarchal culture and the whole
environment and society.
2.2.2 Maggie’s Female Identity as the Other

Maggie, as a slum girl in the Gilded Age America, is marked and identified as
the Other, which can be clarified through two aspects, her passivity towards the male
characters and her dependent character on the male. This predestines Maggie’s future
as a tragedy since she cannot control her own destiny and separate herself from other,
that is to say, Maggie’s destiny is controlled by the males in her life. Thus the section
will focus on discussing Maggie’s female identity as the Other from the flowing two
aspects.
In the first place, the most obvious part of Maggie’s Other role is her passivity,
which means inactiveness and inactivity, a disposition to remain inactive or inert.
Maggie’s passivity is best shown in her lacking speeches especially after Maggie
grows up. The grown Maggie in the whole fifteen chapters only utters few sentences
with several repeated and few over ten words, most of which are just questions and
responses. Few occasions of Maggie’s lacking speeches are as follows;
Maggie’s lacking speeches as the Other can be seen the first time that Peter
comes to Maggie’s home, she observes him closely, watches him furtively, and buries
in her own fantastic thoughts about Peter, with no verbal actions. “Her eyes dwelt
31
wonderingly and rather wistfully upon Peter’s face” (34). When Peter takes Maggie to
one of the fascinating show, Maggie only says “Say, Peter,” “dis is great” and asked
“Do dose little men talk” (45-46). One evening in the theatre, Peter goes away with
his former lover Nell, leaving Maggie alone with Nell’s male companion. Maggie
says nothing to Peter. Even when the male stranger proposes sexual activity, Maggie
repeats her response that she is going home. Maggie stands up. “I’m going home,” she
says. “Eh? What? Home,” the boys cries, stick with amazement. “I’m going home,”
she repeats (92). Maggie even dares not to finish her words when she asks for the
reason why Peter abandons her. After abandonment, Maggie goes back home. When
Maggie’s mother scolds and drives Maggie out of home, Maggie only utters one
world “Jimmie” to seek help from her brother, which is rejected.
Maggie’s lacking speeches as the Other also can be seen the second time she
begs for Peter’s help, Maggie even has no chance to finish her complete words. “Oh,
Peter…” “Why, Peter! yehs tol’ me…” “Peter, don’t yeh remem…” (101). After
Maggie is driven out of home, Peter becomes the last reliable person Maggie can
think of. Maggie goes away, and the last sentence Maggie uttered was a simple “who?”
we haven’t hear her voice until the end of the novel. The above brief, repeated and
unfinished sentences uttered by Maggie give us a clear clue that Maggie’s identity is
the Other. All the verbal actions are either inessential response to or interrupted
sentences by others. They are all in praising, inferior or begging tone towards her
male companion. Maggie’s partner, Peter, on the contrary, always takes the
imperative and predicatory tone when speaking, especially in the moment he is bored
with Maggie and intends to get rid of her. “Say, yehs makes me tired” “Oh, hell,” “Oh,
go teh hell” (67).
Therefore, Maggie keeps silent for most times in the whole story. And Maggie
never explains to others in any circumstances even when her mother denounces her
degradation, while she has no sexual relationship with Peter. Maggie seldom has the
opportunity and courage to express her feeling or revolt against others openly and
bravely. Every time, she stops when Other interrupts and gives away her discourse
power. Every time, she just acts as a respondent who echoes Other’s remarks. Every
32
word from Maggie’s mouth is simplified, ignored and filtered. For the reason, that is
because Maggie’s identity is the Other and the Object instead of the Absolute or the
Subject.
In the second place, Maggie’s the otherness reaches its fullest in Maggie’s
dependent character, especially her dependence upon Peter. Just as Simone de
Beauvoir states that the Other could only get its meaning from other just like the
object attains its existence from the subject (Beauvoir, 30). Maggie gets her existence
and identity from her lover, Peter. And in Maggie’s own mind, she thinks she is the
appendant of her other. Only her male partner can give her all the things she needs. In
the novel, the heroine emphasizes her dependence gradually. This kind of dependent
character grows obviously after her love affair with Peter. Here we will analyze the
gradual growth of Maggie’s dependent character.
Initially, all Maggie can do is just watching her lover from a distance. She never
talks with anyone and used to sitting in the corner or leaning back in the shadow. It is
a good way to avoid the attention of others. She “leaning from the window, watched
him as he walked down the street” (38). Sometimes, Maggie thinks of Peter when she
is working in the factory. Here, it is not obviously of Maggie’s dependent character.
Maggie is just waiting for Peter’s first chat passively.
Later, after Maggie’s first date with Peter, her whole family scolds and insults
her. There is no other choice, Maggie is driven away from home and has to live with
Peter, and she thinks Peter is the whole of her life (76-77). Being abandoned by her
whole family makes Maggie more dependent on Peter. And she thinks that as long as
Peter loves her, she will be very safe and have nothing to worry about just as she
claims that “her life was Peter’s” (77). Here Maggie puts all her hope in Peter, even
her life.
Then, during the three weeks’ cohabitation with Peter, Maggie’s dependent
character accelerates step by step as time goes on and Peter’s passion to Maggie
decreases. “Three weeks had passed since the girl had left home. The air of
spaniel-like dependence had been magnified and showed its direct effect in the
peculiar off-handedness and ease of Peter’s ways toward her” (86).
33
Ultimately, Maggie’s dependent character does not win Peter’s tender affection;
on the contrary, she becomes more and more unimportant to Peter. Therefore, one day,
Peter goes away with his former lover, a prostitute, Nell, leaving Maggie alone,
without any explanation to her. In the next morning, Maggie still asks Peter for an
explanation and wants to go with him, dreaming that Peter still loves her. Only when
Peter shouts at her “oh, go teh hell” (102) does Maggie realizes that she is abandoned.
Being abandoned by Peter means that the male companion is no longer to be relied on
and Maggie is forced to be apart from her Other.
Maggie’ nature as the Other demands Maggie to find another Other to depend on.
Being repeatedly rejected by Peter, Maggie has no any other choices and she searches
for a shelter from her family. However, to her disappointment, she is rejected as well.
Her mother and brother, together with all the neighbors show no sympathy and care
but, indifference and hatred. Again, Maggie is deprived of her the Other role as the
sister and the daughter. She is no longer the docile sister and obedient daughter. Till
this moment, the only Other identity that Maggie could take is to be a prostitute,
serving as the sexual servant for all males. However, this role is much harder to play,
which can be seen from the refusals Maggie receives from her customers. Crane
describes several scenes that Maggie is rejected by many passers on the street. A tall
young man…smoking a cigarette with a sublime air…wheels away hastily…turned
his stare into the air, like a sailor with a search-light; A stout gentleman, with, goes
stolidly by, the broad of his back seems sneering at Maggie; a belated man in business
clothes, and in haste to catch a car, also runs down the middle of the street; a young
boy with his hands buried in his overcoat…a cheery smile of unconcern upon his lips;
a drunken man… “I ain’ga no money, dammit”… (106-110). Therefore, even as a
prostitute, Maggie’s identity is denied by her Other, the male.
From the above discussion, we could clearly see that Maggie is marked as the
Other from her birth till her death. Maggie relies on her mother, while comes to an
end with her mother’s induces and scolds. When Maggie turns to her brother,
however, only receives rejections. Finally, Maggie has no choice and becomes a
prostitute, and she still rejected by her customers in the street. Her dependence on
34
Peter decreases her confidence and makes her have no belief to lead an independent
life. Maggie pins all her hope on Peter, And Maggie could never dominate her own
dream, which undoubtedly leads to her tragedy in the end.
To sum up this chapter, except for their own personalities of man and woman,
they are treated differently for a long time. Maggie, as a weak female role, shows her
innocent and cowardly personality. Her female identity as the Other makes her more
passive towards the society, her dependent on men makes her not self-reliant. As a
woman, All the characteristics in Maggie makes her have no ability to fight with the
cruel society. Thus indirectly causes Maggie’s tragic ending.
35
Conclusion
This thesis presents kinds of conflicts reflected in the novel under the Gilded
Age America. The paper analyzes Maggie’s instinctive reactions in the harsh social
environment with various social conflicts at that time, and further reveals the deep
reason of Maggie’s tragic ending.
Overall, these conflicts are reflected mainly from three aspects.
First, the paper analyzes the conflict between Maggie as a member of
underclass and the middle class capitalists. Monopolists consider people in slums are
belonging to a dangerous class, and they are the root of social unrest and slum is a
hotbed for the breeding of social conflicts. The poor seem to be extravagant to admire
lifestyle of the upper class, ironically, the luxury life of the upper class reposes on the
exploitation of the laboring people. Reflected in the novel is the contradiction
between Maggie’s following her dream that prevalent in the whole country in the age
and the disillusion of her dream at that time. In the extrusion of this kind of conflict,
Maggie’s dream will eventually become a bubble.
Second, the paper analyzes the conflicts between the new ideas and the
traditional puritan ethics. Under the influence of the liberalism and hedonism theology,
money worship and consumerism become principal thoughts, while the traditional
puritan values, which focus on thrift and self-discipline spirit, begin to decline. It is
dissertated in the novel of the conflict between Maggie’s degeneration and the
traditional puritan values on chastity. Maggie, as a young girl under new era
background, has a strong instinctive desire to pursue freedom and happiness, which
meets bitter resistance by the powerful traditional puritan values. Maggie stands
between these two ideological camps, and abandoned by both camps and finally
trapped herself.
Third, the paper analyzes the conflict between the arrogant man and the week
women under the patriarchal system in the late 19th century America. Patriarchal
society is a male-dominated society, in which man has strong senses of superiority
36
and self-awareness, and woman tends to act as a weak and passive role. This gender
consciousness rooted in the public mind for a long time. People are accustomed to
choose neglecting the irresponsible man but accused woman of their depravity. Under
the influence of this patriarchal system, the novel manifests the important reason for
Maggie’s tragic fate lies in her weak personality and her female role as the Other.
Maggie dies in the extrusion of kinds of conflicts in the end. By analyzing
Maggie’s tragic fate under kinds of conflicts, we can see the change of Maggie’s
emotions through her whole short life. Maggie’s hope when she sees Peter the first
time; her confusion, which is generated by Peter’s abandonment and her finally
desperation, which is a result of abandonment by the whole society. Maggie--the
heroine in the novel experiences her bother of the cruel reality; her fear of being
abandoned by her family and Peter, and her death through which to pursue her undone
dream. No matter in what kind of mental state, Maggie’s tragedy is inseparable with
the social environment at that time, during which people are full of dreams, however,
all their dreams eventually cannot be realized. Thus specifically expressed in the
novel is Maggie’s tragedy greatly affected by those various social conflicts.
When Maggie’s tragedy is interpreted from the perspective of social conflicts,
we do shed a new light on its profound social roots. It is the aggression of monopoly
capitalist economy, the monopoly capitalists’ lust for power, the suppression of social
morality and the traditional male prejudice on women that push Maggie fall into a
contradictory situation and be destroyed in the process of her dreaming for happiness,
dignity and love.
All in all, the destruction of this pure and beautiful image is actually a real
social tragedy. Pitifully, good-willed expectations cannot immediately change
women’s despairing situation. Therein, in my opinion, the real solution to these
conflicts may lie in the real equality between social classes as well as between male
and female.
37
WORKS CITED
Adams, James Truslow. The Epic of America. London. Routledge & Sons, ltd, 1938.
Arnold, Matthew. Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse. Smith, Elder, 1880.
Bassan, Maurice. Stephen Crane: A Collection of Critical Essays, Englewood Cliffs,
N.J.: Prentice 一 Hall, 1967.
Benfey, Christopher. The Double Life of Stephen Crane: A Biography. New York:
Alfred A. Knoph, 1992.
Bremner, Robert Hamlett. From the Depths: The Discovery of Poverty in the United
States. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1992.
Chafe, William. Women &American Society, Making America, ed. Lather Luedthe
USIA 1987 Chuang Hua Crossing Boston, Northeastern UP, 1968.
Crane, Stephen. Maggie, A Girl of the Streets and Other Short Fiction. New York:
Bantam, 1986.
Darwin, Charles. The Descent of man and Selection in Relation to Sex, London: John
Murray, 1927.
Dowling, Robert. Sluming in New York: From the Waterfront to Mythic Harlem.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007.
Fitelson, David. “Stephen Crane’s Maggie and Darwinism.” American Quarterly. Vol.
16, No. 2, Part 1 (Summer, 1964), PP. 182-194.
Fudge, Keith. “Sisterhood Born from Seduction: Susanna Rowson’s Charlotte Temple,
and Stephen Crane’s Maggie Johnson.” Journal of American Culture 19.1 (1996):
43-50.
Jackson, Kenneth T, ed. The Encyclopedia of New York City. New Haven: Yale UP.
1995.
Jan, Dawson. “Puritanism in American Thought and Society: 1865-1910.” The New
England Quarterly 53 (1980): 508-526.
Keith, Gandal. “Maggie’ and the Modern Soul.” ELH, Vol. 60, No. 3 (Autumn, 1993),
pp. 759-785.
38
Lens, Sidney. Poverty: America’s Enduring Paradox. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell
Company, 1969.
Mackinnon, Catharine. Toward a Feminist Theory of the State. Boston: Harvard UP.
1991.
Pizer, Donald. “Stephen Crane’s Maggie and American Naturalism.” A Norton
Critical Edition of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. Ed. Thomas A. Gullason. New
York: W.W Norton and Company, 1979: 186-193.
Satre, J. P. “Existentialism is Humanism.”
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm.
2005-12-15
Seltzer, Mark. Bodies and Machines. London: Routledge, 1992.
Simone, De Beauvior, Le Deuxieme Sex (French)/ The Second Sex. Beijing: Foreign
Language Press, 1974.
Vincent Starrett. Maggie and Other Stories. New York: Modern Library, 1993.
Westbrook, Max. “Stephen Crane’s Social Ethic.” American Quarterly. Vol. 14, No. 4
(Winter, 1962), pp. 587-596.
Edwards, Horton. [霍顿・爱德华兹]. 美国文学思想背景. 旁炜, 孟昭庆. 北京: 人
民文学出版社, 1991.
He, Yizhou and Tang, Jingwen. [贺一舟, 唐静文]. 《街头女郎玛吉》的身份主题解
读. 作家杂志, 2011(20): 37-38.
Lie, Ning. [列宁].列宁选集（第二卷）[M]. 北京：人民出版社，1995：740.
Li, Ligui. [李丽瑰]. 存在主义和女性主义双重视角下的《玛吉》. 中南民族大学
学报(人文社会科学版), 2006, (12): 180-185.
Nash, Gary. [加里·纳什]. 美国人民——创建一个国家和一种社会. 北京：北京大
学出版社, 2008:596.
Qin, Lili. [秦丽莉]. 评《美国内战与镀金时代 1862—19 世纪末》. 邢台学院学报,
2004 (3).
Sun, Zhili. [孙致礼].《街头女郎玛吉》译后, 沈阳：辽宁教育出版社, 2001.
39
Xiao, Huafeng. [肖华锋]. 论 19 世纪下半叶美国“强盗大王”们的财富福音学说—
以卡内基和洛克菲勒为讨论中心. 江西师范大学学报(哲社版), 2000,(3):
171-178.
Xiao, Xixi. [肖西西]. 贫民窟中的 ‘他者’—浅析斯蒂芬・克莱恩的《街头女郎玛
吉》. 南昌教育学院学报, 2013(4).
Yang, Zhenyan. [杨争艳]. 史蒂芬・克莱恩《街头女郎玛吉》的自然主义. 琼州学
院学报, 2010(06):61-62.
Zhang, Zhun. [张准]. 从镀金时代的美国看垄断对社会矛盾的激化. 内蒙古财经
大学学报, 2014, (4).
Zou, Zhiyong. [邹志勇]. 论美国早期自然主义文学, 西北师范大学学报 (社会科
学版), 2000, (2):36-39.
.
40
ＡＣＫＮＯＷＬＥＤＧＥＭＥＮＴＳ


Ｉ ｗｏｕｌｄ  ｌｉｋｅ  ｔｏ ｔａｋｅ  ｔｈｉｓ  ｃｈａｎｃｅ ｔｏ ｅｘ
ｐ
ｒｅｓｓ  ｍ
ｙ ｓｎｅ知ｅ ｇｒａｔ
ｉｉＵｄｅ  ｔｏ 化ｅ  ｆｏ
ｉｌｌｏｗｉｎｇ


ｅ  ｗｈｏ ｈａｖｅｏｆｆｅｒｅｄ ｍｅ  ｈｅｌｏｆｔｈｉｈｅｓｉｓ
ｐｅｏｐｌ
ｐ
ｉｎｔｈｅ  ｗｒｉｔｉｎ
ｇ
 ｓ ｔ 

．
Ｆｉｒｓｔ  ｏｆ  ａｌｌ  １ ｏｗｅ ｓｅｃｉａｔｉｔｕｄｅ ｔｏ ｍｕｒｖｉｓｏｒ  Ｐｒｏｆｅｓｓｏｒ Ｌ Ｇｏｎｚｈａｏ
ｇａｙ ｓｐｅ
ｒ
ｐ
ｌｉ
ｙ
ｇ 

，
ｔｈａｎｋｓ  ｆｏｒ  ａｃｃｅｐｔｉｎ
ｇ ｍｅ
 ｎ ｍｙ ｆｉｒｓｔ  ｙｅａｒ  ａｓ ａ  ｇｒａｄｕａｔｅ ｓｔｕｄｅｎｔ  Ｈｅ 
ｉｉｓ ｂｏｔｈ ｍ


ｙ
．
ｅｒ
ｉｏｄ ｏｆｍ
ｉｎｓｔｒｕｃｔｏｒ  ａｎｄ  ｍ
ｙ ｐ
ｓｉｉｔｕａ
ｒｌ ｍｅｎｔｏｒ ｔｈｒｏｕｈ ｔｈｅ ｗｈｏｅ
ｇ
ｌ
 ｐ

ｙ ｇｒａｄｕａ化 ｓｔｕｄｙ 
．Ｈｉ 

ｓ
ｃａｒｅｆｕｌｕｄａｎｃｅａｔｉｅｎｔｎｓｔｒｕｃｔｉｏｎｓ  ａｎｄｅｒｔｉｎｅ打ｔ ｃｉｔ
ｒｃｉｓｍｓ ｈｅｌｅｄ ｍｅ ａ  ｌｏｔ  ｉ打  ｍ
 ｗ
ｉ
ｇｐ ｐ 

ｙ
ｉｌ
ｙ
ｉ
，
ｐ
幻化巧
ｄｉｓｓｅｒｔａｔｉｏｎ  ｗｒ
ｉｔｉｎｇ  ｐｒｏｃｅｓｓ Ｗ化ｏ山 ｈｓ  ｈｅｌｐ，ｇｕｉｄａ打ｃｅａｎｄ ａｄｖｉｃｅ，１ ｏｕｌｄ ｎｏｔ


ｍ
．ｉｉ
ｃｏｅ ｉｓｐａｐ
ｐｌ 

．
ｍｎｍｗ打
Ｓｅｃｏｎｄｌｙ，ｙ ｔｈ
ａｋｓａｌｓ曰ｇｏｔｏ ｏｔｈｅｒｔｅａｃｈｅｒｓｆｏｒｔｈｅｉ
ｒ ｏｄｅｒｆＵｌ
ｔｅａｃｈｉｎ
ｍｍ
 ｙ 

ｇ
ａｎｄｅｎｌｉｈｔｅｎｅｎｔｄｕｒ

ｉｎｓｔｕｄｈｅｒｅ．
ＴｈｅａｒｅＰｒｏｆｅｓｓｏｒＹｉｎｉｉｎ，Ｐｒｏｆｅｓｓｏｒ


ｍ
ｇ呂 ｙ ｙ ｙ Ｑｐｇ
ｉａｎＺｈａｏｉｎＰｒｏｆｅｓｓｏｒＣｈｅｎＺｈｅｎｆａ，ＰｒｏｆｅｓｓｏｒＹａｎＺｈｏｎｈｕ，

 ＰｒｏｆｅｓｓｏｒＴａｎ
ｇ，
ｎｕｗｍｎ
Ｑｇｇ 

ｇ
Ｄｉｉｕｅｔｃ．
 Ｔｈｅｉｒｌｅｃｔｒｅｓ ｉｄｅｎ ｖｉｓｉｏｎｉｎｔｈｅｆｉｅｌｄｏｆＥｌｉｓｈｌａｎｕａｅａｎｄ


ｇｊ，
ｕｎｍｍ
ｙ ｇｇ呂
ｌｉｔｅｒａｔｒｅａｄ化ｅｉｒｃｏｕｒｓｅｓｉｎｓｉｒｅｄ ｉｎｓｉｒａｔｉｏｎａｎｄｅｎｃｏｕｒａｅ ｅａｌｏｔ



ｍｗｗｍｍｍ
ｐｙ ｐｇ
ｗ
Ｗｕ＾
Ｆｕｒｔｈｅｒｏｒｅ，Ｉ ａｎｔｔｏ ｓｈｏ  ｒａｔｉｔｕｄｅｔｏ ｃｌａｓｓａｔｅｓａｎｄｆ
ｒｉｅｎｄｓ ｈｏ
ｍｍ
 ｙｇｙ 

ｗｍＷＹ
ｈａｖｅｈｅｌｐｅｄ ｅａｌｏｔｉｎ ｙｔ
ｈｒｅｅ
ｇ
ｒａｄｕａｔｅ
ｙｅａｒｓ．
 ｅｄｉｓｃｕｓｓａｎｄｓｔｄｙ ｇｅ化ｅｒ，化ｅｉｒ


ｗｍｕｍ化
ｉｄｅａｓａｌａｓｅｘｃｉｔｉｎｅ．
ＴｈｅｙａｒｅＮｉ
 ｅｉＳｈｉＹｕｅｘｉｎａｎ过Ｘｉａｏ ｕｉａｎ．


ｙｇ ，ｑ
ｍｒ
ｔ
Ｌａｓｔｂｕｔｎｏｔｔｈｅｌｅａｓｔ；
Ｉ ａｎｔｔｏｇｉｖｅ ｙｓｉｎｃｅｒｅ ｇｒａｔｉｔｄｅｔｏ ｙｐａｒｅｎｔｓ，ｆｏｒ ｅｉｒ


ｓｕｐｐｏｒ订ｎ
ｔｉ打ｍｕ
ｇ
过ｎｄｅ打ｃｏｕｒａｉ
ｇｇ
ｉ 
ｙ
ｓｔｄ．
ｙ
了ｈｅ
ｙ
ａｌｓｏ
ｇ
ｉｖｅ ｅｓｕ
ｐｐｏ ｏｎｆｉｎａｎｃｅａｎｄ


ｓｉｒ
ｉｔ．


ｐ
４１



《街头女郎玛吉》中的悲剧性冲突_刘秀丹

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

《街头女郎玛吉》中的悲剧性冲突_刘秀丹

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

《街头女郎玛吉》中的悲剧性冲突_刘秀丹

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

―

Under the Supervision of Professor Li Gongzhao

Submitted to School of Foreign Languages, Hangzhou Normal University

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Master of Arts

Key words: Maggie; Conflict; The Gilded Age; Tragedy

THE CONFLICTS IN SOCIAL CLASSES……………………….....6

THE CONFLITS IN SOCIAL THOUGHTS………………………17

THE CONFLICTS IN SOCIAL ROLES……………………………24

1. Stephen Crane and his Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

2. Literature Review of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

3. The Purpose and Originality of This Thesis

THE CONFLICTS IN SOCIAL CLASSES

1. The Conflicts between the Poor and the Industrial Capitalists

2 Such as William Howells, Henry James, Mark Twin.

2. Maggie as a Poor Girl

2.1 Maggie’s Dream

2.2 Disillusion of Maggie’s Dream

2.2.1Disillusionment of Maggie’s Dream in Material

2.2.2 Disillusionment of Maggie’s Dream in Spirit

THE CONFLICTS IN SOCIAL THOUGHTS

1. New Ideas and American Puritan Traditions

2. Maggie’s Contradiction between Two Values

2.1 Maggie’s Degeneration

2.2 People’s attitudes towards Maggie

THE CONFLICTS IN SOCIAL ROLES

1. Man and Woman

described as feminine (30).

1.1 The Male and Female Roles in the Novel

young man of leather....

He clad his soul in armor by means of happening hilariously in at a mission church

where a man composed his sermon of “yous”...

Jimmie does not give in to surrounding temptation and he is simply “hardened”

2.1 Maggie’s personality

2.2 Maggie’s Female Identity as the Other

should regard the female nature as afflicted with a natural defectiveness.”

think of herself without man (3-4).

2.2.2 Maggie’s Female Identity as the Other

ａｎｄｅｎｌｉ ｈ ｔｅｎ ｅｎｔｄｕｒ

ｉａｎＺ ｈａ ｏ ｉｎ Ｐ ｒｏ ｆｅｓｓｏ ｒＣ ｈ ｅｎＺ ｈｅｎ ｆａ ， Ｐ ｒｏ ｆｅｓｓｏ ｒＹ ａｎＺ ｈ ｏ ｎ ｈ ｕ，

ｌｉｔｅｒａｔ ｒｅａ ｄ化 ｅｉｒｃｏｕｒｓｅｓｉｎ ｓ ｉｒｅｄ ｉｎｓ ｉｒａｔｉｏｎａｎｄｅｎ ｃｏ ｕｒａ ｅ ｅａｌｏ ｔ

You might also like

ａｎｄｅｎｌｉｈｔｅｎｅｎｔｄｕｒ

ｉａｎＺｈａｏｉｎＰｒｏｆｅｓｓｏｒＣｈｅｎＺｈｅｎｆａ，ＰｒｏｆｅｓｓｏｒＹａｎＺｈｏｎｈｕ，

ｌｉｔｅｒａｔｒｅａｄ化ｅｉｒｃｏｕｒｓｅｓｉｎｓｉｒｅｄ ｉｎｓｉｒａｔｉｏｎａｎｄｅｎｃｏｕｒａｅ ｅａｌｏｔ