Tartarus Of Maids Meaning

The story, Tartarus of Maids by Herman Melville, is about a seeds man who takes a trip out of town to visit a paper mill. When the seeds man goes to the paper mill he asks for a tour. On this tour the seeds man realizes that the only people working at the paper mill, or at least on the machines are women. The seeds man seems very shocked and soon becomes uncomfortable by the situation going on in the paper mill. That is a very short summary of the story, however, if you look deeper there are many different symbols depicted in the story that give it a much deeper meaning. One symbol in the story is that the machine takes 9 minutes to complete a full cycle. At first glance, one would assume this is just a simple time frame that has no meaning, but when …show more content…
In mythology, Cupid is the God of love and affection. This is a symbol because all of these women will more than likely never have the one thing that Cupid represent, which is love. They devote their whole life to the machine and they never get the chance to fall in love. The fact that the tour guides name is Cupid, reminds us of that fact. Black, the seeds man’s horse, is also a symbol in the story. Black is a symbol because, out of all the names the horse could have had, Melville chose Black to show that in this dreary, almost depressing story, there seems to be no color. For example, when the seeds man was traveling to the paper mill, everything was white and covered with snow. At the paper mill, the only job is to produce plain white paper. The whole setting of the story is in black and white. The condition of the women is also a symbol. The women’s working conditions were very unhealthy. The women are described as having very pale cheeks and looking like they are not getting their proper vitamins or nutrients. This is a symbol because it shows that when the women are sacrificing themselves for money and technology, which is considered incredibly