存在主义视角下《嘉莉妹妹》中嘉莉的悲剧命运解读 英语学专业

题目存在主义视角下《嘉莉妹妹》中嘉莉的悲剧命运解读
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Li Yahong, my supervisor, for his continuous support and helpful instruction, for his valuable and constructive advice through the development of my thesis. Without his generous instruction and painstaking revision, the thesis would have never been finished.
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to all the professors and teachers in the College of Foreign Languages. They have given me generous instruction and kind encouragement during my study. And their inspiring guidance will continue to have a profound impact on my study and my work.
Special thanks should be given to my family for their support for me during all these years. Deep love, continuous support and expectation are always my strongest backbone whenever I am confronted with the challenges in my study and life.
Abstract
Theodore Dreiser is one of the outstanding American realistic writers, who published his first successful novel Sister Carrie in 1900. Theodore Dreiser relates a story of Carrie’ s rise from a poor country girl to a famous actress in his masterpiece Sister Carrie.
The novel sets the American metropolis at the turn of the 19th century and the 20th century as background. At this time, the United States was undergoing tremendous changes, the process of industrialization had changed people’s way of life and had changed people’s ideas and moral concepts. At that time, people’s ideals and moral values had been seriously distorted, and people’ s success was not through hard work to get, and they blindly sought money. Especially for women, their bodies were the best means to gain success. The heroine Carrie of the novel, as the weakest woman in the bottom of society, she was inevitably tempted by the society of upholding money and materialism; and she was persecuted by the increasingly materialized and commercialized society. In such a dark society, in order to survive, Carrie had to step by step to compromise to the social reality, and had to sell her bodies and souls. Later, she succeeded by chance, but yet she had no the pleasure of success, and she would never feel the sense of happiness. She is a successful loser. This paper analyzes Carri e’ s tragic fate from the perspective of existentialism and aims to use the important concepts of existentialism to interpret Carrie’s life experiences and further explore the cause of Carrie’s life tragedy. The study reveals that people cannot get real happiness in the money-oriented society.
Key words:tragedy; existentialism; absurd; freedom of choice; the relationship with other people
摘要
西奥多•德莱塞是美国杰出的自然主义作家之一，1900年发表的《嘉莉妹妹》是他的成名作。

《嘉莉妹妹》讲述了一位农村女孩到城市谋生最后成为名演员的故事。

小说以19世纪初二十世纪末的美国大都市为背景。

此时的美国正经历着巨大的变革，工业化的进程改变了人们的生活方式，也改变了人们的思想和道德观念。

在那个时代人们的思想和道德观都发生了严重的扭曲，人们的成功不是通过辛勤劳动来获得，而是盲目的追求金钱。

尤其是对于女人来说，自己的身体是获得成功的最好手段。

小说的女主人公嘉莉，作为那个时代生活在社会最底层的弱女子，不可避免地被那个物欲横流的社会所诱惑，被那个日益物化和商品化的社会所迫害。

在这样的一个黑暗社会里，嘉莉为了生存，不得不一步步向社会现实妥协，不得不出卖自己的身体和灵魂。

后来一个偶然的机会她成功了，然而她却没有成功该有的喜悦，她也永远体会不到幸福的感觉。

她是一个成功的失败者。

本文从存在主义角度分析嘉莉的悲剧命运，探究存在主义哲学的重要概念在她的悲惨的人生经历中的体现以及她的命运悲剧的原因。

本研究揭示了以金钱为中心的社会中人们不可能得到真正的幸福。

关键词：悲剧；存在主义；荒诞；自由选择；与他人关系
Contents
云南民族大学毕业论文(设计)原创性声明............................................. 错误!未定义书签。

Acknowledgements (ii)
Abstract (i)
摘要........................................................................................................................................... i v 1. Introduction .. (1)
1.1 A General Introduction of Dreiser (1)
1.2 A General Introduction of Sister Carrie (3)
1.3 The Purpose of the Study (4)
2. Literature Review of Sister Carrie (6)
2.1 Domestic Studies (6)
2.2 International Studies (6)
2.3 Critical Comments (7)
3. Existentialism Theory (8)
3.1 A Brief Introduction of Existentialism (8)
3.2 Existentialism’s Contribution to the Study of Literary Works (9)
4. Anlysis of Carrie’s Tragic Fate (10)
4.1 A Brief Introduction of Carrie’s Tragic Fate (10)
4.2 Analysis of Carrie’s Tragic Fate from the Perspective of Existentialism (11)
4.2.1 Living Environment of the Absurdness (11)
4.2.2 Freedom of Choice (13)
4.2.3 The Relationship With Other People (16)
5. Conclusion (20)
References (21)
1.Introduction
Theodore Dreiser is one of the most prominent writers in American literature history. His contributions to the American literature have been tremendous. As Dreiser’s first novel, Sister Carrie is a representative of naturalism. It has attracted a great number of critics since its publication in 1900.
1.1 A General Introduction of Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser is one of the most prominent literature figures in the American history of the 20th century literature, who published his first successful novel Sister Carrie in 1900.
Dreiser’ s family background and personal experiences had a decisive influence on his literary creation. Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (August 27,1871-December 28,1945) was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, grew up in poverty in a religious immigrant German family, ninth of ten children, and he was subjected to torture by his father’ s religious paranoia. “I was born poor, and sometimes in November and December, I couldn't even wear my shoes, I saw my dear mother extremely nervous and worried about lacking a lot of supplies, and even painfully rubbing her hands”，Dreiser says in a letter to critics Menken when Dreiser mentioned his childhood. Dreiser came to Chicago at the age of fifteen and imagined change his social status materially. At that time, he washed the dishes and sold the metal groceries. At the age of eighteen, Dreiser’s talent was appreciated by a former high school teacher who helped him to study at the University of Indiana. But Dreiser hated the useless stuff in the university and he left school a year later to go to Chicago. He spent two years of all kinds of lowly living, witnessed the darkness of society, and accessed to the bottom of the people struggling in society, which had great influence on his future creation. In 1892, Dreiser entered the journalistic circles began his journalist career; he successively worked for Chicago’s The Globe, St. Louis’s Global Democracy and Republic. In Chicago, Dreiser witnessed the poverty of the poor and the hypocrisy of the rich, for which his future literary creation has laid a firm ideological foundation and life foundation. He saw the reality of American society, so he abandoned the work of journalists, and he began to
write to expose the dark side of American society.
Dreiser is a productive writer, his works include novels, short stories, plays, poems and essays and others. Before Dreiser entering the community, he not had much literary skill, he had only family and personal sad tale and keen observation, and as a journalist, he had expanded his horizons. Dreiser’s aesthetic ability has not been systematically cultivated. There was a decided influence on Dreiser’s creation that was Balzac, most of Dreiser’s works were autobiographical or came out of his relatives’, his friends’, and his acquaintances’ experience. He created many works throughout his life. These works are almost a true portrayal of American social life from the late nineteenth century to the thirties and forties. In 1900, Dreiser published her first novel, Sister Carrie, whose anti-traditional image was criticized by the public，that because American readers have been accustomed to women in novels that had been displayed under the severe rewards and punishments. In1911, Dreiser published Sister Carrie’s companion novel—Jenny Gerhardt, depicting the poor girl Jenny’s love story with the rich children Lester and late Jenny’s tragedy of lonely life. His bold and full of original works was attacked immediately by the American society, and even was threatened by the New York Associati on. Dreiser’s another novel, Genius, published in 1915; the novel depicted the degeneration of a talented painter, and exposed the poisoning of capitalist society to art. In the United States, any art, if it wanted to exist, it would become a commodity what ruler demanded, and it must be subjected to the rule of money. Dreiser’s The Financier (published in1912), The Titan (published in 1914), and The Stoic(not published until 1947), the three works composed his realism masterpiece —Trilogy of Dreiser. Russ ia’s October Revolution to Dreiser had great encouragement, after this his world view and creation had a significant change. In 1925, he published the novel American Tragedy, marking the Dreiser’s realist creation had achieved new achievements，and he was well-known for a time when the novel was published. After Dreiser visited the Soviet Union in 1927, he published a number of works, the important ones included in Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928), political set Tragic America (1931), and short stories A Galley of Women (1929) and so on. Dreiser spent his lifelong efforts to make the American
realism in the nineteenth century to Mark Twain as the representative of the excellent tradition on the basis of the formation of a more profound, more complete and stronger era of color system, in 30s the American new realism literature has been finally pushed to an unprecedented climax by him.
Dreiser’s distinctive writing style made him hoist his own unique banner in the history of American literature.
1.2 A General Introduction of Sister Carrie
Sister Carrie was Dreiser’s first novel and also an important one in which he had done a detailed and realistic depict of American society, and he broke the traditional standards which were in the male-dominant on Sister Carrie. Sister Carrie, Dreiser’s first novel and most famous production, traces Carrie’s rise from a country girl to a famous Broadway star. Carrie, 18 year old, she was looking forward to the good material life of the big city. She came from the peaceful countryside of the western United States to the glamorous Chicago alone, and she wanted to seek a way to make a living. However, lived with her sister, she was neglected, and even as a tool to make money. Not any work experience, she spent the tremendous effort finally found a job in a shoe factory, but the hard had tired work of the daily caused her sick. Both in four and a half a week of salary and her sister’s family’s cold reception let her become a “prisoners” in the upper class. Carrie met a salesman Drouet on the train, and then became his mistress. Later she was introduced to the bar manager Hurstwood by Drouet. Then, Carrie was deceived by the bar manager to take the train to New York, and was driven by greater desire, she did not resist the bar manager’s cheat. Hurstwood had stolen large sums of money in Chicago, soon he made a failed investment In New York, and finally become a beggar, and Carrie abandoned him. Carrie, for her beauty and ingenuity, became a most famous actress in New York. Ultimately, she entered the upper class and achieved material dream her wanted. However, she was not happy, she felt like her had an extremely empty life, and she sat on the rocking chair by the window and dreamed of the happiness she never learned to....
Sister Carrie’s creative background is the American metropolis. Heroine Carrie
employed immoral means to achieve her dream of wealth and entered the upper society. The novel exposed the disparity between the rich and the poor in capitalist society, and criticized the ruthless reality of American metropolitan money omnipotence and moral decay. In the novel, in order to pursue her dreams, Carrie lived with a salesman Drouet firstly. Later, she became hotel manager Hu rstwood’s mistress to satisfy greater desire, but it violated traditional morality at that time. In spite of Carrie finally achieved her dream, she is still a failure, that because she always could not find happiness what her wanted.
Sister Carrie is an epoch-making work in the history of American novels. It breaks through Victorian, Howell's timidity and elegance, opening a new world of faithfulness, boldness and passion for life.
Dreiser’s Sister Carrie has been received critical attention since its publication. Initially, it was an extreme blocking, and then got both praise and blame from people, and now it was generally accepted by people, and even some people think it is the best one of Dreiser’s works.
1.3 The Purpose of the Study
Sister Carrie is one of the classics works of naturalism; few critics study it from the existentialism perspective in a sound way. In order to enrich the researches of Theodore Dreiser’s works’Sister Carrie, and further arouse People’s tragic consciousness, this thesis analyzes Sister Carrie’ tragic fate from the perspective of existentialism.
The purpose of the study lies in three respects. Firstly, the study will interpret the author of Theodore Dreiser and the novel of Carrie Sister in a sound way. Through the analysi s, the researcher wants people to be more familiar with the heroine Carrie’s life experience.
Secondly, this thesis tries to employ the concrete theories of existentialism to analyze the text. Thus it will use the theory of existentialism to interpret to the cause of Carrie’ tragic fate.
Thirdly, this thesis tries to interpret Carrie’s tragic life and the causes of her
tragedy; the present author hopes that Carrie’s tragic life has an enlightenment and reference to those people who are tempted by money, status and power.
2.Literature Review of Sister Carrie
This part focuses on a general literature review of research results concerning Sister Carrie which have been heatedly discussed by the critics, scholars and the readers. After looking through the majority of the reviews and comments on both two novels, this thesis sorts out deep-rooted propositions in people’s mind, and it indicates that the new interpretation have emerged and there is still some room for people to go further on the exploration.
2.1 Domestic Studies
In recent years, scholars in China have done more detailed researches on Sister Carrier from the theme of tragedy. And they consider Carrie is a tragedy. Zhang Yank thinks “Carrie’s life is tragic in terms of her insati able desire, loss of identity and insignificance of her life”. Carrie is the victim of capitalistic society (Zhang, 2012: 27-35). Jing Xia holds the similar view to Zhang Yank that Sister Carrie relates a story of tragedy of Carrie. She supposes it is the desires and the social surrounding that Carrie’s tragedy (Jing, 2001:39), and so on.
2.2 International Studies
In the early publication of Sister Carrie, the comments of American public criticism were divided into two parts.
International Herald Tribune treated Dreiser as the American Zora and thought Sister Carrie was a great American novel. Charles Daldwin argued that Dreiser was the greatest and most unique novelist in the United States and Dreiser has surpassed English novelists both in spirit and in writing. Burton Rascone defended for amorality in Sister Carrie and took Dreiser as an animator of free thought in the 1920s. F.O.Matheson regarded Sister Carrie as recordation of historical facts in Dreiser’s life time.
On the other side, the opponents were represented by Life and Commercial News that held negative attitudes for Sister Carrie in general. Stuartsher—Kazin, was the most powerful and most influential one for Dreiser’s attack,in his essay of Theodore Dreisers Naturalism, he accused that Dreiser did not give a realists description to the American society and mankind and neglected intentionally the lofty duty of novelists.
2.3 Critical Comments
Through the survey of the above researchers, we can find that the research perspectives of domestic and foreign schools on Sister Carrie focus on Carrier’s tragic fate is single, lack of macro-system and in-depth study, so we cannot truly analyze it From the forties of the 20th century to the present day, existentialism has also exerted a great influence on literature. Carrie is an influential figure in the novel, and when we put it in existentialism, such a new, open and diverse theoretical background to be examined, not only contribute to deep analysis, but also helps understand the text more in-depth and comprehensively.
3.Existentialism Theory
Existentialism applied to several philosophical currents which take men’s existential situation as their departure point. This part gives an overview of existentialism and introduces to existentialism has also exerted a great influence on the study of literary works.
3.1 A Brief Introduction of Existentialism
Existentialism is an irrationalism thought in philosophy which is one of the main schools in modern western philosophy. As a school of thought, existentialism was formed in 1920sGermany; during the Second World War, it was spread to France and became one of the greatest influences of the philosophical schools; and then it gradually became popular in 1950s America. The representative personages of existentialism are Jean Paul Sartre, Merlot Ponty, and Albert Camus etc.
In the view of existentialism, in this subjective society, there is bound to conflict, struggle and cruelty between people and people, there is full with ugly and crime, and everything is absurd in this society. And man belongs to miserable man in this absurd and cold situation, and the world only makes people feel endless frustration and disappointment.
Existentialism argues that the freedom of the individual first is manifested in his recognition that he is not free from the shackles of traditional culture and customs; so for the people, the most important thing is to understand the importance of choice and according to their own choice to act and bear the responsibility of life.
The relationship between people is a matter of common concern to the existentialists. On the relationship between people and people, Heidegger and Sartre hold the same idea. Heidegger believes that a man has to communicate with other people and his relationship with other people is troublesome in the world. Sartre said, “The others are hell”.
In a few words existentialist philosophy has had significant for many people throughout the world.
3.2Existentialism’s Contribution to the Study of Literary Works
Existentialism provides a new perspective for us to study some literary works and this is a bold attempt to study literary works. And，it also provides a reliable theoretical basis for the analysis of literary works.
In recent years, many researchers have used Existentialism as the starting point and supporting point in the study of literary works. Such as, in Guo Aiyun’s paper—An Interpretation of Katie's Tragic Fate from the Perspective of Existentialism (2013), in order to analyze the core characters Katie in the novel of the Sound and the Fury and explore the causes of her tragedy，the author takes the absurdity, the relationship with others and the free choice from existentialism as the framework of the thesis; And Yang Yongxia’s(2009) paper—Hamlet ’s Analysis fr om the Perspective of Existentialism, the author analyzes Hamlet’s situation and his personal choice from two aspects of absurdity and freedom in existentialism, and further explains of the universality of existentialism and Hamlet’s modernity, and so on.
We put in the theory of existentialism when we study literary works, it not only helps understand the text more in-depth and comprehensively, but also enriches the theory of existentialism.
4.Analysis of Carrie’s Tragic Fate
In the novel, Carrie gets everything what she wants, but she is still a loser in spirit life. The part gives a brief introduction to Carrie’s tragic fate and uses the important concepts of existentialism, such as absurdity, freedom of choice and the relationship with other peopl e to interpret Carrie’s life experiences and further explore the cause of Carrie’s life tragedy.
4.1 A Brief Introduction of Carrie’s Tragic Fate
Carrier, the heroine of the novel , she was a naive kind-hearted rural girl from the very beginning, then she came to Chicago alone to pull herself out of poverty and to seek her happy life . However, the brutal social reality crushed her dream; there was nothing but the torment of pain and unemployment in the bustling and flourishing metropolis. In order to get rid of poverty, she violated moral standards, sold her own body and dignity. Successively, she leeched on to the salesman Drouet and the bar manager Hurstwood and became their mistress. Carrie became a famous actress in New York under the one by chance. Successfully, she squeezed into the upper class and achieved the material life what she wanted. However, what was it that brought her from the so-called “success”? At this moment, she felt less happy. Dreiser writes in the final chapter: “Amid the tinsel and shine of her state walked Carrier, unhappy…In your (Carrie) rocking-chair, by you window dreaming, shall you long, alone. In your rocking-chair, by your window, share your dream such happiness as you may never feel.”(Dreiser, 2011:736-738)Indeed, she had beautiful dress, had luxury home, had extravagant money, and had many friends of together for beer and skittles after she became famous. But, she didn’t think her life was meaningful. She quietly sat in a rocking chair alone and looked out the window, complained about her lonely and empty life. Why did not her success bring her happiness and satisfaction? In fact, had room, had car and had money, Carrie have gotten material satisfaction, but she is a rear loser in spiritual. At this point, she did not have her family who really cared about her, she did not have lovers who would stick around through her bull, and she did not have good friends who shared weal and woe each other. She would live the rest of her life lonely.
Reading Dreiser’s Sister Carrie, it is not difficult to find that Carrie gained the material success, but she could not get rid of the tragedy of spiritual loneliness. Therefore, she was a successful tragic character.
4.2 Analysis of Carrie’s Tragic Fate from the Perspective of Existentialism
Existentialism argues that the living external environment for human is absurd. The human as “the existence of the world” will always be in adversity, confronted with various restrictions and constraints, and endured the pain and death threat. The outside world makes people feel tired, fear, and even despair.
4.2.1 Living Environment of the Absurd
Carrie’s story happened in the American metropolis in the end of the 19th century and at the early 20th century. At that time, the pace of industrialization and urbanization were accelerating, the commodity economy developed rapidly and a large number of people flocked from the countryside to the city. And at that time, capitalism continued to blossom，the hypocrisy and darkness of society had cover up the human nature. In that seriously morally distorted society, people’s success was not through thrift and hard work, but blindly pursued of money. Especially for women, their bodies may be the best means of getting success and wealth. In this social context, Carrie as a member in the bottom of society, she was tempted by the society of upholding money and materialism inevitably; and she was persecuted by the increasingly materialized and materialized society. In this society, which people almost morbidly depend on matter life, Carrie only could betray her body and soul, she lived a whore’s life, and she had no choice but to compromise with social reality. At the beginning of the novel, when Carrie got on a train to Chicago, the author writes down some words about her future destiny: When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things.
Either she falls into saving and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes
the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes
worse…Unrecognized for what they are, their b eauty, like music, too
often relaxes, then weakens, then perverts the simpler human
perceptions. (Dreiser, 2011:2)
It would inevitably have an impact on Carrie’s life whether it is positive or
negative social environment. Here the author has prophesied the reader how Carrie would show her helplessness in the face to powerful shocks from social reality, and her struggles were even more insignificant compared to the powerful forces of the social environment ,and even could be said to it is futile.
At that time, capitalism had transitioned to the monopoly stage, and consumerism gradually prevailed, leading to the spirit of the emptiness and hedonistic egoism. Carrie, an eighteen-year-old girl, she came from a quiet country to the bustling metropolis Chicago. Everything was fancy for her in Chicago, and she was full of curiosity and hope about there. In fact, Carrie’s brother-in-law was penny pinchers and he asked Carrie to pay the board and lodging expenses. And Carrie just arrived at his house, he urged Carrie to hurry for her job. With her sister she was much alone, a lone figure to tossing thoughtless sea. Carrie’s sister and brother-in-law were hard-working and lower workers in Chicago, they got up very early and slept very late but they still lived in poverty. They did not help Carrie a lot, Carrie had to find the job by her. Her job experience is very was very tortuous, and finally she found a low-wage job in a shoe factory. The work in the shoe factory is very hard, but Carrie still had no money after her paying the board and lodging expenses. Carrie first arrived in Chicago and not yet enjoyed the bustling metropolis; she was forced to work hard in the shoe to pay rent. The fourth chapter of the novel author describes the scene of the shoe factory: The place smelled of the oil of the machines and the new leather a
combination which, added to the stale odours of the building… The
washrooms were disagreeable, crude, if not foul places, and the whole
atmosphere was sordid. (Dreiser, 2011:59)
There provides us with a lot of details in this description of the scene, so that readers feel like being in the messy and dirty workshop. The author sets the age background of the novel in the late 19th century. At this point, the fast promotion of industrialization made capital was concentrated in the hands of a small number of people, and the emergence of capitalists made a large number of working people become the proletariat. In order to accumulate wealth, these capitalists exploited cheap labor to the maximum extent po ssible, but they are indifferent to the workers’ work and
survival conditions. As a rural girl and a newcomer, Carrie wanted to live a better life in a big city, but the brutal social reality quickly brought her into the flood of industrialization. Face all this reality what she had not expected, her couldn’t change the reality and she had no choice but to adapt to the fastest pace in the big city. She worked in such a harsh environment every day, maintained fixed sitting position every day, repeated mechanically the same action every day, and her labor was mercilessly squeezed by the factory director of the shoe factory. However, just such a humble work, it also made Carrie be fired because she was illness and absenteeism. This heavy blow forced Carrie into the plight of life again. So, when Carrie encountered Drouet again, she realized that live with him could get rid of this dilemma. Thus, he was willing to become the mistress of this man. At the end of the story, Carrie’s desperation for a happy life reveals and criticizes the darkness of society at that time. Under the capitalist squeeze, the workers cannot lead a happy life, and they only could betray their soul in order to get money and status.
With the rise of monopoly capitalism, money worship is growing. In the commercial society, consumption has become the only purpose of life and the greatest happiness for people. Carrie’s path to Chicago was filled with desire for material things, but she never thought how hard she would work to get a happy life. She was eager to enjoy the material things, and she also wanted to get a good love; she was careful and made a courageous attempt at the process of desiring for material things, but gradually she lost herself and she was fascinated by the society gambling and decadent fun. And because her desire is constant expansion, her misfortune got more and more heavy. However, in the era when Carrie lived, the rapid development of social economy also changed people’s values; people upheld money and people believed the money means more comfortable living or a higher status at that time. So Carrie’s desire continuously expands which thereby resulting in her tragic life and these were deeply influenced by the absurd society at that time.
4.2.2 Freedom of Choice
Existential ism emphasizes that the fundamental characteristic of man lies in man’s。