Ragtime

by

E. L. Doctorow

Harry K. Thaw Character Analysis

Harry K. Thaw is a historical playboy and criminal whose shocking crime—the public and cold-blooded murder of famed architect Stanford White—is the historical backdrop for the early chapters of the book. Born into a wealthy and privileged family, Thaw shows signs of mental instability from a young age, but his parents’ wealth and status keep him out of legal trouble. He falls in love with chorus dancer and White associate Evelyn Nesbit. He ultimately convinces Nesbit to marry him, despite his physically and sexually abusive behavior toward her. While incarcerated in the Tombs awaiting his murder trials, Thaw’s wealth and status allow him privileges and amenities denied to most jailed individuals. He pays Evelyn handsomely for being a favorable witness during his trial, but he divorces her afterward, in part because she has been having an affair with Mother’s Younger Brother. The court sentences Thaw to life imprisonment at the Matteawan Hospital for the Criminally Insane, but he escapes after a few years of confinement and flees to Canada; following his extradition, the courts declare him rehabilitated and release him in 1915. Within a year, he’s in jail again on charges of grooming, kidnapping, beating, and sexually assaulting a teenage boy from Missouri. After serving his sentence for that crime, he spends his later years as a relatively stable—if eccentric—free man who volunteers as a firefighter and loves to march in local parades.

Harry K. Thaw Quotes in Ragtime

The Ragtime quotes below are all either spoken by Harry K. Thaw or refer to Harry K. Thaw. 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 5 Quotes

The prisoner was sitting at a table laid with linen and service. On the table were the remains of a large meal. An empty bottle of champagne was stuck upside down in a cooler. The iron cot was covered with a quilted spread and throw pillows. A Regency armoire stood against the stone wall. The ceiling fixture had been ornamented with a Tiffany lampshade. Houdini could not help staring. The prisoner’s cell glowed like a stage in the perpetual dusk of the cavernous prison. The prisoner stood up and waved, a stately gesture, and his wide mouth offered the trace of a smile.

Related Characters: Harry Houdini, Harry K. Thaw, Stanford White
Page Number: 30
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

Millions of men were out of work. Those fortunate enough to have jobs were dared to form unions. Courts enjoined them, police busted their heads, their leaders were jailed and new men took their jobs. A union was an affront to God. The laboring man would be protected and cared for not by the labor agitators, said one wealthy man, but by the Christian men to whom God in his infinite wisdom had given the control of the property interests of this country. If all else failed the troops were called out. […] In the coal fields a miner made a dollar sixty a day if he could dig three tons. He lived in the company’s shacks and bought his food from the company stores. On the tobacco farms Negroes stripped tobacco leaves thirteen hours a day and earned six cents an hour, man, woman, or child.

Related Characters: Father, Tateh (Baron Ashkenazy), Harry K. Thaw, Little Girl, Stanford White , Mameh, Sigmund Freud
Page Number: 39
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 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:
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Ragtime PDF

Harry K. Thaw Quotes in Ragtime

The Ragtime quotes below are all either spoken by Harry K. Thaw or refer to Harry K. Thaw. 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 5 Quotes

The prisoner was sitting at a table laid with linen and service. On the table were the remains of a large meal. An empty bottle of champagne was stuck upside down in a cooler. The iron cot was covered with a quilted spread and throw pillows. A Regency armoire stood against the stone wall. The ceiling fixture had been ornamented with a Tiffany lampshade. Houdini could not help staring. The prisoner’s cell glowed like a stage in the perpetual dusk of the cavernous prison. The prisoner stood up and waved, a stately gesture, and his wide mouth offered the trace of a smile.

Related Characters: Harry Houdini, Harry K. Thaw, Stanford White
Page Number: 30
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

Millions of men were out of work. Those fortunate enough to have jobs were dared to form unions. Courts enjoined them, police busted their heads, their leaders were jailed and new men took their jobs. A union was an affront to God. The laboring man would be protected and cared for not by the labor agitators, said one wealthy man, but by the Christian men to whom God in his infinite wisdom had given the control of the property interests of this country. If all else failed the troops were called out. […] In the coal fields a miner made a dollar sixty a day if he could dig three tons. He lived in the company’s shacks and bought his food from the company stores. On the tobacco farms Negroes stripped tobacco leaves thirteen hours a day and earned six cents an hour, man, woman, or child.

Related Characters: Father, Tateh (Baron Ashkenazy), Harry K. Thaw, Little Girl, Stanford White , Mameh, Sigmund Freud
Page Number: 39
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 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: