ETHICAL CORRUPTION IN FINANCIAL SUCCESS: TRAUMATIC ELEMENTS IN STEPHEN CRANE’S MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS

Abstract

The aim of present study is to examine the traumatic elements in Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets with special reference to financial success which create moral and ethical corruption. The researcher highlighted the difference between ideals and realities, fear and courage, imaginative image and desire, ethics and violation that leads to alienation in the novel. Maggie, the heroine of the novel, dreams of escape from the received identity and struggled to find fairyland prince who will be a source of achieved identity with a financial success. The false illusions were disclosed gradually and Maggie became a reluctant prostitute. The sexual social contract violated by the protagonist. The society rejected her due to her involvement in below standard activities which come to an end with suicide. The findings of the study were discussed with special reference to unlimited desire which is the cause of personality destruction or self-construction without any ethical or moral support. Shame is depicted as an unnecessary weight placed on the shoulders of a character which lead to ultimate destruction.