Before Evelyn
Nesbit’s encounter with the girl and Tateh, readers only know the basic facts.
She was involved in a scandal involving the shooting of Stanford White by Harry
K. Thaw. She gained most of her notoriety from modeling and, more importantly, being
romantically involved with rich, powerful men. She is incredibly bored
preparing to testify at the trial. The scandal only furthered her fame, evident
when Doctorow states “the press followed her every move” (22). Once she gets
away from the press and visits the Lower East Side, she encounters a young girl
who “gazed at Evelyn without curiosity. She was the most beautiful child Evelyn
had ever seen. A piece of clothesline was tied around her wrist. Evelyn stood
up, followed the clothesline, and found herself looking into the face of a mad
old man (…)” (Doctorow 42). Evelyn thus finds Tateh and the little girl.
After the
discovery of the little girl Evelyn proceeds to slowly, and inappropriately, force
herself into the family, primarily in a role she perceives as maternal to the
girl. Tateh is clearly uncomfortable with her visits. Nonetheless, she sees Tateh
and the girl often and helps care for her when she is sick. However, along the
way, Doctorow’s sentences and tone often make me question what Evelyn feels for
the girl. Is she drawn to the girl because she loves her, or sees a similarity
between herself and the girl, or another reason entirely?
Doctorow
undermines the validity of the emotional connection through wording and use of
irony. A prime example is this description of one of Evelyn’s visits: “She went
to Tateh’s corner, stood for her portrait and feasted her eyes on the little
girl at the end of the clothesline. She was infatuated.” (Doctorow 45).
“Feasted” and “infatuated” imply a fascination with the child as opposed to a
genuine love for her. The family appears to be Evelyn’s hobby. She pretends to
be poor without understanding that she is playing with real lives. Evelyn’s
obsessive behavior surrounding observing, visiting, and helping the family also
do not seem genuine because of the lack of emotion and motive.
Another potential
point where Doctorow has an opportunity to express what the girl meant to Evelyn
was after Tateh takes the girl and leaves Evelyn behind. Evelyn confides in
Emma Goldman about her life with the family. While Doctorow writes that Evelyn
“wept bitterly,” that emotional moment is directly undercut when Evelyn says,
“I have lost my urchin” in a possessive manner (58). Evelyn’s actions later in
the story, such as anonymously donating money to charity, show that she
cares/cared for the poor, through her experience with Tateh and the girl.
Portions where
Evelyn is shown as a character with a personality, motives, and emotions seem
to be downplayed by Doctorow. Is this deliberate in order to further exemplify
the irony in the situation? Or is it to give the tone of a historical account
by including less emotion and having readers fill in the emotion “gaps” with
how they think the character must have felt?
