Ragtime

by

E. L. Doctorow

Evelyn Nesbit Character Analysis

Evelyn Nesbit is a historical character whose life intersects with Mother’s Younger Brother, Tateh, Little Girl, and fellow historical figure Emma Goldman (although there is no evidence to suggest that she and Goldman crossed paths in life). Born into a middle-class family, Evelyn falls into poverty after her father’s untimely death. By the time Nesbit is a teenager, she is working as an artists’ model and chorus dancer in New York. In New York, she meets Stanford White (with whom she begins an affair when she is just 15) and Harry K. Thaw, whom she ultimately marries. Her notoriety in American society and the press increases after Thaw publicly murders White out of jealousy over their sexual relationship. Evelyn supports Thaw before and during his trials for the murder. In the book, she discovers Tateh and Little Girl in the New York tenements during this period. She takes them under her wing because she sees some of her one experiences reflected in the beautiful but destitute Little Girl. When Tateh realizes who Nesbit really is, he turns his back on her. In loneliness and desperation, she pursues a friendship with Emma Goldman and begins a sexual relationship with Mother’s Younger Brother. However, despite Goldman’s encouragements to develop her social consciousness, Nesbit remains uncommitted to revolution (other than making financial donations to Goldman and others). She eventually leaves Younger Brother for a ragtime dancer in hopes of revitalizing her career before her beauty fades.

Evelyn Nesbit Quotes in Ragtime

The Ragtime quotes below are all either spoken by Evelyn Nesbit or refer to Evelyn Nesbit. 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:
The American Dream Theme Icon
).
Chapter 6 Quotes

One week later he took the girl down to the railroad station. She was in a contingent of two hundred going to Philadelphia. She was wearing a new cloak and a hat that kept her ears warm. He kept stealing glances at her. She was beautiful. She had a naturally regal posture. She was enjoying her new clothes. He was casual with her and tried not to be hurt. She had accepted the idea of leaving him without one word of protest. Of course, this was good for all concerned. But if she found it so easy, what would the future bring? She attracted people. […] Tateh was proud, but frightened too.

Related Characters: Tateh (Baron Ashkenazy), Evelyn Nesbit, Mother, Emma Goldman, Little Boy, Little Girl, Mameh
Page Number: 125-126
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

This was the day Evelyn Nesbit considered kidnapping the little girl and leaving Tateh to his fate. The old artists had never inquired of her name and knew nothing about her. It could be done. Instead, she threw herself into the family’s life with redoubled effort, coming with food, linens, and whatever else she could move past the old man’s tormented pride. She was insane with the desire to become one of them and drew Tateh out in conversation and learned from the girl how to sew knee pants. For hours each day, each evening, she lived as a woman in the Jewish slums, and was driven home by the Thaw chauffeur form a prearranged place many blocks away, always in despair.

Related Characters: Tateh (Baron Ashkenazy), Harry K. Thaw, Evelyn Nesbit, Little Girl, Mameh
Page Number: 49-50
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

So then Frick was able to get the government working for him and the state militia came in to surround the workers. At this point Berkman and I decided on our attentat. We would give the beleaguered workers heart. We would revolutionize their struggle. We would kill Frick. But we were in New York and we had no money. We needed money for a railroad ticket and a gun. And that’s when I put on embroidered underwear and walked 14th street. An old man gave me ten dollars and told me to go home. I borrowed the rest. But I would have done it if I had to. It was for the attentat. It was for Berkman and revolution.

Related Characters: Emma Goldman (speaker), Evelyn Nesbit, Alexander Berkman , Henry Clay Frick
Page Number: 59
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

Some of these men saw the way Evelyn’s face on the front of a newspaper sold out the edition. They realized that there was a process of magnification by which news events established certain individuals in the public consciousness as larger than life. These were the individuals who represented one desirable human characteristic to the exclusion of others. The businessmen wondered if they could create such individuals not from accidents of news events but from the deliberate manufactures of their own medium. If they could, more people would pay money for the picture shows. Thus did Evelyn provide the inspiration for the concept of the move star system and the model for every sex goddess from Theda Bara to Marilyn Monroe.

Related Characters: Tateh (Baron Ashkenazy), Harry K. Thaw, Evelyn Nesbit, Little Girl
Page Number: 84
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

There is no question then that Younger Brother was fortunate to conceive a loyalty to the colored man. Standing at the pond he heard the lapping of the water against the front fenders of the Model T. He noted that the hood was unlatched, and lifting and folding it back, saw that the wires had been torn from the engine. The sun was now setting and it threw a reflection of blue sky on the dark water of the pond. There ran through him a small current of rage, perhaps one-hundredth, he knew, of what Coalhouse Walker must have felt, and it was salutary.

Related Characters: Coalhouse Walker Jr. , Father, Mother’s Younger Brother, Evelyn Nesbit, Willie Conklin
Related Symbols: Model T
Page Number: 182-183
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Ragtime LitChart as a printable PDF.
Ragtime PDF

Evelyn Nesbit Quotes in Ragtime

The Ragtime quotes below are all either spoken by Evelyn Nesbit or refer to Evelyn Nesbit. 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:
The American Dream Theme Icon
).
Chapter 6 Quotes

One week later he took the girl down to the railroad station. She was in a contingent of two hundred going to Philadelphia. She was wearing a new cloak and a hat that kept her ears warm. He kept stealing glances at her. She was beautiful. She had a naturally regal posture. She was enjoying her new clothes. He was casual with her and tried not to be hurt. She had accepted the idea of leaving him without one word of protest. Of course, this was good for all concerned. But if she found it so easy, what would the future bring? She attracted people. […] Tateh was proud, but frightened too.

Related Characters: Tateh (Baron Ashkenazy), Evelyn Nesbit, Mother, Emma Goldman, Little Boy, Little Girl, Mameh
Page Number: 125-126
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

This was the day Evelyn Nesbit considered kidnapping the little girl and leaving Tateh to his fate. The old artists had never inquired of her name and knew nothing about her. It could be done. Instead, she threw herself into the family’s life with redoubled effort, coming with food, linens, and whatever else she could move past the old man’s tormented pride. She was insane with the desire to become one of them and drew Tateh out in conversation and learned from the girl how to sew knee pants. For hours each day, each evening, she lived as a woman in the Jewish slums, and was driven home by the Thaw chauffeur form a prearranged place many blocks away, always in despair.

Related Characters: Tateh (Baron Ashkenazy), Harry K. Thaw, Evelyn Nesbit, Little Girl, Mameh
Page Number: 49-50
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

So then Frick was able to get the government working for him and the state militia came in to surround the workers. At this point Berkman and I decided on our attentat. We would give the beleaguered workers heart. We would revolutionize their struggle. We would kill Frick. But we were in New York and we had no money. We needed money for a railroad ticket and a gun. And that’s when I put on embroidered underwear and walked 14th street. An old man gave me ten dollars and told me to go home. I borrowed the rest. But I would have done it if I had to. It was for the attentat. It was for Berkman and revolution.

Related Characters: Emma Goldman (speaker), Evelyn Nesbit, Alexander Berkman , Henry Clay Frick
Page Number: 59
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

Some of these men saw the way Evelyn’s face on the front of a newspaper sold out the edition. They realized that there was a process of magnification by which news events established certain individuals in the public consciousness as larger than life. These were the individuals who represented one desirable human characteristic to the exclusion of others. The businessmen wondered if they could create such individuals not from accidents of news events but from the deliberate manufactures of their own medium. If they could, more people would pay money for the picture shows. Thus did Evelyn provide the inspiration for the concept of the move star system and the model for every sex goddess from Theda Bara to Marilyn Monroe.

Related Characters: Tateh (Baron Ashkenazy), Harry K. Thaw, Evelyn Nesbit, Little Girl
Page Number: 84
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

There is no question then that Younger Brother was fortunate to conceive a loyalty to the colored man. Standing at the pond he heard the lapping of the water against the front fenders of the Model T. He noted that the hood was unlatched, and lifting and folding it back, saw that the wires had been torn from the engine. The sun was now setting and it threw a reflection of blue sky on the dark water of the pond. There ran through him a small current of rage, perhaps one-hundredth, he knew, of what Coalhouse Walker must have felt, and it was salutary.

Related Characters: Coalhouse Walker Jr. , Father, Mother’s Younger Brother, Evelyn Nesbit, Willie Conklin
Related Symbols: Model T
Page Number: 182-183
Explanation and Analysis: