Illusions and Dreams in Stephen Crane’s "Maggie a Girl of the Streets" as a Portrayal of the Romantic Idealism in Melodramas

Inhaltsangabe oder Einleitung

This term paper deals with the book "Maggie a Girl of the Streets" by Stephen Crane. In the middle of the 19th century a new type of literature emerged from the prior romanticist novellas. Authors wanted to present life more realistically than it had been portrayed before, separating from romanticist literature which to them did not seem to portray life in an adequate manner. Therefore, the concepts of "Realism" and "Naturalism" were introduced whose followers tried to portray life as it actually was. The book "Maggie a Girl of the Streets" by Stephen Crane is often considered a naturalist story which appears to fulfil the aspect of portraying life in a realistic way.

It deals with the struggles of existence in lower class society, which is a typical feature of naturalist stories. However, Crane often confronts the reader with illusions and dreams of the characters in his book, which seems to contradict the notion of a realist story. Thus, it is questionable if Crane’s Maggie can really be considered a naturalist work. It is therefore interesting to find out what purpose the illusions and dreams in Crane’s book have, as it does not appear to be coincidental that they run throughout the whole story. Furthermore the question arises why "Maggie a Girl of the Streets" can nevertheless be considered a realist piece of work.

This term paper argues that Crane uses the devices of illusions and ideals in Maggie as a medium to satirise the romantic melodrama along with its sentimentalism, since it strongly simplifies reality. By means of this thesis first Crane’s exaggerated descriptions of fighting scenes are portrayed, which shall serve as a proof for Crane’s melodramatic allusions, followed by Maggie’s blurred depiction of Pete as the ideal man. Finally it is illustrated how the theatre shows, which contain melodramatic elements, appear to work as a parallelism to Maggie’s story.