CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE THE GREAT SOCIAL EVIL: IMAGES OF FALLEN WOMEN AND PROSTITUTES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE FROM 1872 TO 1952 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Arts in English By Zabrina Zee Zahariades May 2012 The thesis of Zabrina Zee Zahariades is approved: Sandra Stanley, Ph.D. Date Dorothy Clark, Ph.D. Date Jackie Stallcup, Ph.D., Chair Date California State University, Northridge ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the help of Dr. Jackie Stallcup, Dr. Sandra Stanley, and Dr. Dorothy Clark. I would also like to express my gratitude for my family’s support throughout the duration of this process. I especially express an appreciation for my first teacher, my mom, who spent many hours reading to me as a child and taught me how to read before I was 4 years old. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page SIGNATURE PAGE ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii ABSTRACT vi INTRODUCTION 1 Fallen Women and Prostitutes: Living Conditions in the 19th century and 20th century CHAPTER ONE 12 Louis May Alcott’s Work: A Kinder Heart Among the Sinners Than the Saints CHAPTER TWO 33 Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets: Maggie’s Hopeless Resignation to “go teh hell” CHAPTER THREE 63 William Faulkner’s Sanctuary: The Distortion of “Good” and “Bad” with Ruby Lamar and Temple Drake iv CHAPTER FOUR 91 John Steinbeck’s East of Eden: Cathy’s Resistance to Conform CONCLUSION 120 REFERENCES 123 v ABSTRACT THE GREAT SOCIAL EVIL: IMAGES OF FALLEN WOMEN AND PROSTITUTES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE FROM 1872 TO 1952 By Zabrina Zee Zahariades Master of Arts in Literature The focus of this thesis is to examine the literary representations of fallen women and prostitutes in America during the late-19th century and mid-20th century. I analyze how four American novelists between 1872 and 1952 constructed their fallen woman and prostitute characters. Although many studies have addressed the historical presence and sociological effects of prostitution, few studies have addressed how fallen women and prostitutes in American literature reflect the social mores of late-19th century and mid- 20th century America. I examine how the image of the fallen woman is depicted in Louisa May Alcott’s Work: A Story of Experience, and how prostitutes are portrayed in Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, William Faulkner’s Sanctuary, and John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. The four authors in this study portray fallen women and prostitutes in a variety of ways to represent the social ills in America. I analyze how these authors address the social perspectives of gender and sexuality during the different time periods described in their works, from Alcott’s sympathetic portrayal of Rachel to Steinbeck’s characterization of Cathy, a woman determined to obtain independence. vi INTRODUCTION Fallen Women and Prostitutes: Leading Causes in the 19th century and 20th century The focus of this thesis is to examine the literary representations of fallen women and prostitutes in America during the late-19th century and mid-20th century. I analyze how four American novelists between 1872 and 1952 constructed their fallen woman and prostitute characters. Although many studies have addressed the historical presence and sociological effects of prostitution, few studies have addressed how fallen women and prostitutes in American literature reflect the social mores of late-19th century and mid- 20th century America. I examine how the image of the fallen woman is depicted in Louisa May Alcott’s Work: A Story of Experience, and how prostitutes are portrayed in Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, William Faulkner’s Sanctuary, and John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. The four authors in this study portray fallen women and prostitutes in a variety of ways to represent the social ills in America. I analyze how these authors address the social perspectives of gender and sexuality during the different time periods described in their works, from Alcott’s sympathetic portrayal of Rachel to Steinbeck’s characterization of Cathy, a woman determined to obtain independence. In order to differentiate how unmarried, sexually active women were depicted during this time period, I examine the terms “fallen woman” and “prostitute.” Although the term “fallen woman” is often synonymous with “prostitute,” each term is defined differently. A woman who loses her “good” reputation by having sex outside of marriage 1 during the 19th and 20th century is labeled a “fallen woman,” and a person who intentionally has sex in exchange for money is considered a “prostitute.” Though having premarital sex may lead a woman to become a prostitute, it is not inevitable for a fallen woman to become a prostitute. Nevertheless, the authors depicted their respective societies as viewing both types of women as marginalized outcasts. Under certain circumstances, women were more likely to enter prostitution. For instance, if a fallen woman’s family refused to support her, she had to find a way to financially support herself, but her options were limited. If she found legitimate work, it was typically hard labor and she often earned an insufficient income. Choosing another option, she might have attempted to become a wealthy man’s mistress. Some women had to resort to prostitution, but prostitution came in a number of different social forms; for instance, a woman may become a courtesan, who was more socially tolerated as a prostitute because her business was solicited within the confines of a brothel and not advertised in the streets for everyone to bear witness, or she may become a socially ostracized streetwalker, desperately soliciting men on the streets for their pocket change. Women who were desperate enough to enter prostitution were socially viewed in a negative way because 19th and 20th century society judged women based on their compliance to traditional gender roles. Typically during this time, women were expected to become a “good” woman of True Womanhood, as Barbara Welter proposes, by following the honorable path of marriage and motherhood, while conducting themselves by obeying the “four cardinal virtues—piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity” (152). A woman, who was a ripe age for marriage, usually sixteen years old, was a piece of property to be “bought and sold as if they were cattle” (Caird 83). Simone de 2 Beauvoir notes that a young woman was trained from a young age to prepare to be a servant to men, particularly their husband, because she is “her husband’s prey, his possession” and is no longer a free woman (171). Not only did a woman have to give up a will of her own, she was expected to surrender her body as part of the marital contract. Circumstances Leading to American Prostitution: Throughout 19th century America, industrialization helped to cause severe problems of poverty, which was due to overpopulation and a lack of job opportunities. William Dwight Porter Bliss notes that during this time about 20% of the population in the major industrial states was poverty-stricken, and the nation as a whole was estimated at having 10,000,000 people in economic difficulties (941). As a result, some of these people resorted to robbery and prostitution in order to get money to survive. Bliss also discloses that only 36.5 % of the adult population in the United States was married (755). Though the dynamics of a traditional family unit were changing, the majority of society still expected traditional marriages to be upheld. Since there was a decreased rate in marriage, single women had to find a way to support themselves. While some women did not assume the traditional female roles of wives and mothers because they lacked opportunities for marriage, other women chose not to marry in order to free themselves from what they considered oppressive positions. These women had to find a career in order to obtain economic independence, but they often struggled to find a job, because “virtually all skilled jobs and access to occupational mobility were reserved for male workers” (Foner 1159). 3 Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace note that during this time, female wage earners were no longer discriminated against by just society; even the government was making it more difficult for single women to profit from their own labor. “The Industrial Congress adopted rigid positions on ‘woman’s place’ and said female wage work was ‘incompatible with the true dignity and nature of women.’ The real solution was for men to be paid a ‘family wage’ that would allow them to keep their wives at home, as did the men of the bourgeoisie” (Burrows and Wallace 801). Supporters of this position tried to discourage women from pursuing work, especially middle-class women, who were expected to assume traditional roles within the confine of their homes. However, some women had no other choice than to persist beyond these obstacles. When women were able to find work, it was typically in female defined positions as domestic helpers, seamstresses or laundrywomen and “another 25 percent earned their livings in factories and workshops” (Foner 1159). There were few options outside of these jobs, but working at any job for some wage was better than nothing. During this time, an estimated 40% of women wage earners were single, and some had children to provide for (Kleinberg 109). It seemed almost impossible for them to financially survive when they earned wages “between fifty cents and two dollars a week [while] (unskilled male laborers in other fields got seven dollars a week)” (Burrows and Wallace 665). Often times, these women workers earned only enough money to buy a scarce amount of food and rent meager shelter.