Cane

by

Jean Toomer

Muriel Character Analysis

Muriel is a well-to-do, very beautiful Black woman living in Washington, D. C., under the watchful and solicitous care of Mrs. Pribby. She is Dan Moore’s love interest. Although she is physically attracted to Dan, she is leery of becoming involved with him, both because she worries that the jobless Dan can’t offer her a stable life and because some of his ideas strike her as odd. Muriel abandons a visit with Dan to attend the theater with her friend Bernice, where her striking beauty draws Mr. Barry’s attention.

Muriel Quotes in Cane

The Cane quotes below are all either spoken by Muriel or refer to Muriel. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Navigating Identity Theme Icon
).
25. Box Seat Quotes

Houses are shy girls whose eyes shine reticently upon the dusk body of the street. Upon the gleaming limbs and asphalt torso of a dreaming nigger. Shake your curled wool-blossoms, nigger. Open your liver lips to the lean, white spring. Stir the root of a withered people. Call to them from their houses, and teach them to dream.

Dark swaying forms of Negroes are street songs that woo virginal houses.

Dan Moore walks southward on Thirteenth Street. […] The eyes of houses faintly touch him as he passes by them. Soft girl-eyes, they set him singing. […] Floating away, they dally wistfully over the dusk body of the street. Come on, Dan Moore, come on. Dan sings. His voice is a little hoarse. It cracks. He strains to produce tones in keeping with the houses’ loveliness. Cant be done. He whistles. His notes are shrill. They hurt him.

Related Characters: Dan Moore , Muriel
Related Symbols: House
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:

Muriel has on an orange dress. Its color would clash with the crimson box-draperies, its color would contradict the sweet rose smile her face is bathed in, should she take her coat off. She’ll keep it on. Pale purple shadows rest on the planes of her cheeks. Deep purple comes from her thick-shocked hair. Orange of the dress goes well with these. Muriel presses her coat down around her shoulders. Teachers are not supposed to have bobbed hair. She’ll keep her hat on. She takes the first chair, and indicates that Bernice is to take the one directly behind her. […] To speak to Berny, she must turn. When she does, the audience is square upon her.

Related Characters: Dan Moore , Muriel, Bernice
Page Number: 81-82
Explanation and Analysis:

Dan: Old stuff. Muriel—bored. Must be. But she’ll smile and she’ll clap. Do what youre bid, you she-slave. Look at her. Sweet, tame woman in a brass box seat. Clap, smile, fawn, clap. Do what youre bid. Drag me in with you. Dirty me. Prop me in your brass box seat. I’m there, am I not? because of you. He-slave. Slave of a woman who is a slave. I’m a damned sight worse than you are. I sing your praises, Beauty! I exalt thee, O Muriel! A slave, thou are greater than all Freedom because I love thee.

Related Characters: Dan Moore (speaker), Muriel
Page Number: 84
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Cane LitChart as a printable PDF.
Cane PDF

Muriel Quotes in Cane

The Cane quotes below are all either spoken by Muriel or refer to Muriel. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Navigating Identity Theme Icon
).
25. Box Seat Quotes

Houses are shy girls whose eyes shine reticently upon the dusk body of the street. Upon the gleaming limbs and asphalt torso of a dreaming nigger. Shake your curled wool-blossoms, nigger. Open your liver lips to the lean, white spring. Stir the root of a withered people. Call to them from their houses, and teach them to dream.

Dark swaying forms of Negroes are street songs that woo virginal houses.

Dan Moore walks southward on Thirteenth Street. […] The eyes of houses faintly touch him as he passes by them. Soft girl-eyes, they set him singing. […] Floating away, they dally wistfully over the dusk body of the street. Come on, Dan Moore, come on. Dan sings. His voice is a little hoarse. It cracks. He strains to produce tones in keeping with the houses’ loveliness. Cant be done. He whistles. His notes are shrill. They hurt him.

Related Characters: Dan Moore , Muriel
Related Symbols: House
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:

Muriel has on an orange dress. Its color would clash with the crimson box-draperies, its color would contradict the sweet rose smile her face is bathed in, should she take her coat off. She’ll keep it on. Pale purple shadows rest on the planes of her cheeks. Deep purple comes from her thick-shocked hair. Orange of the dress goes well with these. Muriel presses her coat down around her shoulders. Teachers are not supposed to have bobbed hair. She’ll keep her hat on. She takes the first chair, and indicates that Bernice is to take the one directly behind her. […] To speak to Berny, she must turn. When she does, the audience is square upon her.

Related Characters: Dan Moore , Muriel, Bernice
Page Number: 81-82
Explanation and Analysis:

Dan: Old stuff. Muriel—bored. Must be. But she’ll smile and she’ll clap. Do what youre bid, you she-slave. Look at her. Sweet, tame woman in a brass box seat. Clap, smile, fawn, clap. Do what youre bid. Drag me in with you. Dirty me. Prop me in your brass box seat. I’m there, am I not? because of you. He-slave. Slave of a woman who is a slave. I’m a damned sight worse than you are. I sing your praises, Beauty! I exalt thee, O Muriel! A slave, thou are greater than all Freedom because I love thee.

Related Characters: Dan Moore (speaker), Muriel
Page Number: 84
Explanation and Analysis: