Macteaque
Essay title: Macteaque
The late 19th century in America was a time of technological advances, demographic transformations, and scientific and psychological inquiries of great magnitude. In addition to these new environmental factors, the impact of the publication of Darwins Origin of Species in 1859 and, later, Freuds writings on human behavior caused disorientation in the sphere of human development. Human beings were now perceived to be subject to many external and internal forces over which they had little control. Indeed, the question of what governs human conduct became centrally important in science, religion, and ethics as well as in psychology.
Such questions were also a major concern for Frank Norris, an American writer of the late 19th century, and especially evident in his 1899 novel McTeague. Throughout the novel, the protagonist repeatedly asks his wife Trina “Whos the boss?” – a question prompted in part by her winning of a $5,000 lottery ticket and played out in McTeagues eventual murder of her. As a Naturalist, and follower of Emile Zola, Norris believed that human behavior could largely be understood in terms of the impact of heredity, environment,