McTeague

Regarding the question I came up with in class today, I've been trying to decide how I feel about McTeague as a character so far.  My initial impression of him was of am immense, bumbling oaf that was slow and often frustrating.  As is my tendency, I immediately felt guilty for judging him so harshly and tried to look at him more sympathetically.  "Dentist" is probably one of the last things that I would come up with if I were to guess McTeague's profession, which makes me wonder how he ended up where he is.  "Mine Worker" seems much more fitting for him.  I would imagine that McTeague could easily feel out of place in his line of work, and probably in society in general.  He has his set routine, a very small group of people with whom he associates with - basically a very limited sphere in which he exists.  Did he end up here by choice?  If not, what were the circumstances?  Broadening his social horizons opens up the potential for people to notice his mental and societal shortcomings or ineptitude, and who wouldn't want to avoid that?  Meeting and marrying Trina made him much more vulnerable in that sense.  His attitude toward marriage and his wife often verge on repellent in my eyes, but some of that is just a product of the times.  Wives were expected to shape their lives around their husbands and their families.  Trina is in the unique position of having acquired a large amount of wealth, and McTeague is in the unique position of being married to a person who has acquired a large amount of wealth, and doesn't react in the way he thinks they should.  I find it difficult to regard Trina as blameless in the downfall of their relationship, but her behavior did not warrant her death.  McTeague was simply at the end of his rope, and lacked the faculties to deal with it in a healthy way.  He appears to be baffled by numerous things throughout the novel, and unable to wrap his head around foreign occurrences.  He reacts in a primal, animalistic way that is shocking and makes him a challenging character.