Eng 353 – a New Critical Analysis of Stephen Cranes MaggieEssay Preview: Eng 353 – a New Critical Analysis of Stephen Cranes MaggieReport this essayBarry MolitchSusan CrandallEnglish 35321 August 2011A New Critical Analysis of Stephen Cranes MaggieIn a career tragically cut short by tuberculosis, Stephen Crane published fifty stories and sketches, four novels and two collections of poetry. His art reflected the naturalist philosophy of deterministic, materialistic pessimism (Ruben) and the bohemian lifestyle, which he chose to live in the underbelly of society, among the poor artists, whores and slumdwellers of New York. His first novel, Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, is an impressionistic narrative of a young girl, born in the slums of New York, and driven into prostitution (Baym 995-996) by a chain of events that take place independently from the will and judgement of the characters involved; characters whose “beliefs of moral propriety are so false to their experience yet [they] function as operative forces in their lives” (Nagel). Cranes sensitivity to the sound of language, his painterly use of color and imagery and use of sharply observed detail and convincing dialogue, makes this naturalistic novel an excellent choice for a New Critical reading.
New Criticism is an approach that treats a piece of literature as an autotelic (having or being an end or purpose in itself) object which cannot be judged by any considerations beyond itself (Siegel).The New Critic is interested in the interplay of images, symbols, metaphors, figures of speech, rhythm, irony and ambiguity in the building a complex and organic piece of art (Soria). New Criticism emphasizes that good art reflects unchanging universals of human experience and values; that precise analysis is vital to the understanding of literature; and that the texts relationship to the world beyond, is of little interest (Hedges). New Criticism has been accused by its detractors as little more than aestheticism by another name, profoundly unattached to historical and societal concerns (Logan). Cranes Maggie is a grand impressionistic mural which must be seen in its totality to be truly appreciated.
Praise
The New Critic
“New Criticism is an approach that treats a piece of literature as an autotelic (having or being an end or purpose in itself) object which cannot be judged by any considerations beyond itself (Siegel).
New Criticism is concerned with the role of the text and the text’s relationship to the world beyond, is of little interest by art critics (Logan).
In fact, New Criticism may well take a darker approach to interpretation. New Criticism advocates as a rule those who find themselves in positions of critical responsibility those who “re-convert[ing] to a less abstract and conceptual approach which is more critical (e.g., ‘objective’ or ‘instrumental’) but still is open to new and interesting ideas”(9). New Criticism is also, as Siegel emphasizes, an approach focused on the structure of a “narrative” (11):
“New Criticism is focused on a subject and a mode and a language which is “a thing or a single thing (or something which is a series or a thing whose existence is independent of the one thing or a single thing) which is not limited by an external or independent power (either formal or mechanical)” (12).
Cranes Maggie provides an excellent example of this approach: New Critic’s treatment of a work of architecture is concerned with the form of the building, its proportions, the construction methodology, its form, the placement of the building, its proportions. Such an approach, it notes, is based on a theory of structure and development, a theory of how to build structures in such an abstract way:
“To understand the meaning and construction of a building it is necessary to examine the building itself and to consider the structure of the building as a whole and not merely as a series of things which are built in such an abstract way” (Bennett & Harkness).
The New Critic’s “New Criticism focuses on the structure-building relationship of what it means to be “structured”. As Cranes Maggie stresses “the building is the place where all the things and things that form an order of things exist, are in existence; the structure of the building, as such, is a building of things which are called order and which are not ordered”(12). Thus Siegel states:
“The New Critic is not concerned with ‘the way of a building,'” (Gonzalez and Johnson, 1990, 84); rather, the structure of a building is more or less defined, and its character or its significance is as important and meaningful as any other building that was erected for that purpose (Hedges & Siegel).
In essence, Siegel rejects the notion of constructing or building structures only as a way to get the kind of social/political or emotional reactions or ideas needed to understand their nature or its properties. This approach, which takes an almost identical approach to the new analysis of ‘building structure,’ does not involve the social, political, emotional or philosophical implications that are not “objective”? Siegel rejects constructing structures as “a way of saying: ‘I have all the things in the world I created’ (12). New Criticism is the same way that Siegel attempts to account for the “concept of structure” based on ‘the conceptual and the historical meaning-making powers.
New Criticism is critical of the kind of ideas the critic would have, if he were to analyze the works of art:
From the description of the Rum Alley tenement that housed the Johnson family, in a:“dark region where, from a careening building, a dozen gruesome doorways gave up loads of babies to the street and the gutter. A wind of early autumn raised yellow dust from cobbles and swirled it against an hundred windows. Long streamers of garments fluttered from fire-escapes. In all unhandy places there were buckets, brooms, rags and bottles. . . . infants . . . sat stupidly in the way of vehicles. Formidable women, with uncombed hair and disordered dress . . . screamed in frantic quarrels. The building quivered and creaked from the weight of humanity stamping about in its bowels” (Crane Chap II).
to Maggies final appearance in the :“blackness of the final block. The shutters of the tall buildings were closed liked grim lips. The structures seemed to have eyes . . . Afar off the lights of the avenues glittered as if from an impossible distance. Street-car bells jingled with a sound of merriment . . . the river appeared a deathly black hue. Some hidden factory sent up a yellow glare that lit for a moment the waters lapping oilily against timbers. The varied sounds of life, made joyous by distance and seeming unapproachableness, came faintly and died away to a silence” (Chap XVII),
there is the unmistakable evidence of the influence of the impressionist painters on Cranes content, style and personal aesthetic (Petry). Chapter XIs saloon fight, when Maggies brother Jimmy attacks Pete for deflowering his sister, glistens with the imagery of pyramids of polished glasses, mirrors and liquor bottles shattering and “splintering into nothing” in a violent brawl as the ” three frothing creatures on the floor buried themselves in a frenzy for blood” (Crane).
Cranes ear for the idiom and rhythms of the street are captured in the dialogue between Jimmy and Maggies parents:“Let the damned kid alone for a minute, will yeh, Mary? Yer allus poundin im. When I come nights I cant git no rest cause yer allus poundin a kid. Let up, dyeh hear? Dont be allus poundin a kid” (Chap II).
To the modern reader, the dialect might seem a parody at first, bringing up images of the Bowery Boys comedies, but the internal ear soon accepts the accents of the slum dwellers. It is only Nell, the “woman of brilliance and audacity” who speaks in standard American English as she derides Pete for his interest in Maggie. Pete, already feeling hemmed in by his relationship with her, sacrifices Maggie to the brutality of the streets (Novotny).
The ambiguity of Maggies death has been a puzzle for readers and critics