Is it Bad to be Good

Unrealistic aspirations and ignorance can often lead to the downfall of one’s life. The protagonist, Maggie, from Stephen Crane’s novel titled Maggie: A Girl of the Streets falls into her own dream world and suffers the consequences of trusting a false reality. Maggie is undoubtedly a tragic hero as her own naivety and false hopes as well as trusting a devious Pete all pave the way towards her downfall.

    First, Maggie is very obviously a naive young girl and a wealthy Pete represents a way out of a deep hole of misery. The latter creates false hopes which may have inclined her into an illogical dream-like state. A curious Maggie paints herself a picture of a perfect life as she eavesdrops on a conversation between her brother and Pete: ”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. He was telling tales to Jimmie. Maggie watched him furtively, with half-closed eyes, lit with vague interest”(Crane 27). Crane emphasizes Maggie’s naivety with a metaphor comparing her eyes to light which proves that the young bartender’s presence creates an image of a bright future for the protagonist. Her ‘half-closed eyes, lit with vague interest’ blind her from a harsh reality. This inspires her naiveness and eventually creates the hole where she buries herself into. The previous idea relates to the themes of hopes and dreams.

    Next, Maggie evidently aspires for something that isn’t reachable due to the dream-like state that Pete inspires in her. Her high hopes consequently lead to irrational thinking ,and they essentially set her up for disappointment. After her first date with Pete, Maggie’s head blows up with thoughts of Pete and distorts her view of reality,”As thoughts of Pete came to Maggie’s mind, she began to have an intense dislike for all of her dresses”(Crane 41). What seems to be an insignificant thought actually forebodes her downfall and future reality. Crane intentionally shows Maggie’s dislike for her dresses to create a shift in her thoughts. Later on, Maggie grows to hat everything and creates a dark world for herself. Her opinion has an increasingly worse influence on her life and links As Maggie enjoys the ending of a drama with Pete, her confidence skyrockets,”Maggie always departed with raised spirits from the showing places of the melodrama. She rejoiced at the way in which the poor and virtuous eventually surmounted the wealthy and wicked. The theatre made her think. She wondered if the culture and refinement she had seen imitated, perhaps grotesquely, by the heroine on the stage, could be acquired by a girl who lived in a tenement house and worked in a shirt factory”(Crane 46). Crane implies false hopes through symbolism where the theatre and the melodrama represent Maggie’s irrational thoughts. The theatre is meant to please and is fabricated just like her ‘raised spirits’. Maggie’s imagination of herself as the heroine in the drama proves her irrational logic and proves the theme of false hopes.

    Last, Maggie’s false hopes are mostly sourced from her trust in Pete. An obvious flaw of a virtuous and naive girl like Maggie is falling for a misleading street urchin. The poor girl agrees to return to the hall with Pete for a second time, but this time it’s different: ”Maggie was pale. From her eyes had been plucked all look of self-reliance. She leaned with a dependant air toward her companion. She was timid, as if fearing his anger or displeasure. She seemed to beseech tenderness of him”(Crane 67). Crane employs personification where Maggie’s self-reliance has been plucked from her eyes, emphasizing her trust and dependence on the devious Pete. Her companion, being ruse and malevolent, understands his power at this moment. However, Maggie is oblivious to his intentions and truly fears his ‘displeasure’ as she holds on to her dream of being rich. Pete later breaks her trust and leaves the poor girl with nothing. Her trust in an obviously evil man only digs her into a deeper hole of misery. Her dependence on Pete for money and loss of self-reliance relates to the theme of poverty. Once Pete lets Maggie go, she is left with not even her soul. As she walks further and further away from existence, the protagonist wanders towards her death,”She went into the blackness of the final blocks. The shutter of the tall buildings were closed like grim lips. The structures seemed to have eyes that looked over them, beyond them, at other things. Afar off the lights of the avenues glittered as if from an impossible distance. Street-car bells jingled with a sound of merriment”(Crane 94). Darkness is present all throughout her final steps and a hyperbole showing how lights glow from ‘an impossible distance’ assure that there is no hope for Maggie. Her inevitable death approaches as she fades into ‘the blackness of the final blocks’. Death(a theme) is present during this scene. A tragic hero lives her destiny…

    In essence, Maggie proves to be a tragic hero as her personality flaws pave the path towards her downfall. Her naivety and ignorance to the harsh reality she faces, rational thought masked by her false aspirations and high hopes, and her trust in a devious and obviously evil gamin all support her role as a tragic hero. Though Maggie has many flaws, why wouldn’t her virtue make up for them?