# McTeague — Themes

> Major themes in McTeague by Frank Norris.

## Greed and Avarice

Trina's obsessive hoarding of her lottery winnings and McTeague's desire for wealth drive the narrative, leading to moral decay, violence, and ultimately tragedy.

## Determinism and Heredity

Characters are portrayed as products of their biology and environment, with McTeague's inherited alcoholism and brutish nature from his father shaping his inevitable downfall.

## Social Class and Decline

The novel traces the downward spiral of McTeague and Trina from modest middle-class respectability to poverty, homelessness, and savagery, highlighting the fragility of social status.

## Marriage and Domesticity

Marriage is depicted as a trap that transforms love into routine, resentment, and violence, as seen in the deteriorating relationship between McTeague and Trina.

## Violence and Brutality

Physical and psychological violence pervades the story, from McTeague's animalistic strength and abuse of Trina to Marcus's vengeful pursuit, culminating in murder.

## Isolation and Loneliness

Characters like Old Grannis and Miss Baker, and later Trina as a scrub-woman, experience profound isolation, reflecting the alienating nature of urban life.

## Obsession and Possession

McTeague's obsessive love for Trina, Trina's fixation on money, and Zerkow's mania for gold illustrate how irrational desires consume and destroy individuals.

## Nature vs. Civilization

The novel contrasts the veneer of civilized life with the raw, primal instincts that emerge under stress, as McTeague regresses to a miner's existence in the desert.

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