Industrialism: Does is create or destroy life?

Some people in today’s world identify Wall-Street as “the model” for American capitalism. Others recognize Wall Street as a conglomerate of financial mercenaries. A parallel can be drawn between Wall Street and Industrialism. People believe Wall Street to be a world of wealthy bystanders that don’t acknowledge the human life suffering outside of it. In The Tartarus of Maids, Herman Melville portrays a world conquered by machinery; a world where human life become slaves to industrialism. He describes machinery as “that [which] vaunted slave of humanity-here stood menially served by human beings, who served mutely and cringingly as the slave serves the Sultan” (Melville 1271). In other words, he states that human life is subjugated by machinery such as slaves are oppressed by owners. Melville incorporates the metaphorical ideas of life and death to paint the consequences of industrialism on humanity. Melville believes that while industrialism has given birth to a new form of economic power and wealth, it has simultaneously destroyed the very lives that keep the industrial machinery running. I agree with Melville that the new technology powering machinery becomes an instrument that creates and destroys life at once.

Melville draws a parallel between the machinery of industrialism and the bodily functions of women. When the narrator travels to the paper-mill, he notices a river running through Devil’s Dungeon called the Blood River because of its “brick colored stream” (Melville 1266). Melville’s description of the valley resembles a woman’s menstrual cycle. In addition, when Cupid guides the narrator to the ‘great-machine’, he detects this “strange, blood-like, abdominal heat” (Melville 1274) in the room that makes it difficult to breathe. These words attest to the parallel between the industrial machinery and human reproduction. This alludes to the fact that industrialism gives life to the few men that are well employed and wealthy, such as the narrator. However, Melville goes on to imply that the industry completely strips the reproductive responsibility of women, leading them to a life similar to death.

As the story concludes, the narrator asks the factory owner, “Why is it, Sir, that in most factories female operatives of whatever age, are indiscriminately called girls, never women?” (Melville 1278). The factory owner replies because they are generally unmarried. The factories “will not have married women…[because] we want none but steady workers” (Melville 1278). In other words, they are unable to become women because of their enslavement to industry and therefore, must forever be “girls” or as the factory owner describes them, “maids” (Melville 1278). The industry has stripped these girls of marriage and motherhood. This idea is further emphasized when the narrator compared the worker’s potential to John Locke’s comparison that, “the human mind at birth to a sheet of paper” (Melville 1276). Melville implies that these childless women now serve the reproductive interests of the paper mill. The parallel between the human mind and the paper suggests that industrialism has taken away the beauty of being a woman and as a result, these women become lifeless.