Upon reading “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids” I already had an idea about the contrasting worlds Melville was going to write about. Perhaps Melville was setting up a story foil, emphasizing differences by providing contrasting settings. Within these two stories, we are taken from a gluttonous social order of bachelors in London to the secluded factory near Woedolor Mountain. Accepting the obvious differences between both settings, we can agree that similarity exists between the paradise of bachelors and the tartarus of maids.
Isolation, the perfect ingredient for ignorance, keeps the divine world of luxury far from anything out of the ordinary. For the bachelors, their “Temple is, indeed a city by itself”, where the men miss out on a part of life that is necessary to explain the difference between paradise and Tartarus (Melville 1259). The isolation is not only geographical, but between the bachelors themselves. The lack of diversity within the group of bachelors brings about a saddening truth which is revealed when they all get together for a drinking session. The men share “all sorts of pleasant stories” about other times they indulged in ‘elaborate splendors” and things that are related (Melville 1263). They feast off the brilliance of each other’s lives, but there is no need to live vicariously because the men have nothing to be envious of.
However, I find this endless bachelor party deficient of the most important thing men want, sex. Is it true that a society of satisfied bachelors can exist without the longing for sex? Not in my opinion. Maybe Melville wants to keep women out of his story for his strong point of gender inequality, but in reality we do not find this type of man, and especially this type of bachelor. The term bachelor in itself puts an image of a young, sex driven, male type “Runaround Sue” character into my head, and I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking this way. But how is it that in “The Tartarus of Maids” the man that shows the narrator around the factory is named Cupid. After all it can’t be a coincidence that Cupid is the god of desire, affection and erotic love, and the name of man who works in a factory that is devoid of all those things. Cupid explains that they only hire “maids” because they are steady workers, assuming that married women are well off because of their husbands, or will not leave their husbands for secluded job. There is a subtle similarity between the “blank paper” and the maids that work in the factory that make it (Melville 1272). Both are in abundance, useful for one thing, and easily replaced. A sad reality.
I agree that the bachelors are living in ignorance because of their isolation from the rest of the world. I also thought it was interesting the idea you brought up in the last paragraph. I completely overlooked the fact that the man showing the narrator around was named Cupid. However, when you mentioned that these bachelors can’t live in a society without sex, I don’t think these men just live in Paradise of Bachelors. The narrator states, “Almost all of them were travelers” (1286). So I think this is not a society in which these men stay permanently, but that they constantly come and go.
I think it is very interesting how you pointed out the lack of sex and emotion in the text. I agree with your assertion that it seems odd that the men are completely satisfied with a life devoid of these commonly crucial elements of happiness. I think Melville is trying to comment on the fact that even though the bachelors seem to have much more than the maids, they are actually very similar. Industrialization has taken away important human emotions from both classes.
Nice points, Sam, and nice rejoinders, Mariah and Erica. Although, Erica, I’m curious to where you see the industrialization happening in the Paradise of Bachelors…