The protagonist of the novel, McTeague, whose first name is not revealed (he sometimes goes by “Mac”), is a dentist who lives in his one-room office in San Francisco. Like a “draught horse,” he is “immensely strong, stupid, docile, obedient” (3). His mind, like his body, is “heavy, slow to act, [and] sluggish” (3). Despite his size and strength, when the novel opens, there is “nothing vicious about the man” (3). At his mother’s encouragement, McTeague learned dentistry from a “charlatan,” and his lack of formal education suggests his insufficiency and leads to his financial downfall.

McTeague demonstrates the tenuous boundary between human and animal. He is likened to an animal in his strength and his stupidity, and in his being at the mercy of base animal instincts. McTeague awakens sexually when he meets Trina Sieppe, cousin to his best friend Marcus Schouler. McTeague’s compulsion to assault Trina as she lies unconscious in his dental chair is likened to “the sudden panther leap of the animal” (30). McTeague fights this urge with “the fury of a young bull in the heat of high summer” (31). After submitting to the urge and kissing her, he is horrified by his weakness.