Life as a Prostitute in The Painted Cohorts Essays -- Painted Cohorts

Life as a Prostitute in The multi-coloured CohortsIt was a dark, menacing night as she stood there in the shadows. hold for the finale of the show that was playing, she glanced toward the exit through which people would soon be leaving. The rich, as patrons of the theatre house, promised her a salary at least for today. Her tattered clothes revealed the effects of personal destitution the emaciated frame, that presently existed, harked masking upon a form she must have once possessed. Driven by poverty to the realms of painted cohorts, she makes up her face daily, distinguishing her life from the respected (264). She is an outcast, a leper, a member of the marginalized in society she envelops the some degraded of positions and sins against her body in order to survive. As she looks up, her eyes reflect a different kind of light, a glimmer of beauty that has not yet fade despite her present conditions. She was, at one time, a virtuous woman, most likely scorned by a dis honest love. Finding no comfort or pity for her prior mistakes, she must turn to the streets and hatch the inevitable - the dishonor and shame from her previous engagement will go on her unto death. Shunned from society she becomes the woman who sells herself for money and sadly finds no love. She is the abandoned, the betrayed, and the lost, embarrassed miss she is of the painted cohorts, the female cyprian of the streets (264). Prostitution in the nineteenth nose candy was perhaps one of the most degrading positions for a woman during the era. place by dress, makeup, and forward mannerisms, a woman employed within the logical argument was avoided by all respectable persons. Once tainted by the evil sin a woman could never return to good g... ...ation shows, as do the houses of assignation, she is a woman driven by her own thoughts and passions, the configuration of a spirit that while criticized will not be broken. She is a sexual being, independent and unique, an d she hints at the hope of society respecting her as such. She stands at a lower place the streetlight and waits for the theatre to open its doors. She looks toward the ground, knowing her unworthy position in her culture, and waits for a person to understand her circumstances, to see her not as the prostitute but as the woman who needs money, love, passion, or excitement to deputise the emptiness that led her to first begin her walk on these streets. plow Cited The Painted Cohorts selected readings on nineteenth-century prostitution from Stephen Crane, Maggie A Girl of the Streets, ed. Kevin J. Hayes (New York Bedford/St. Martins, 1999).