From the title onward, Melville juxtaposes unmarried men and unmarried women in “Paradise of Bachelors and Tartarus of Maids.” The structure of the story alone places these men and women in different physical spaces, both on the page and in locale. While the “paradise” of the bachelors is urban and luxurious, the hell that the women occupy is wild. The men reside in London, which would have been perceived as sophisticated and intellectual, while the women live in the mountains in New England. This comparison fits in with the concern about American identity and intellectualism in the nineteenth century. 

What I find most interesting about this story is that the narrator shares some opinions that are fairly progressive in terms of feminism. On page 1510 he says “[d]oes that thin cobweb there…does that never tear or break? It is marvelous fragile, and yet this machine it passes through is so mighty.” I cannot help but read this as a metaphor for women living in the nineteenth century. On the same page, the narrator responds to the women in the factory being called girls and asks “[w]hy is it, Sir, that in most factories, female operatives, of whatever age, are indiscriminately called girls, never women?” In this question, the narrator is pointing out the belittling manner in which the women are treated. Additionally, Melville makes what I believe is a clear statement on marriage by sending unmarried women to “hell” and unmarried men to “heaven,” highlighting the potentially oppressive nature of marriage for women.