Tragic But Not a Hero

“The tragic hero prefers death to prudence. The comedian prefers playing tricks to winning. Only the villain really plays to win”.

Mason Cooley

You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. In Stephen Crane’s realistic novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, Maggie, the protagonist, died young and as a prostitute. She was born into a pit of poverty since her birth and became a puppet of opulence. The tragedy of Maggie is inseparable from her living environment, behind their tragic fate lies a hidden chaotic social environment and twisted moral values. Although feeling sympathy for Maggie can be justified, she cannot be seen as the tragic hero of the novel, because none of her actions have ever been heroic, and she does not have the characteristics of a tragic hero. 

Maggie was born into a really bad environment. Within the first few chapters, there had been a violent conflict happening with “howls and curses, groans and shrieks, confusingly in chorus as if a battle were raging. With all was the crash of splintering furniture” (Crane 17). This was a routine in the Johnson’s household: alcoholic and violent parents and an ignorant brother who paid no attention to Maggie. The community around her was not supportive and constantly mocking her, so it is predictable that she grew up with no childhood memories that would inspire her to be more than what she was. Therefore, unlike it can usually be noticed from the tragic hero of a novel,  Maggie was a shy girl that didn’t take pride in anything. Tragic heros are usually excessively proud and come from noble families. Maggie is the opposite of such a person as she never had anything in her life to be proud of.  

The fact that Maggie’s adaption to Pete led to her tragic downfall, her prostitution. To her, Pete was a new spectacle that would enable her to enter a completely new world of wealth. Everything he did amazed Maggie, from the way “her heart warmed as she reflected upon his condescension” (Crane 34) to the plays he took her to that sparked a thought that maybe all the glorious drama could perhaps be “acquired by a girl who lived in a tenement house and worked in a shirt factory” (Crane 40). She started to build up this hope of a miracle that would eventually come to save her from poverty, and that miracle in her mind was Pete. However, because of her blind naivety to reality, her dependency on Pete led to her downfall instead. Different from how it is usually known about tragic heros, Maggie did not make any specific mistake leading to her downfall that she could have avoided. Her adaptation to Pete was more like a result of the life she was born into, so there is no Hamartia, which is defined as the tragic error of a tragic hero, in the story. Moreover, there are many more characteristics for a tragic hero that cannot be seen in Maggie. 

Every tragic hero experiences a moment of anagnorisis. It is the moment of realization of their downfall. In the case of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, there cannot be clearly seen such a moment. One time when Maggie was sitting in a bar with Pete, Nellie, “the woman of brilliance and audacity” entered, and Pete had only eyes for her. He ignored Maggie, who got really upset about it. As Nellie left, “Maggie was dazed. She could dimly perceive that something stupendous had happened” (Crane 27). We can see that Maggie noticed that Pete ignores her, and that she was much more in love with him than he is; nevertheless, Maggie did not consider her dependency on him as a mistake which led to the downfall that she probably would not have considered as a downfall either. Maggie had never learned how to love someone or how to be loved. Her mom Mary is clearly the villain of Crane’s novel as she was a violent alcoholic. Maggie’s whole life was a mistake, and she lived too deep down in society to get even more down. She did not know how to value and love.

Maggie had never had anything in her life to be proud of. A tragic hero usually has a lot of hubris, an excessive pride. In contrast, Maggie lived a really prideless life. As she met Pete and spent more time with him at noble places that were clearly not familiar to her, her self confidence increased. Although she started feeling more value in her life, this cannot be considered as pride. What might seem like she is proud of herself for having such a good relationship with Pete is hope. Maggie only hoped for a future. One time when Maggie and Pete sat in a hall drinking beer, we can see that hope for a better life: “She imagined a future, rose-tinted, because of its distance from all that she previously had experienced” (Crane 23). Maggie indeed felt positive and encouraging emotions towards Pete, but pride is a feeling that she could never have. 

After their moment of anagnorisis, tragic heros typically die for the good, and their death can be seen as salvation from their guilt and shame. As Maggie did not have such a moment where she realized her downfall, her tragic death was only a predictable  result of the life she was born into. She became “a girl of the painted cohorts of the city” (Crane 32), and one day, she died, probably because of murder. Maggie did not wait for her death or saw it as something necessary to get rid of any feelings.

While comparing Maggie’s life to the typical characteristics of a tragic hero which can be seen in many other novels, those cannot be exactly found in Crane’s realistic novel. Maggie did not really have one tragic downfall and therefore did not make a mistake that led to it (hamartia), or had a moment where she realized her downfall. In addition, she was not excessively proud of herself in any way, and her early death was only an unavoidable result of the situation she was born into. To summarize, Maggie has always been a Girl of The Streets living in the lowest level of society, without any hope for change. Even though her life was definitely tragic, she was not a hero.