Essay Questions

How does Herman Melville explore the issue of gender inequality in “Paradise of Bachelors and Tartarus of Maids and Other Stories”?

The author exposes the deeds of male lawyers to illustrate the subject of gender disparity. Male lawyers are fond of dining on healthy meals, using contented furnishings under the tree shades. The light women are there to work daily in a room where they produce paperwork like machines. According to the author, the lawyers take proceeds for doing nothing while the girls who toil in a room "stifling with a strange blood-like, abdominal heat" get nothing at the end of the day. The reader can see the imbalance between the two genders. The woman has been portrayed as an object to create wealth for the man.

Provide a brief description to show how the author uses ‘seeds’ as a symbol in his literary work.

The economic activity of the narrator is to distribute seeds. He buys envelopes to package seeds and sells them. The seeds in this scenario are used to symbolize fruitfulness or fertility. At the temple, bachelors are not able to leave any modern stamp or legacy behind. Additionally, at the paper mills, women employees are undressed of their sexuality. It is ironic that at the workplace, the machines are presumed to be more fertile and productive than women.

How does the author employ the use of the literary device metaphor? Give two examples.

The author uses the slave metaphorically to refer to the machines in the paper mill factory. Female workers are used as machines in paper mills. He is quoted saying “that vaunted slave of humanity” to refer to paper mill’s machinery. The second metaphor is the solace of domesticity. The narrator is invited to the Temple Inn and he describes it as well furnished as the solace of domesticity to refer to the off-limits of women. The Temple is designed for males only.