Life as a Prostitute in The Painted Cohorts It was a dark and brooding night as she stood there in the shadows. Waiting for the end of the show that was playing, he looked towards the exit where people would soon be exiting. The rich, as patrons of the theater, promised her a salary at least for today. His tattered clothes revealed the effects of personal poverty; the emaciated figure, which existed at the moment, was reminiscent of a body he must have once possessed. Driven by poverty in the realms of the "painted cohorts," she puts makeup on her face daily, distinguishing her life from the respected one (264). She is an outcast, a leper, an outcast of society; he wraps the most degraded positions and sins against his body to survive. When she looks up, her eyes reflect a different kind of light, a glimmer of beauty that has not yet faded despite her current condition. She was, once upon a time, a "virtuous" woman, most likely despised by a dishonest love. Finding no comfort or pity for her previous mistakes, she must abandon the path and embrace the inevitable: the dishonor and shame resulting from her previous commitment will follow her until her death. Marginalized by society, she becomes the woman who sells herself for money and unfortunately doesn't find love. She is the abandoned, betrayed, lost and embarrassed girl; she is «of the painted cohorts», the street prostitute (264). Prostitution in the 19th century was perhaps one of the most degrading positions for a woman of the time. Identified by her clothing, makeup and mannerisms, a woman employed in the company was shunned by all respectable people. Once tainted by immoral sin, a woman could never return to good... middle of paper ......action" shows, as assignment houses do, that she is a woman driven by her own thoughts and passions , embodiment of a spirit that, despite criticism, does not break. She is a sexual being, independent and unique, and alludes to the hope that society will respect her as such. She stands under the street lamp and waits for the theater's doors to open the low, knowing her unworthy position in her culture, and waits for a person to understand her circumstances, to see her not as a prostitute but as a woman who needs money, love, passion or excitement to replace the emptiness that there 'led her to begin her journey on these streets. Work Cited: "The Painted Cohorts": Selected Readings on Nineteenth-Century Prostitution by Stephen Crane, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, ed. Kevin J. Hayes (New York: Bedford/St, 1999).