GoldandGirls

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The very last passage on page 241, before the next chapter, caught my eye.  Margaret is shown looking at her reflection wearing the Jewels she found in her wardrobe.  Before I get to my point can we just take a minute and acknowledge that Mephistopheles and Faust are weirdos? They barely know her (not to mention the fact she knows them even less) and Faust came into her room, at night, without her knowing and fawned all over everything like he was high off of his testosterone. And instead of giving her the gift like any normal human being would give to someone they like, it was put in her wardrobe. She's also around 14 years old ??? Because that's not weird at all....

Back to my topic.  While Margaret is staring at her reflection adorned in the newly acquired jewelry, she says a few things that really outline her situation.  
"What good is youth and beauty for the like of us! They say, 'All that is very good.' and then they leave us as we are. Their praise is half in pity. They race after gold and cling to gold, and we stay poor forever."
We know Margaret is a peasant so she doesn't have a significant amount of money or status, but she is young and extremely beautiful.  It sounds like she's questioning the value of her beauty because in the end she will get older and her youthful appearance will fade. The attention she gets from her body will not last forever and once it is gone she will still be poor and nothing will have changed. She even says that ''Their praise is half in pity", meaning that half of the reason they even complement her is because they know she is poor and will most likely never be anything other than a peasant.  Something else rather unsettling about this is that it seems she is being looked at, not as a person with feelings and thoughts, but as an object for brief amusement (Hmmm this seems oddly familiar). This passage is sad and what makes it worse is that something to this degree still happens today. I wonder though who the "they" she is referring to. Is she referring to all wealthy people or maybe men?

I commented on Michael's and Phillips's posts

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 30, 2017 at 4:37 PM

    I think this is such an interesting observation that you have made. For your question, I think it could be both. Based on the time period, there was not much wiggle room and rising to success from a low class. Though it was not impossible, your history counted for something and you would probably always be seen as some sort of outcast in a wealthier class. Women haven't even more rough, as the only way for them to rise in class was through marriage, and many times rich men only used peasant girls as love affairs. I think Margaret's distrust in Faust in the end is explained by this historical understanding. Being of low class was despairing and religion was the only redeeming quality they could hold to. This is why so much shame came from a woman that was driven by only impassioned affairs. I think this moment for Margaret was really huge, and a deciding factor for allowing herself to become attached and enter such an unhealthy love affair. She saw no value to her existence when basing it on ability to succeed and her borne class.

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  2. Zelda PeachOctober 31, 2017 at 9:54 AM

    Yes!! Faust and Mephistopheles are VERY creepy and inappropriate towards Margarete. They act almost like stalkers. It is sad how Margarete only sees her self of any worth by being young and beautiful. What is even worse though is that this idea that Margarete has is then confirmed by Faust's actions!! He totally treats her as an object only pursuing her for body.

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