McTeague

by

Frank Norris

Maria Macapa Character Analysis

Maria Macapa is a washerwoman and junk dealer who frequently visits McTeague’s dental office. Maria is of Mexican descent and is portrayed as somewhat mentally unstable. She often tells stories of her family’s lost wealth, particularly about gold dishes that were supposedly part of her family’s inheritance. These stories fuel Zerkow’s obsession with gold until he eventually descends into madness and kills her.

Maria Macapa Quotes in McTeague

The McTeague quotes below are all either spoken by Maria Macapa or refer to Maria Macapa. 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:
Greed and Self-Destruction Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

Maria found Zerkow himself in the back room, cooking some sort of a meal over an alcohol stove. Zerkow was a Polish Jew—curiously enough his hair was fiery red. He was a dry, shriveled old man of sixty odd. He had the thin, eager, cat-like lips of the covetous; eyes that had grown “keen as those of a lynx from long searching amidst muck and debris; and claw-like, prehensile fingers—the fingers of a man who accumulates, but never disburses. It was impossible to look at Zerkow and not know instantly that greed—inordinate, insatiable greed—was the dominant passion of the man.

Related Characters: Zerkow, Maria Macapa
Page Number: 34
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

Zerkow had come to believe in this story infallibly. He was immovably persuaded that at one time Maria or Maria’s people had possessed these hundred golden dishes. In his perverted mind the hallucination had developed still further. Not only had that service of gold plate once existed, but it existed now, entire, intact; not a single burnished golden piece of it was missing. It was somewhere, somebody had it, locked away in that leather trunk with its quilted lining and round brass locks. It was to be searched for and secured, to be fought for, to be gained at all hazards.

Related Characters: Zerkow, Maria Macapa
Page Number: 189
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

And the tooth, the gigantic golden molar of French gilt, enormous and ungainly, sprawled its branching prongs in one corner of the room, by the footboard of the bed. The McTeague’s had come to use it as a sort of substitute for a table. After breakfast and supper Trina piled the plates and greasy dishes upon it to have them out of the way.

Related Characters: McTeague, Trina Sieppe, Zerkow, Maria Macapa
Related Symbols: The Gilded Tooth
Page Number: 266
Explanation and Analysis:
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Maria Macapa Quotes in McTeague

The McTeague quotes below are all either spoken by Maria Macapa or refer to Maria Macapa. 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:
Greed and Self-Destruction Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

Maria found Zerkow himself in the back room, cooking some sort of a meal over an alcohol stove. Zerkow was a Polish Jew—curiously enough his hair was fiery red. He was a dry, shriveled old man of sixty odd. He had the thin, eager, cat-like lips of the covetous; eyes that had grown “keen as those of a lynx from long searching amidst muck and debris; and claw-like, prehensile fingers—the fingers of a man who accumulates, but never disburses. It was impossible to look at Zerkow and not know instantly that greed—inordinate, insatiable greed—was the dominant passion of the man.

Related Characters: Zerkow, Maria Macapa
Page Number: 34
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

Zerkow had come to believe in this story infallibly. He was immovably persuaded that at one time Maria or Maria’s people had possessed these hundred golden dishes. In his perverted mind the hallucination had developed still further. Not only had that service of gold plate once existed, but it existed now, entire, intact; not a single burnished golden piece of it was missing. It was somewhere, somebody had it, locked away in that leather trunk with its quilted lining and round brass locks. It was to be searched for and secured, to be fought for, to be gained at all hazards.

Related Characters: Zerkow, Maria Macapa
Page Number: 189
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

And the tooth, the gigantic golden molar of French gilt, enormous and ungainly, sprawled its branching prongs in one corner of the room, by the footboard of the bed. The McTeague’s had come to use it as a sort of substitute for a table. After breakfast and supper Trina piled the plates and greasy dishes upon it to have them out of the way.

Related Characters: McTeague, Trina Sieppe, Zerkow, Maria Macapa
Related Symbols: The Gilded Tooth
Page Number: 266
Explanation and Analysis: