Power Relations in Melville’s The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Power Relations in Melvilles The heaven of Bachelors and the Tartarus of MaidsIn the mid-nineteenth century, the United States heralded the coming of the new industrial order. With the climax of railroads, industrialization went into full swing. Factories and mills appe ard and multiplied, and the push for economic progress became the dominating narrative of the country. Still, there was a conscious effort to avoid the grossness and poverty so prevalent in European mill townsfolks. Specifically, the town of Lowell, Massachusetts, was held up as an exemplary model of industrial utopia. The mill town included beautiful landscaping and dormitories for the women workers. Indeed, it looked much like a university campus (Klein 231). Nevertheless, this idealized vision eventually gave way to the reality of human greed. The female factory workers worked long hours for little pay as their health deteriorated from the hazardous conditions (238). (Specifically, Carsons Mill in Dalton, Massachusetts, served as the model for Melvilles short composition Melville 2437.) In this way, industrialization (and the subsequent desire for economic wealth) became incompatible with elected principles. Originally, the prevailing consciousness was that industrialization would further democracy and the two would last a complimentary pair. However, the reality was that these societal changes brought economic divisions the boundaries were drawn more(prenominal) clearly between the privileged frame and the working class. Industrialization at last results in the separation of the classes and the subsequent dialectical tension of production and consumption. This Manichaean separation is made possible through the machine, the integral element that cements the odds-on distribution of index number. In his moral diptych, Melville questions industrialization by exploring these class divisions and the power relations within them. Ultimately, he concludes that it re sults in an exploitative system that thrives on both connection and isolation. Although the two spheres are physically and emotionally separated, they compute on each other for their continuation. Melvilles The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids expertly shows this interrelation between the owners of the means of production (the bachelors) and the workers (the maids), and how it finally results in the oppression of the workers. The offset part of the tale illustrates the paradoxical life of the industrial class they are gluttonous consumers and yet live out an empty existence. This wealthy class is represented in the form of bachelor lawyers.