The Tragedy of Maggie

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Lastly, the conflict and distance between Maggie’s fantasy and the real society destroyed her mind and resulted in her death. The conflict between fantasy and reality is always difficult to coordinate, crueler the reality is, happier the fantasy is. Maggie has struggled and been confused between the fantasy and reality; after she went through the poor life and could no longer tolerate it, Maggie pinned all her hopes on the love and beatific life Pete brought to her. However, after Pete enjoyed her beauty and got tired of her, he did not rescue Maggie from her miserable life; Maggie had to become a prostitute submitting to the cruel reality. Therefore, the fantasy was broken when facing the reality, the gap between the fantasy and reality was so big that could destroy Maggie’s mind easily, and pushed Maggie to death finally.

In this story, it seems that author describes Maggie’s miserable life and shows his sympathy to Maggie apparently. However, this story actually shows the vilified female image. Maggie relied on Pete all the time, she did not realize to be independent and fight for herself. Even after Pete left her, Maggie still tried to beg Pete and hoped to live with him again; Maggie could not live without Pete. In the Patriarchal society, woman like Maggie was meant to the victim submitting to man, because they could not live independently.

Overall, “Maggie, a Girl of the Street” shows a miserable woman destroyed by the gap between fantasy and reality; it described peoples’ psychological activities and the extravagant but dirty lives accurately.

Reference

Stephen Crane (1996), Maggie: A Girl of the Streets.