Magic again

Here's another post on Magic from me. I had another better thought on it. I want to discuss the violence and prostitution in the story.

At first I wasn't sure if there was prostitution in this story. I caught on near the end of the story when the men are asking for Ninette. I wrote "brothel?" next to the paragraph and continued reading. The second time I read it I can definitely see that the story this serving woman is telling is about a brothel and a fight between one of the prostitutes and the madam. In the beginning where the serving woman, our narrator, says "maybe you don't know what is a fancy house?" she is talking about a brothel. Madam Blanchard is a wealthy woman so she knows wealthy houses but she wouldn't know about a brothel. The madam in the story is also paying Ninette though Ninette does not seem to be a servant. In fact she is a prostitute working in the house. She gets paid for the male visitors she gets. When I first read male visitors, I innocently thought her male friends were just visiting her. Of course, when she is accused of stealing from them it let's the readers know that when the men visit it has something to do with money.

The second thing that jumped out at me is the violence in this story. There is violence in ever part of it. The relationship between the madam and the prostitute is obviously violent since they were known to beat each other up with bottles. However, there is even an undertone of violence between our narrator and Madam Blanchard when she combs her hair too hard. Even the end is violent. Ninette is brought back to the brothel against her will through Magic. Forcing someone into something against their will is innately violent.

Why are the two biggest themes in this story prostitution and violence? Are we to learn that promiscuity is evil through this comparison. Prostitution is the oldest profession and was long accepted as one of the only ways women could be independent. However, prostitution is violent. The prostitutes are owned by the madams and hardly have any rights of their own. Once men pay for a woman there is little he can't do to her. Is Porter telling us that this is a vicious circle that, in the end, can't be solved? There is violence through the whole story but when Ninette runs away she has the chance to escape it. Instead she doesn't escape and is brought back to the violent life through magic. Violence can't end.