To Blame or not to Blame?

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets Critical Essay

A tragic hero is defined as literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. In Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane, the reader learns of the cruel and harsh upbringing of the protagonist Maggie, and her brother Jimmie. One also follows Maggie’s infatuation with a man named Pete, who she becomes increasingly dependent on over the the course of the novella, and the split between them. Tragically, Maggie leads a sad, short, and lonely life after the split, and turns to a life of prostitution. Maggie is considered to be a tragic hero, who is partially responsible for her own downfall because of her dependency on others for an escape from her horrible life she was living, and Pete being the second part of Maggie’s downfall because of his manipulation of her due to her craving for attention and child like innocence.

Maggie, because of the environment she was raised in, grew up very naively and innocently about the world. Pete, knowing this about her, used this as an advantage. After Maggie and Pete had gone out for their first date, Pete had walked her home and said “‘Give us a kiss for takin’ yeh teh deh show, will yer?’” (Crane 35). Maggie reacted out of innocence when “[she] laughed, as if startled, and drew away from him” (35). She was so innocent that she had never kissed anyone before, making it easy for her to end up being manipulated into something that could cause her life harm. Alike to how Pete eventually convinced Maggie to “go to the devil”, leaving clues of what had happened when “Maggie’s jacket and hat were gone from the nail behind the door” (47). Maggie’s mother and brother were very displeased with this, and Maggie’s mother said “‘Den I’ll take ‘er in, won’t I, deh beast. She kin cry ‘er two eyes out on deh stones of deh street before I’ll dirty deh place wid her’” (62). Pete had manipulated and taken advantage of Maggie so much that it had caused Maggie to upset and anger her mother, to the point where her mother decided to remove Maggie from her household.  He convinced Maggie that he loved her, and she was so infatuated with him that the repercussions of her actions had not yet appeared to her. They would not appear until after he had done his damage. She did not realize that she was so far down a path with Pete, that it was breaking her away from her family, which was about the only point of some stability she ever had. When Pete disappeared from her life, she had nowhere to go. This lack of a home and stability, taken away when Pete left led Maggie down a dark and twisted path, leaving part of the blame on him. Although, Pete was not completely at fault for Maggie’s downfall.

Another reason for Maggie’s downfall was her constant dependency and reliance on others to save her from the situation she was in at home. Maggie thought “Her life was Pete’s and she considered him worthy of the charge. She would be disturbed by no particular apprehensions, so long as Pete adored her as he now said he did” (58). This was a sign of the everblooming dependency on Pete, and she was giving her life to him and not leading one of her own. This also lead to “[Maggie] contemplated Pete’s man-subduing eyes and noted that wealth and prosperity was indicated by his clothes. She imagined a future, rosetinted, because of its distance from all that she previously had experienced” (58). This combination of her dangerous adoration and dependency on Pete lead to him becoming the singular most important person and thing in her world, which caused major problems after the couple had split. She had relied on Pete for everything, life, a home, and much more, and once he had left, she had nothing left for her. This development of everything with Pete caused her to get kicked out, and she had nowhere to go, and no one to blame but herself for putting too much trust into the hands of the wrong person. Maggie also had thought after everything had happened, and she was living the life of prostitution, that if she had friends or had not hurt her mother so much, that she would still have a home. She had a job, which she quit, and she could’ve been completely self-reliant, but she was caught in the moment due her blindness to any sort of self reliance she had. Tragically she had lead to her downfall, with the cutting off of her family for Pete, the quitting of her job, and lack of friendships made with others, Maggie had nothing. She had relied too heavily on the people and society around her to support her, and was inadequate with any life skills or anything to help her support herself. This nothingness that she had, and the realization of it all led to the life Maggie followed until her death.

Maggie with the dangerous innocence, and easy manipulation of her character coins her as being the prime definition of a tragic hero. Pete was partly the one responsible for the downfall of Maggie due to the manipulation and corruption of her, stemming from the very first meeting with him. He attracted a young, innocent girl and convinced her to make her world revolve around him, knowing she was looking for an escape.  She had put all her faith, and almost all of the life she had into Pete, and he threw it down the drain. Her fatal flaw in doing that was deeply ingrained in her, a craving for attention, and a willingness to do anything to get herself out of the situation she was in, which lead to her being blind to all the harm she was causing herself. Then, there was the increasing dependency on others to get through life, her mother and brother for a home and food to live, and dependency on Pete for those qualities she so desperately needed. After that, she relied on the men she was working with, while living the life of prostitution to get her through the cruelties of life, and they became her only source of income. Although, if really thought about, we, as a society, all have a little bit of Maggie within ourselves, and our own self destructive qualities just like her. And just like her, we could have Petes lurking around the corner, waiting to cause harm.