In the play Margaret Fleming, we shift from a melodrama style to realism. Not only us this a realistic play and the characters are more developed for psychological analysis, but naturalism is introduced. Instead of focusing on the plot of the play, I am going to focus on American literary realism and naturalism as I relate it to Disney’s well known movie, Tarzan.
American literary realism juxtaposes rural vs. urban, farm vs. country, immigration, rise of investigative journalism, and the camera for “capturing” reality. Almost all of these aspects are evident in Tarzan. If you’re wondering how immigration plays a role, its more of the whites becoming immigrants to the jungle during the imperialism time; the time when the British begin taking land in Africa and is the background to why Jane and her father arrive in Tarzan’s land. Jane and her father are both, I would say, scientists and are interesting in investigating the animals and the environment that have discovered. They use cameras to document the reality of their surroundings and to capture evidence. In Margaret Fleming, immigration is evident based on Lucy’s character; she is an immigrant from Germany.
Her affair with Philip speaks not only of how easily immigrants were taken advantage of, but the “beast” qualities of humans and naturalism. The Human Beast concept saw hereditary and environment as influences on human motivation and behavior. This is interesting to me because that’s basically what Jane and her father are studying in the jungle, especially Tarzan himself, who is basically a “beast” because of his animalistic characteristics. The point of naturalism is to expose social evils and truth. In Tarzan, the evils of imperialism and captivity of animals was evident.
“Maria! Stop! How dare you talk to me like that? Give me that pistol. You think-I-am happy-because i am his wife? Why, you poor fool, that girl never in all her life suffered one thousandth part what I have suffered in theses past five minutes.” Margaret Fleming, the exposed truths of what may happen behind closed doors of a “happy couple” and the norm to take advantage of immigrants.
Comments
NICK STONE
ROBIN HUTCHINS
DACIA MCBRIDE
Questions
Was Philip a representation of the Human Beast?
If Phil did the wrong deed, why is Margaret paying the consequence and having to take care of the child?
What made Margaret want to take care of the child and how does this reflect human nature in women?
Stark Drama Tales 
I think Philip was definitely the representation of the human beast in this play. At one point, towards the end, Philip even justifies his actions by saying: “Philip: Men as a rule, do not consider others when urged on by their desires.” In this way, he attempts to remove any blame from himself by arguing that he was a slave to his urges and thus can not be held accountable.
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