Theodore Dreiser’s Changing View on Women from Sister Carrie to Jennie Gerhardt.doc

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1、TheodoreDreisers ChangingViewon Womenfrom Sister Carrie to Jennie Gerhardt从嘉莉妹妹到珍妮姑娘论德莱塞女性观的变迁ContentsAcknowledgementsiAbstract in EnglishiiAbstract in ChineseiiiI. Introduction11.1 About Dreisers Life11.2 His Literary Achievements2II. Literature Review52.1 Critical Reception on Sister Carrie and Je

2、nnie Gerhardt Abroad52.2 Critical Reception on Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt at Home6III. Dreisers View on Women in Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt73.1 Dreisers View on Women Reflected in Sister Carrie83.2 Dreisers View on Women Reflected in Jennie Gerhardt11IV. Vicissitude of Dreisers View on

3、 Women in Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt144.1 Vicissitude of Dreisers View on Women in Sister Carrie144.2 Vicissitude of Dreisers View on Women in Jennie Gerhardt19V. Conclusion22Works Cited24TheodoreDreisers ChangingViewon Women from Sister Carrie to Jennie Gerhardt Abstract Theodore Dreiser occ

4、upies an important position in modern American literature. Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt are his two representative works. At first, both Carrie and Jennie are two pure girls who want to change their poor life. However, both of them become mistresses in order to change their terrible situation,

5、and their behaviors disobey the traditional values which refer to moral codes and mores that are passed down from generation to generation within a community. This thesis is to make an analysis of Dreisers changingviewon women. Dreiser makes use of Carrie and Jennies tragedy to reveal his values on

6、women which are different from the traditional values. He points that women like Carrie and Jennie have the right to satisfy their material pursuits and spiritual pursuits. They should not depend on man to find their self-esteem. However, making a comparison between Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt

7、s ending, while Carrie becomes a successful actress by her efforts and opportunities, she is disillusioned spiritually; while Jennie lost her relatives, daughter and lovers, she is contented spiritually. Dreiser changes his view on women from affirmation of female struggle to affirmation of female s

8、elf-sacrifice; it was a sign of his regressive feminine consciousness.Key words Carrie; Jennie; traditional values; view on women从嘉莉妹妹到珍妮姑娘论德莱塞女性观的变迁内容摘要 西奥多德莱塞（Theodore Dreiser，1871-1945）在美国现代小说发展历程中占很重要的地位。嘉莉妹妹和珍妮姑娘是德莱塞的两部代表作。女主角嘉莉和珍妮是两个很想通过自己努力来改变生活困境的纯洁善良的女孩，可是她们成为别人情妇来改变生活的行为却不能被社会所接受。这种行为违背了当时

9、社会的传统道德观。本文主要通过分析嘉莉和珍妮的悲剧来展示德莱塞的不同于传统道德观的女性观。他认为像嘉莉和珍妮这样的女人有权利去满足自己的物质追求和精神追求，她们不应该通过依靠男人来树立自己的自尊。然而，通过两个故事的结局对比，嘉莉通过自己的努力和机遇成为了一名成功的女演员，但是她的内心感到十分空虚；珍妮最后失去了自己的亲人，女儿和爱人，可是她却得到了精神上的满足。关键词 嘉莉妹妹；珍妮姑娘；女性观；传统女性观 I. Introduction1.1 About Dreisers LifeTheodore Dreiser occupies an important position in mode

10、rn American literature. Alan Tait regarded Dreiser, Hemingway and Faulkner as the most important novelist in American realism literature. Because of the publication of Sister Carrie in 1900, Dreiser committed his literary force to opening the new ground of American realism. With the use of simple an

11、d direct language, Dreiser is a pioneer in telling a series of stories about “the mechanistic brutality of American society.” (Chang Yaoxin, 2001: 298) Theodore Dreisers work has its distinct characteristics. A famous American literary critic said, “Many American writers have a common characteristic

12、 for a time, that is, their works are read like natural and smooth writing without tenderness, but Theodore Dreisers works are read like Unbearable pain.” (Alfred Kazin, 1955:3) “He is the first novelist to capture the modern American,” as Marcus Cunliffe stated. (Marcus Cunliffe, 1975:205) Theodore

13、 Dreiser was born in Indiana on August 27, 1871, into a German immigrant family. Living in a poor and intensely religious family, his father demanded the kids behave in conformity with Catholic. At the late 19th century to early 20th century, New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago had become an

14、international metropolis in America. Thousands of people came in flocks in order to find a job. At fifteen Dreiser fled from home and went to Chicago, Dreiser dreamed of wealth and social success in the great metropolis. When he was eighteen, a sympathetic teacher helped him enter the University of

15、Indiana, but he quitted after a year and returned to Chicago. Later, he became a journalist on the Chicago Globe and worked in St. Louis and Pittsburg before arriving in New York in 1894. Apart from school education, Dreiser read voraciously by himself. He immersed himself in Dickens and Thackeray,

16、read widely Shakespeare, and tasted Bunyan, Fielding, Pope, Thoreau, Emerson, and Mark Twain, but his true literary influences were from Balzac, Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer the ideas from those books. He embraced social Darwinism. Dreiser learned to regard man as merely “an animal driven by g

17、reed and lust in struggle for existence in which only the fittest, the most ruthless, survive.” (Everett Carter, 1963:402) Robert E. Spiller once noted in his book, The Cycle of American Literature: “To Dreiser, man is only a mechanism reacting to chemic compulsions, and human tragedy comes as a res

18、ult of the collision between mans biological needs and societys ruthless manipulation. Life is predatory, a “game” of the lecherous and heatless, a jungle struggle in which man, being “a waif and an interloper in nature,” “a wisp in the wind of social forces,” is a mere pawn in the general scheme of

19、 things, with no power whatever to assert his will. No one is ethically free; everything is determined by a complex of internal chemisms and by the forces of social pressure.” (Robert E. Spiller, 1951:175)1.2 His Literary AchievementsIn the early period, Dreiser began to publish his first novel Sist

20、er Carrie in 1900, one of the most famous works in American literary history, followed by Jennie Gerhardt (1911) and two volumes of his “Trilogy of Desire,” The Financier (1912) and The Titan (1914). Dreisers other works include The Genius (1915) which told us a story about a misunderstood artist wh

21、o can be considered as Dreiser himself. It was condemned for “obscenity and blasphemy.” (Liu Shusen，2006:264)In the middle period, Dreisers greatest work An American Tragedy (1925) was published. In 1927, Dreiser and the American delegation were invited to Russia and then he wrote Dreiser Looks at R

22、ussia (1928) and Tragic America (1931) to express his new faith.In later stage, Dreiser published The Bulwark in 1945. The Stoic, one of his “Trilogy of Desire” published in 1947 posthumously. In the book Sister Carrie, Caroline Meeber, known as Carrie, leaves her home at the age of eighteen and tak

23、es the train to Chicago. Carrie meets a man named Drouet and she is attracted by the way he treats her. So she agrees to allow him to rent an apartment for her. Drouet then introduces Carrie to his friend Hurstwood, a manager of one of the top bars in the city. Hurstwood is far more refined and eleg

24、ant than Drouet. He falls in love with her and starts to think of getting her to run away with him. One evening Hurstwood steals ten thousand dollars from the unlocked safe of his workplace. Without thinking he takes the cash and rushes to Carries apartment and they leave for New York City. As Hurst

25、wood loses his work and social status, Carrie loses interest in him and starts considering her other alternatives. Finally Carrie is lucky to be a famous actress in Broadway. At last the novel traces Carries rise and Hurstwoods fall. Hurstwood becomes a homeless beggar, whereas Carrie becomes an ove

26、rnight star. Although Carrie has been success, she becomes unhappy with her state in the world.In this book, Dreiser made no moral judgments on his characters behavior. The author wrote about infidelity and prostitution as natural occurrences in the course of human relationships. He wrote about his

27、characters with pity, compassion, and a sense of self-esteem. Jennie Gerhardt is a story about a poor girl, Jennie. While working in a hotel in Columbus, Jennie meets Senator George Brander who becomes infatuated with her. He helps her family and wants to marry her. Jennie is thankful for his benevo

28、lence and agrees to sleep with him. Unfortunately the Senator dies, leaving her pregnant. She gives birth to a daughter, and moves to Cleveland where she finds work as a ladys maid to a renowned family. Consequently, she meets Lester Kane, a prosperous manufacturers son. Jennie falls in love with hi

29、m and impressed by his strong will and generosity. Lester doesnt know that Jennie has a child, and he wishes to marry her, but his family disapproved, so he decides to treat her as his mistress. They live together successfully in Chicago, even through Lester finds that Vesta is Jennies daughter afte

30、r three years, he does not leave Jennie by the reason of the pressure given by his family. But after his fathers death he discovers that he will not inherit a substantial part of the family business unless he discards her. Finally he separates from Jennie with the agreement of Jennie. At the end of

31、the story, Jennie loses her daughter to typhoid and adopts two orphans. Lester becomes ill and he tells Jennie he still loves her, and she accompanies him until his death.In this book, Dreiser portrayed a brave and pure girl in order to show that women like Jennie could seek love. On the one hand, i

32、t was lucky to Jennie that she could meet two persons from upper class and won their love and she brought benefits for her poor family. On the other hand, she was unlucky. Because of poverty, Jennie had little chance to make a decision. It is destined that she would lose her love. Both Sister Carrie

33、 and Jennie Gerhardt reflect Dreisers provocative theme of human beings and society. When Dreiser sent the manuscript to a publisher it was rejected because it was thought likely to offend “the feminine readers who control the destinies of so many works” (Chang Yaoxin, 2001:300) With the publication

34、 of Sister Carrie which was rejected because of its relentless narration in presenting the true nature of American life, Dreiser was the first American writer to view the “abundant materialism” of nineteenth-century America from within the perspective of the have-nots. (Andrew Hook, 1983:193) His ow

35、n early experience of poor life and hardship made it possible for him to be unsympathetic towards those men whose aim in life was to overcome such conditions. Dreiser was later known as a significant American writer in literary realism, which is a new literary mode that had been practiced and defend

36、ed by William Dean Howells (1837-1920) that is “nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material.” (Liu Shusen, 2006:235) In Dreisers work he emphasized heredity and environment as an important deterministic force to shape individualized characters that were presented in special

37、 and detailed circumstances. For the poor, life was shown to be ironic and tragic. He described it as “a welter of inscrutable force” in which each individual was trapped. (Liu Shusen, 2006:525) As a result, Dreiser exposed the enormous gap between the conventions of traditional morality and the rea

38、lities of life as these were experienced by the urban people in America. The effect of Darwinist idea of “survival of the fittest” influenced Dreiser so that it is not surprising to find in his works a world where full of the law “kill or be killed.” Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt did more change

39、 modern American fiction than any since. II. Literature Review2.1 Critical Reception on Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt AbroadAs Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt earned Dreiser a reputation in literature, quite different comments on them focus on the general studies, description of characters and

40、 writing techniques etc. In terms of the general studies, Samuel Sillen illustrated in Notes on Dreiser (1955) Dreisers writing style was influenced by Balzac. Both On Native Grounds (1942) written by Irving Howe and Theodore Dreiser (1946) composed by Carl Van Dorgen gave brief introductions to The

41、odore Dreisers life and his literary creations.In terms of the description of characters, William Marion Reedy viewed that Carrie was “real” but “paradoxicallyshadowy” in his book “Sister Carrie.” (1901:6-7) Words like “shadowy” and “paradoxically” expressed the uneasiness of early critics felt abou

42、t the character. Behind this judgment lies a more general sense that Dreiser possesses “very little of the psychologists skill in portraying the inner life of his characters.” (G. K. Hall, 1981:158) Certainly Dreisers way of assigning motivation to characters lends itself to this circumstance. In te

43、rms of the writing technique researches, James Donal Adams explored how Dreiser portrayed characters in a “verbose” way but achieved a complex effect in Heavy Hand of Dreiser (1945). Besides, critics paid close attention to the influence of naturalism on Theodore Dreisers writing. In The Barbaric Na

44、turalism of Mr. Dreiser (1955) Stuart P. Sherman explained that Dreiser showed his view on women from the perspective of naturalism. Most people consider that there are similarities between these two books. The description of two characters shows the every aspect of American society. However both Ca

45、rrie and Jennie have different endings. It seems that, to Philip L. Gerber (1964), in Jennie Gerhardt, Dreiser shows his belief on the honesty and kind of laboring people, and those people are much greater than the capitalist class. 2.2 Critical Reception on Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt at Home

46、Dreiser is a prolific writer and many of his works are familiar to Chinese readers. Among them Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt are discussed more than others. Dreisers direct and uncommon style influenced other writers.In terms of description of characters, according to The Comparison of the Chara

47、cters in Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt (2006) Liu Yumei focuses on analysis of the female characters in Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt and exposes the evil nature of bourgeoisie society. Dreisers great insight was clearly reviewed as a realist and naturalist writer. In order to analyze the pe

48、rsonality structure of Jennie, Lu Ke takes the perspective of Freudian psychoanalytic literary criticism as a stand to analyze the characteristic of Jennie in Freudian Psychoanalysis in Jennie Gerhardt. (2008) In terms of the writing technique researches, in order to reveal Dreisers naturalistic and

49、 realistic philosophy, both Ji Zheng and Hu Yahui explored the dark side of American society in Characteristics of Realism in Jennie Gerhardt (2008) and The Presentation of Realism in Sister Carrie. (2010)In terms of characterization from the perspective of feminism, Wang Rong combines the background of the consumption culture