Frank's Fourth Circle of Hell

            In the first half of McTeague by Frank Norris, one passage summarizes the progression of McTeague and his friends:

“All at once there was a report like a pistol. The men started in their places. Mrs. Sieppe uttered a muffled shriek. The waiter from the cheap restaurant, hired as Maria’s assistant, rose from a bending posture, a champagne bottle frothing in his hand; he was grinning from ear to ear . . . Hardly one of them had ever tasted champagne before. The moment’s silence was broken by McTeague exclaiming with a long breath of satisfaction: ‘That’s the best beer I ever drank . . . .’” (132)

Norris juxtaposes high society, represented by champagne, with the lower class and unintelligent McTeague. His sudden draft into the high society opportunity, provided by his new wife’s small fortune, upsets the balance that he maintained before.

             The worst part is McTeague’s gradual but inescapable loss of his friend Marcus. Although he imposes himself upon McTeague early in the novel, Marcus provides the friendship McTeague desires. When Trina wins her money, however, Norris introduces a responsibility no one can handle. The money becomes everyone’s idol. Trina herself controls the money and does not surrender it to her husband. The effort appears noble, but (just as Dante illustrates in his fourth circle) a miser and a prodigal are equally greedy. One could even argue the unspent sum corrupts the group more, becoming an unseen ideal prize.

            McTeague could normally preserve hope, as he did desire Trina before she had money, but Marcus’s monetary greed forces the reader to reexamine each character’s motives. Could McTeague have wanted Trina just because Marcus had her? Norris certainly introduces the question. The rest of the novel may tell.