With the second drama scene in Stephen Crane's short story, Maggie: A Street Girl, the plot of the selected play is used ironically to provide insight into the hopes and concerns of its audience. Because theater is a form of escape for Maggie and for those in the Bowery building in particular, the conflicts between the characters reflect their reality very well and provoke raw and visceral reactions – both to their “imagined” condition. and “real” (31). . This is seen in the chosen melodrama in which "a heroine has been rescued from her guardian's palatial home", which is ironic in that its inevitably hopeful and happy ending simplifies and falsifies life - thus giving the The idea that those above the public are always happy and all those below are innocently unhappy, until they can improve their situation (31). The plot also reflects the audience's concerns, asserting that the "poor and virtuous" can "eventually defeat the rich and wicked", giving hope to those who were otherwise hopeless and playing on their subconscious desires - although they provide no real method of ascension. other than random acts of heroism (32). Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay This unrealistic promise of heroism is also ironic, because it's what likely leads Maggie to view Pete as her only means of survival. escape from predetermined reality, and gives reason for her attachment – ​​because she considers him her “hero with beautiful feelings” (31). Crane uses this example of disillusionment as a form of commentary on the poor's distorted understanding of social mobility, which he believes perpetuates the cycle of tenement poverty. Additionally, Crane's choice of diction in his descriptions of the audience has negative, monster-like connotations that serve as a more basic commentary on the audience's perceived ironic position of power when in the audience. theater. These "shady people" are, in Maggie's view, "unquestionably wicked men" and are seen throughout the play pouring out "curses" on equally wicked characters, who now represent the upper classes (31) . The audience is also seen vulgarly "whistling vice" but "clapping virtue" with the intention of showing support for these "unfortunate and... oppressed" characters with whom they now identify - unusually showing a new "sincere" outlook ". admiration for virtue” (31). This is very different from the proper etiquette of a traditional "uptown" theater, but understandable to a tenement audience fascinated by the theater's "transcendental realism" effect and hypnotized by the lessons of its plot, which gives them a new, third-person point of view and unites them under common feelings (31). Together, they “encouraged the struggling hero with shouts… mocked the villain… [and] sought out the painted misery and hugged it like a fellow creature” (31, 32). Their reactions to the play, as well as to the plot itself, reflect their own desires, and it is only within the theater that they have the power to secure these things and the position of " confront” and “denounce” the events. rich — which, unsurprisingly, is fully exploited (32). In Crane's narration of the scene, the reader is moved between a broad, generalized perspective and a descriptive perspective presented through Maggie's perspective, in order to give a” (32).