Yes! The whole novel is focused on money. As a naturalist, one of Norris's beliefs, apparently, was that people can be innately criminal (this is based on Cesare Lombroso's work from the 19th century). So McTeague and everyone else in his working class life don't have the capacity to be any better than money-grubbing and morally bankrupt.
One of the things I like least about the novel is the way that the two women who are murdered are implicitly blamed for their physical abuse and eventual deaths. McTeague is a terrible person, but his wife's thrift drives him to become worse. Maria's husband marries her because of the stories she tells about golden dishes, but then he kills her when she repudiates those stories.
And in the end, nobody gets the money they were all so keen to possess.
As far as Waters go, I am going to reread Tipping the Velvet next because I have it here, and then I will check out The Paying Guests!
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One of the things I like least about the novel is the way that the two women who are murdered are implicitly blamed for their physical abuse and eventual deaths. McTeague is a terrible person, but his wife's thrift drives him to become worse. Maria's husband marries her because of the stories she tells about golden dishes, but then he kills her when she repudiates those stories.
And in the end, nobody gets the money they were all so keen to possess.
As far as Waters go, I am going to reread Tipping the Velvet next because I have it here, and then I will check out The Paying Guests!