McTeague

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McTeague
Author	Frank Norris
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Doubleday & McClure
Publication date	1899
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
ISBN	NA

McTeague is a novel by Frank Norris. First published in 1899, it is set in San Francisco. The protagonist is a simple dentist named McTeague. The narrator never reveals McTeague's first name; he is referred to only as "Mac" by the other characters in the novel. In Erich von Stroheim's film adaptation, Greed, his first name is said to be John at one point, but there is no basis for this in the novel. The novel was also the basis of an opera by Robert Altman, William Bolcom, and Arnold Weinstein.

[edit] Plot summary

(This summarizes the main plot only: there are two subplots, each of which contrasts with the main plot but only slightly interacts with it.)

McTeague is happy with his current life as he has a limited intellect and has done very well for himself, particularly considering his upbringing in a poor miner's family. This all changes when he is introduced to Trina, the cousin of Marcus, McTeague's best friend. Initially, Marcus is courting Trina, but he steps aside after McTeague becomes infatuated with her while working on her teeth. McTeague begins to successfully woo Trina. It is just after McTeague and Trina have kissed and declared their love for each other that Trina finds she has a winning lottery ticket. Trina buys the ticket while in McTeague's office when they first meet and discovers she is the winner straight after McTeague takes her and her parents on a very formal date to the opera. In the ensuing celebration McTeague announces his intention to marry Trina. That night Marcus starts to feel jealous of McTeague knowing he would have gained from Trina's lucky win if he had not stood aside.

The two are married in May and McTeague begins to feel they should be living more luxuriously, his simple head filled with visions from all the talk about the big lottery win. Instead, Trina insists they should live off the interest from the $5,000 prize money plus Mac's earnings from his dental practice, while adding to their savings whenever possible. To this end Trina invests the $5,000 with her uncle's firm and receives a monthly interest. Though the two are happy together as they begin living as a couple, this happiness is offset by the deterioration in Marcus and Mac's friendship. Marcus eventually demands "his share" of the money one night when McTeague comes across him drinking and debating politics with his friends at the corner grocery. Marcus works himself into a frenzy and ends up breaking Mac's pipe and throwing his pocket knife into the wall before he storms out.

Catastrophe soon strikes the McTeagues when a person unknown, but suspected by them to be Marcus, reports McTeague to the City for practicing dentistry without a license or degree. He soon loses his practice and the couple is forced to move into successively poorer quarters as the former dentist drifts through a series of jobs. The second half of the novel deals mainly in the details of these developments and as Trina becomes more and more miserly, the couple's life together deteriorates and, finally, McTeague leaves. Meanwhile, Trina falls completely under the spell of her money and withdraws it in gold from her uncle's firm so she can admire and handle the coins in her room, at one point spreading them over her bed and rolling around in them. When McTeague returns, she refuses to give him any money. An enraged McTeague finally beats her to death, then takes the money and flees to the mining communities he left years before. Somehow fearing he is being pursued, he soon leaves and makes his way south, and even briefly forms a partnership with another miner. Meanwhile, Marcus hears about the murder and goes after McTeague, finally catching him in Death Valley. The two fight over Trina's $5,000. Finally, McTeague kills Marcus, but as he dies, Marcus handcuffs himself to McTeague. The book ends with McTeague helplessly stranded in Death Valley, handcuffed to Marcus's corpse.

[edit] Major themes

The novel deals with many concepts of realism and naturalism, especially the idea that humans are ultimately controlled by inherited instincts and environmental forces. Thus, it appears that McTeague suffers from the "foul stream of hereditary evil" that runs within him. McTeague struggles against the "brute" within, but ultimately succumbs to it, as evidenced by his brutal murder of Trina. The other characters in the book seem to make much less of an attempt to fight their own instincts, especially that of collecting and hoarding money. This greed is the most powerful force in the book, eventually destroying every major character.