Little Gilt Prison

There are a lot of prisons in McTeague. The first, and most obvious, is that of McTeague's canary bird. This object shows up a lot in the story, which makes me believe that it must have some symbolic value.

McTeague is not highly symbolic in the way that The House of the Seven Gables is symbolic. The symbols are much more (and thankfully so) subtle than being pounded over the head with aristocratic chickens(although in McTeague we do have another bird symbol). One can't help but think that in some way Norris is comparing McTeague to the canary in the cage. The reason for my belief in this is the recurring word "prison" Norris uses when describing the cage.

Lynnae brought out an interesting idea in class. She suggests that the gold prison is symbolic of the way that the characters in the story are controlled by money. This is a plausible explanation, considering the fact that the word "gilt" or "gilded" is used to describe the cage throughout the story. This take certainly matches with the gold motif apparent in the novel.

In reading criticism for the story, I keep coming across fate. Certainly the actions in the story seem inevitable. In this case, I think it is possible that the cage could symbolize the fact that the characters in the story are prisoners of fate. Norris seems to believe that the characters do not have any choice in the story's outcome. The lives of Trina and McTeague are doomed the moment they lay eyes on each other.

One critic suggested that the bird prison represented the different cages that McTeague is placed in by Trina. After McTeague loses his job, Trina forces them to move into a smaller, cagelike apartment. The beast, McTeague, is placed in a prison much too small for him. The situation gets worse as Trina gets more miserly, McTeague's final cage being Zerkow's former apartment. McTeague, of course, rebels against the cage, and returns to nature.

In my opinion, I think the cage best symbolizes fate, a fate which has locked Trina and McTeague within itself. There is nothing that they can do. The fate will carry them through the happy times of their early marriage to the latter times of their downfall. They can not escape this fate. They are stuck within the cage; all events are out of their control.

WC: 398