Nothing to frighten you like a big mustached oaf lumbering over you as you slowly awake from your dental surgery. I mean, yeah, we've all had that happen before. It didn't scar us for life or anything.
I found this scene, while highly disturbing, an interesting peek into the mind. It is the first time we see the doctor's Mr. Hyde rear his ugly head.
And oh, what an ugly head it is.
This may be the most unnerving scene within the whole book. The violence of later passages doesn't unnerve me quite like this window into the mind of the brute.
When McTeague puts Trina under, something awakens within. A Christian, of course, would call this the lust of the flesh. Norris, a naturalist, calls it brute desires. At this moment, a battle begins within McTeague. The war within is won at first. Though McTeague stands over Trina, powerless, unconscious, completely at the dentist's mercy, somehow he is able to subdue his brute instincts. The animal wave passes, and he settles for a kiss(still creepy) rather than what his flesh desired. In this passage, you truly feel like you are within the mind of the dentist. I find this much more uncomfortable than later violent events that we observe from without, rather from within. McTeague's mind, usually quite simple, for a moment becomes one that I would rather not experience from the inside.
The second disturbing scene takes place after the picnic with the Sieppes. McTeague is to spend the night in Trina's room.
A person's bedroom is a very intimate place; it is their tower of refuge, their fortress of solitude. Much is to be learned from a person's bedroom. It isn't long before McTeague is creeping around Trina's room, embracing the clothing that is covered with her scent.
Yeah, that's not creepy at all.
Mr. Sieppe, you really should be careful who you let date your daughter. I'd never let this guy in my little girl's room.
WC: 330
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