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Frank Norris. Novels and Essays

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Frank Norris. Novels and Essays Source: www.anglistika.webnode.cz Frank Norris . (1870 – 1902). McTeague . (1899) . Summary Main Plot Line McTeague, Marcus Schouler & Trina Sieppe Introducing McTeague: The novel is set in San Francisco, California, in poor quarters inhabited by the lower class with middle-class pretensions. The eponymous character is only known by his last name, McTeague. He is abound thirty, a large, heavy and strong man, slow, dull and inarticulate, but not vicious. A former miner, he learnt dentistry from a travelling dentist in the mines and started to practise in a cheap hired room on Polk Street. His only dream and ambition is to own a huge gilded tooth as a sign for his Dental Parlors. Introducing Marcus & Trina: McTeague’s best and only friend is Marcus Schouler, an assistant in Old Grannis’s dog hospital. Marcus is going out with his cousin, Trina Sieppe, a girl about twenty. Trina comes from a German-Swiss family, she is the elder sister of August (‘Owgooste’) and boy twins. She is small, pretty, with pale complexion and a tiara of thick black hair. She is good-natured, straight-forward and spontaneous. McTeague Meets Trina: Marcus introduces Trina to McTeague when she needs dental care. She undergoes a complicated operation which is performed over the period of several weeks. McTeague is enchanted by his young female patient: ‘This poor crude dentist of Polk Street, stupid, ignorant, vulgar, with his sham education and plebeian tastes, whose only relaxations were to eat, to drink steam beer, and to play upon his concertina, was living through his first romance, his first idyl.’ (p. 282) McTeague prefers not to use ether because of the side effects but he does use it on Trina because he cannot bear to cause her pain. When she lies unconscious in the operating chair, he fails to resist the inherent beast in him and kisses her. When Trina regains consciousness, he proposes to her. She immediately refuses, acting on her instinctive fear of men. Marcus Gives Up Trina: McTeague tells Marcus about his feelings for Trina. Marcus likes Trina but he likes other pretty girls as well Marcus realizes that McTeague loves Trina more than he does and gives her up for the sake of his friend. Feeling very grand about his sacrifice, Marcus even assists McTeague to win Trina. Following a family picnic at which both McTeague and Marcus join Trina and her family, McTeague replaces Marcus as Trina’s new young man. Trina Yields to McTeague: McTeague starts seeing Trina regularly. She still keeps on refusing to marry him. Finally she gives up and lets McTeague kiss her. On her yielding, McTeague feels as if he valued her less for it. Trina herself does not know why she objects the marriage. She is confused about her feelings. She distantly thought she would marry Marcus one day but it was McTeague who awakened the woman in her: ‘But he had only to take her in his arms, to crush down her struggle with his enormous strength, to subdue her, conquer her by sheer brute force, and she gave up in an instant.’ (p. 325) Trina Wins the Lottery: McTeague invites Trina to the theatre. Trina’s mother and ill-behaved brother August accompany them for the sake of ‘propriety’. The unrefined vaudeville show suits their simple taste and amuses them greatly. On their return, Trina learns that her lottery ticket won five thousand dollars. She had bought the ticket from Maria Macapa, a poor Mexican cleaner, only to get rid of her and avoid embarrassment. The same night Mrs Sieppe announces the engagement of her daughter and McTeague. Trina Grows Mean: McTeague imagines spending the money quickly and in a lavish fashion. Trina insists on keeping it safe in a bank and drawing interests only: ‘She clung to this sum with a tenacity that was surprising; it had become for her a thing miraculous, a god-from-the- machine, suddenly descending upon the stage of her humble little life; she regarded it as something almost sacred and inviolable. Never, never should a penny of it be spent.’ (p. 372) Finally Trina decides to invest in her rich Uncle Oelbermann’s toy shop under better conditions than a bank would offer. She starts earning extra money by carving Noah’s ark animals out of wood and selling them to the uncle’s shop. She puts all of her earnings aside: ‘Economy was her strong point. A good deal of peasant blood still ran undiluted in her veins, and she had all the instinct of a hardy and penurious mountain race –– the instinct which saves without any thought, without idea of consequence –– saving for the sake of saving, hoarding without knowing why.’ (p. 358) Marcus Envies McTeague: Marcus loses his temper when he learns about Trina’s winning and condemns himself for having lost Trina and the money for mere friendship. He grows cold and even hostile to McTeague. Eventually he accuses McTeague of stealing the share of Trina’s money which should have been his own. He provokes a violent argument during which he nearly knifes his uncomprehending opponent. McTeague sets after Marcus in rage over his lost pipe that was broken in the fight. At his door he however finds a birthday present from Trina –– the giant gilded tooth which he has been longing for –– and his anger vanes. Trina Becomes Mrs McTeague: McTeague and Trina are married in their newly hired rooms. McTeague and Page: 1 out of 4 Source: www.anglistika.webnode.cz Marcus are formally reconciled, it is however not Marcus but Old Grannis who acts as McTeague’s best man. Immediately after the wedding supper, the Sieppes leave their original quarters on B Street to live in the south of the state where Mr Sieppe purchased an upholstery business. When left alone with her husband, Trina is seized by a sudden fit of fear of him but then she yields. McTeague is overjoyed with his new wife: ‘An immense joy seized upon him –– the joy of possession.’ (p. 390) The McTeagues Settle: Trina briefly regrets her marriage when she realizes her husband’s lowliness, stupidity and brutishness but then she accepts her new role. She does not sink to his level, she tries to lift him to hers. At first she surprises McTeague with her sudden outbreaks of passion: ‘She loved McTeague now with a blind, unreasoning love that admitted of no doubt or hesitancy. […] She loved him because she had given herself to him freely, unreservedly; had merged her individuality into his; she was his, she belonged to him forever and forever.’ (p. 392) Gradually Trina assumes ‘an equilibrium of calmness and placid quietude’ while McTeague relapses to ‘his wonted stolidity’ (p. 395). In their own way the couple is content with each other. Trina Quarrels over Money: The Sieppes are not prospering in their new place. Mrs Sieppe asks Trina for fifty dollars in a letter but Trina is reluctant to sent them and never does so. Three years after their marriage the couple has their first serious quarrel. McTeague signs the papers to hire the house in which both he and Trina wished to live. Trina however thinks it too expensive and refuses to pay her half of the rent. She later resents her behaviour and realizes that she has grown ‘a regular little miser’ but her need to hoard money is stronger than herself (p. 411). Marcus Fights McTeague: The McTeagues and a few friends arrange a picnic. They stage an improvised wrestling tournament in which McTeague stands against Marcus. Marcus bites into McTeague’s ear in the fight. This sets McTeague into such rage that he breaks Marcus’s arm. McTeague is forbidden to practise dentistry because he did not attend the college. Trina believes that it was Marcus who notified the City Hall about the fact. Marcus takes leave from Trina, he is heading to the south of the state to work at a farm and does not plan to return. The McTeagues Decline: The McTeagues hire a single sordid room to live in. They sell all their possessions in an auction. McTeague insists on keeping his canary, concertina and gilded tooth. Trina cultivates avarice and keeps on hoarding her savings earned on the animal figures. The couple has frequent rows over money. Trina supervises all McTeague’s pocket money and economizes to the utmost degree. McTeague lapses to his old bachelor’s habits and Trina sinks with him. McTeague Abuses Trina: McTeague works briefly with a company manufacturing dental instruments. When he loses the job and fails to find another one, he grows idle, sulky and irritated. He starts drinking and turns vicious and abusive towards his wife: ‘It [= alcohol] roused the man, or rather the brute in the man, and now not only roused it, but goaded it to evil.’ (p. 477) McTeague’s cruelty to his wife gradually increases. He beats her and bites her fingertips painfully. Trina becomes intimate friends with Maria who is abused by her husband, too. Trina bears the mistreatment with strange patience: ‘They [= Trina’s emotions] reduced themselves at last to but two, her passion for her money and her perverted love for her husband when he was brutal.’ (p. 479) McTeague Abandons Trina: Trina finds Maria dead, apparently murdered by her husband. Trina initiates moving to the squalid room where the Zerkows lived and where Maria was murdered, which is even cheaper than their former place. Trina’s formerly neat appearance and fastidious habits decline rapidly. McTeague sells his gilded tooth to a competing dentist for a split of the original price.
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