Theodore Dreiser
13th week theodore dreiser 英美文学赏析 教学课件
• The prominence of psychology and the theories of Sigmund Freud
2) They reported truthfully and objectively, with a passion for scientific accuracy and an overwhelming accumulation of factual detail.
3) The major representatives of American naturalists include Jack London, Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Theodore Dreiser and so on.
Naturaliቤተ መጻሕፍቲ ባይዱm
• The practice of describing precisely the actual circumstances of human life in literature.
• 法国作家左拉将这一概念引入文学，用以倡导一种追求纯粹 的客观性和真实性、从生理学和遗传学角度去理解人的行动 的创作理念。体现在文学作品中，自然主义文学力图事无巨 细的描绘现实，给人一种实录生活和照相式的印象。
• 自然主义文学对社会异化现象的感知的深度是现实主义文学 无法企及的，这一点深刻的影响了20世纪的现代文学。
VI. Naturalism and Muckraking
经典课件Theodore_Dreiser
Main Literary Works
Sister Carrie 1900 《嘉莉妹妹》 嘉莉妹妹》 Jennie Gerhardt 1911 《珍妮姑娘》 珍妮姑娘》 Financial 1912 《金融家》 金融家》 The Titan 1914 《巨人》 巨人》 The “Genius” 1915 《天才 》 An American Tragedy 1925 《美国悲剧》 美国悲剧》 The Stoic 1947 《斯多葛》 斯多葛》
Born Died Occupation Wife Parents
Hale Waihona Puke 1871-08-27,Indiana 1945-12-28,Hollywood Novelist Sara White Sarah and John Paul Dreiser
Dreiser was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, to Sarah and John Paul Dreiser, a strict Catholic family. John Paul Dreiser was a German immigrant from Mayen in the Eifel region, and Sarah was from the Mennonite farming near Dayton, Ohio; she was disowned for marrying John and converting to Roman Catholicism. Theodore was the twelfth of thirteen children (the ninth of the ten surviving). The popular songwriter Paul Dresser (1857–1906) was his older brother.
06Theodore Dreiser 文档
Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)1) Biographical IntroductionBorn in Terre Haute, Indiana, the twelfth of thirteen children. German immigrant parents.His early years were full of poverty, emotional instability, religious bigotry in home, frequent moves dictated by financial necessity.At teen, in Chicago, he had a succession of minor jobs. After a year at Indiana University, he returned to Chicago, a reporter on the Chicago Globe.He worked for newspapers in St. Louis & Pittsburg before he arrived in New York in 1894.2) point of view(1) He embraced social Darwinism – survival of the fittest. He regarded Manas merely an animal driven by greed & lust in a struggle for existence in which only the ―fittest‖, the most ruthless, survive.(2) Life is predatory, a ―game‖ of the lecherous & heartless, a jungle strugglein 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 things, with no power whatever to assert his will.(3) No one is ethically free; everything is determined by a complex of internalforces & by the forces of social pressure.In the late 1970s, Dreiser took interest incommunism, American social problems, & the efforts of the oppressed to gain a better life.To Dreiser, not irreconcilable.The mechanistic foundations of life not as imprisoning but a complex of beauty & wonder in which the destructive forces could be lessoned through social change.the reconciliation : The Bulwark.(3) Style1) Without good structure2) Deficient characterization3) Lack in imagination4) Journalistic method5) Techniques in painting(4) Dreiser's Major WorksA prolific writer: Novels, collections of short stories, poems, plays, travel books,and essays (political), a number of autobiographical books.Sister CarrieThe Cowperwood Trilogy —The Financier, The Titan, and The StoicAn American TragedyOn Sister CarrieThe theme of the book:1. The theme in Sister Carrieis materialism. The theme is primarily personified through Carrie with her desire for a fine home, clothes and everything else money can buy.Materialism, including the desire for money, is an important theme in Sister Carrie. The materialism is shown mostly through Carrie's character but also through Hurstwood, a man with a respectable life and money, who still wants more and for that reason commits a crime. The city in itself is also a place of materialism, it is a place that offers all kinds of amusements, pleasures and things to buy, but to participate in what the city has to offer, one has to have money.2. It best embodies Dreiser’s naturalistic belief that men are controlled & conditioned by heredity, environment and chance, only a few extraordinary & unsophisticated human beings refuse to accept their fate wordlessly for their existence.Chicago is the scene of Sister Carrie.Dreiser uses Carrie to express his own longings for wealth, affection for the glitter & excitement of the city, which has come to symbolize the possibility for the realization of the American Dream.―The Magnet Attracting: a Waif amid Forces‖-controlled by two forces:1. internal forces:desires to fulfill American Dream, for social status & material comfort.(e. And yet she was intere sted in her charms…at a woman’s slipper)2. external forces- poverty: attraction of American Dream. (e. ―the magnet attracting city life‖;Carrie’s being attracted by Drouet’s material prospect, entrapped, became his mistress).Carrie is leaving home. This passage is typical Dreiser’s. He gives his thoughts about Carrie & the salesman she meets, and describes them.The first impression is not her opinions but her belongs. At the end of the novel, there is description of her, ends with the exact amount of money she holds. This emphasis on money will be a primary theme throughout the rest the novel. Discussion1. Please make comment on the three main characters.2. Please make comment on the end of the novel and the famous rocking chairsceneThree Main CharactersCarrie: She represents spirit, the longing for a finer & higher form of life, artistic aspiration, imagination, ideals, never be fully attained, without which life is meaningless.She refuses to accept her fate & instead strives unsuccessfully to find meaning & purpose for her existence.Drouet & Hurstwood not as ―saving hands‖;Drouet: an image of a woman pursuer with keen desire for the feminine.(…by an intense desires & admiration for the sex‖)He stands for the material lusts which lies at the bottom of worldly ambition. Hurstwood: A person with no higher goal than the satisfaction of his sensual inclination.3. chance: chance makes her an actress & her successConclusion:To Carrie, the world is cold & harsh, she is alone & helpless. She moves along, driven by desires , catches at any opportunities as first offered by Drouet, then by Hurstwood. A feather in the wind, she was totally at the mercy of forces she can’t comprehend, still less to say control.She just seeks to grasp the mystery of life, and thereby satisfies her desires for social status & material comfort. After a series of incidents & coincidences, Carrrie rises and obtains fame & comfort.The famous rocking chair scene:In spite of her success, she is not happy. She is lonely & dissatisfied. This is a picture of Carrie’s drifting with the tide. She has no control, no freedom of will, but she is not totally despairing, still singing & dancing, looking forward to bright future.. (This is the uniqueness of American naturalism: human impotence & hopelessness but not complete loss of confidence.)。
Theodore Dreiser
Report Of Theodore DreiserTheodore Dreiser (1871—1945) who was known as a powerful novelist was born at Terre Haute, Indiana, in1871. He lived in a poor and intensely religious family. And his family was also a big one. There were thirteen children in all and he was next to the youngest. Dreiser attend a number of schools and from 1889 to 1890, he attended Indiana University. But in order to earn a living, he left the university after a year’s hard working.The early life of Theodore Dreiser was very miserable. He had done a variety of menial jobs, such as washing dishes and clothes for others, working as a real estate clerk and a collection agent. These difficult life experiences provided him many real materials for his works. He became a full-time writer after 1911. And he turned entirely away from fiction toward political activism and polemical writing during the last two decades of his life.His best works are in the form of short stories and novels. Short stories: Free and Other Stories (1918), Chains (1921), Five Furniture(1930), etc. Novels: Sister Carrie (1900), Jennie Gerhardt (1911), The Titan (1914), Stoic, The Genius (1915), and An American Tragedy (1925).Theodore Dreiser, as an outstanding representative of naturalism, whose novels depict real-life subjects in a harsh light. In his fiction, Dreiser deals with social problems and with characters who struggle to survive. His principal concern was with conflict between human needs and the demands of society for material success. He showed human beings to have their own will and capacity for realisation of idealism. Theodore Dreiser was considered by many as the leader of Naturalism in American writing. And what’s more, Dreiser was also praised as “the greatest living realist” of the early twentieth century. He was a fine writer of Naturalistic novels.。
Theodore Dreiser
Summary of Chapter one
Carrie is a pretty young girl at the age of eighteen. She leaves home by train for Chicago where her sister lives to look for work. On the train, she encounters Drouet, a traveling salesman, who is attracted by Carrie’s prettiness. Carrie longs for wealth and affection, for the glitter of the big city, Chicago. Drouet’s fashionable clothes, rings, gold watch chain, knowledgeable talk and affectionate attention to Carrie made her hardly know how to repulse. He succeeds in getting her sister’s address before the train arrives at the station. Carrie’s sister comes to meet her at the station, but at the sight of her lean-faced, commonplace sister, Carrie’s heart sinks for she feels the cold reality with no promise of light, warmth, wealth and merriment.
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)作品有：代表作：An American Tragedy.Sister Carrie. (嘉莉妹妹). Nigger Jeff. Old Rogaum and His Theresa. Jennie Gerhardt. Trilogy of Desire(欲望三部曲):1. The Financier. 2. The Titan.3. The Stoic. The Genius. Dreiser Looks at Russia.Theodore Dreiser is generally acknowledged as one of America‘s literary naturalists. (美国著名的自然主义作家)With every disadvantage piled upon him, Dreiser, by his strong will and his dogged persistence, eventually burst out and became one of the important American writers.Dreiser is a prolific writer and many of his works are familiar to us Chinese readers. (是个多产作家。
) . Among them, Sister Carrie is the best known, tracing the material rise of Carrie Meeber and the tragic decline of G.W. Hurstwood.The Genius, a classic story of a ―misunderstood artist‖, was once condemned for ―obscenity and blasphemy. (《天才》讲的是一个“被误解的艺术家”的故事，这部小说因其“淫秽和对神的不敬”而遭到谴责。
10 Theodore_Dreiser美国文学
As a novelist Dreiser made his debut with Sister Carrie, a powerful account of a young working girl‘s rise to success and her slow decline. “She was eighteen years of age, bright, timid and full of the illusions of ignorance and youth. Whatever touch of regret at parting characterized her thoughts it was certainly not for advantages now being given up. A gush of tears at her mother’s farewell kiss, a touch in the throat when the cars clacked by the flour mill where her father worked by the day, a pathetic sigh as the familiar green environs of the village passed in review, and the threads which bound her so lightly to girlhood and home were irretrievath
the help of his former teacher, he was able to spend the year 1889-1890 at Indiana University. Dreiser left after only a year. He was, however, a voracious贪婪 的 reader, and the impact of such writers as Hawthorne, Poe, Balzac, Herbert Spencer, and Freud influenced his thought and his reaction against organized religion.
Theodore Dreiser
西奥多·德莱塞 （1871—1945）
Brief introduction
He was an American author and a outstanding representative of naturalism, whose novels depict reallife subjects in a harsh light. Dreiser's novels were held to be amoral, and he battled throughout his career against censorship and popular taste. His principal concern was with the conflict between human needs and the demands of society for material success.
His works
• Sister Carrie 1900 • Jennie Gerhardt 1911 • An American Tragedy 1925 • The Financier 1912 • The Titan 1914 • The Stoic (not published until 1947 after he died) • The Genius 1915 • Dreiser Looks at Russia 1928
trilogy of desire 欲望三部曲
Writing style
• Without good structure • Deficient characterization • Lack in imagination • Simple words • Journalistic method • Techniques in painting
Theodore Dreiser
Literature Works
1900 1911 1912 1914 1915 1925 1946 Sister Carrie《嘉丽妹妹》 Carrie《嘉丽妹妹》 姊妹篇Jennie Gerhardt《珍妮姑娘》 姊妹篇Jennie Gerhardt《珍妮姑娘》 The Financier 《金融家》欲望三部曲第一步 《金融家》欲望三部曲第一步 Titan《巨人》欲望三部曲第二部 The Titan《巨人》欲望三部曲第二部 The "Genius"《天才》 "Genius"《天才》 An American Tragedy《美国的悲剧》代表作 Tragedy《美国的悲剧》代表作 The Bulwark《壁垒》 Bulwark《壁垒》
Your company sloganBiblioteka Writing Style
without good structure deficient characterization lack in imagination journalistic method新闻法 method新闻法 techniques in painting
Theodore Dreiser
American literary naturalist
About the author
Dreiser（1871-1945） Dreiser（1871-1945）西奥 德莱塞，美国小说家。生于印第 多·德莱塞，美国小说家。生于印第 安纳州特雷霍特镇。父亲是贫苦的 德国移民。他在公立学校接受了早 期教育(12岁便辍学开始自谋生计) 期教育(12岁便辍学开始自谋生计)， 以后由人资助进入印第安纳大学学 习一年，一生的大部分时间从事新 闻工作。走遍芝加哥、匹兹堡、纽 约等大城市，广泛深入地观察了解 社会，为日后的文学创作积累了丰 富的素材。 Dreiser是美国现代小说的先驱和 Dreiser是美国现代小说的先驱和 代表作家，被认为是同海明威、福 克纳并列的美国现代小说的三巨头 Your company slogan 之一。
Theodore_Dreiser德-莱-赛..
Experience
• At 15, he began to do some odd jobs. • Went to Chicago and worked on Chicago’s newspaper. • Groped his way to authorship • In 1925,his greatest work An American Tragedy appeared.
• One of the most significant American writers.
Education
• Had some education at a Catholic school in Terre Hante. • Went to a public school of Warsaw, Indiana. • Spend a year at Indiana University. • Read voraciously by himself.
• In 1927,he visited Russia.
• He joined the Communist Party shortly before his death in 1945.
Dreiser and his wife
• Dreiser’s residence
Main Literary Works
• Repressed aggression
Plot
Famous actress
George Hurs
Mistress
Urban worker Country girl
Charlie Drouet
Middle
Train
Her sister Chicago Low
Unit 11 英美文学与电影(Theodore Dreiser)
电影故事梗概（Synopsis）
(见教材）
English Movies Appreciation (英语电影欣赏)
英语电影片段赏析（Excerpt) 英语电影对白练习（Dictation）
Questions for Discussion
1.Why did Drouet and Hurstwood come to see Carrie? How did Carrie respond to them?
2.What do you think of Drouet, Hurstwood and Carrie?
3.Explain “As harps in the wind, the latter respond to every breath of fancy, voicing in their moods all the ebb and flow of the ideal.”
Sister Carrie
(1)Sister Carrie tells about a poor country girl (Carrie Meeber) who goes to Chicago to pursue the American Dream.(2) The novel shows Dreiser’s naturalistic view about life by illustrating the purposelessness of life.(3)The dominant symbol of the novel is the rocking chair that is indicative of the uncertainty of life.
美国文学 笔记 Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)A Short Bio•Birth: extremely poor, intensely religious, big family, German origin.•Education: sponsored by a teacher attending Indiana University.•Work experiences: (Chicago) real estate clerk and collection agent→a newspaper reporter; (NY) a magazine editor & writer→ 1911, a full-time writer.•Political stand: Left-oriented and joined the Communist Party shortly before his death.Literary Career•Major literary genres: short story & novels•Short stories: Free and Other Stories 1918, Chains 1921, Five Furniture 1930•Major novels:•Sister Carrie《嘉莉妹妹》1900 (his 1st novel, withheld for being immoral/for its relentless honesty in presenting the true nature of American→ became famous in the 1920s.);•Jennie Gerhardt《珍妮姑娘》1911;Major Novels•Cowper wood trilogy (“Trilogy of Desire” “欲望三部曲”):•The Financier《金融家》1912, The Titan 《巨人》1914, The Stoic《斯多葛》1917 →Harsh portrait of a type of ruthless businessman like Frank Cowperwood→“Might is right”/the powerful and the ruthless alone survive in this amoral world.•The Genius 《天才》1915 (autobiographical work);•An American Tragedy《美国悲剧》1925 (his masterpiece).Major Features•Determinism & tragic ending:•Characters are unable to assert their will against natural and economic forces.•Hu man tragedy comes as a result of collision between man’s biological needs and society’s ruthless manipulation.•Stubborn honesty: simple but highly moving characters•Natural narrative (ponderous):•massive details;•serious tone: never satirical or comic;•journalistic method of reiterationLiterary Position•“the wheelhouse of American naturalism”•“chief spokesman for the realistic novel”•“a profound and prescient critic of debased American values”Naturalism 自然主义•Background:•Charles Darwin’s On Origin of Species (1859):•The struggle for existence, survival of the fittest, natural selection;•Herbert Spencer’s social Darwinism:•the strongest or fittest should survive and flourish in society, while the weak and unfit would fall victim in the natural course of events to economic forces.• A literary movement that emerged in France, America, and England during the late 19th century and early 20th century and that emphasizes biological and socioeconomic determinism in fiction and drama. •Emergence in Europe: Emile Zola and Thomas Hardy.Major Features•Major characters:•human beings as higher animals whose lives are determined by the laws of heredity and environment and by basic drives over which they have no control: sex, hunger, and fear.•The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires.•The naturalists’ recurrent concerns: Social systems that destroy and dehumanize; Individual experience of loss and failure.Writing Style•Scientifically accurate; Objective; Truthful in depicting life as a brutal struggle for survival; Factually detailed.Realism vs. Naturalism•Similarities:•Both strive for objectivity; Both are interested in the commonplace in contemporary life. •Differences:•Naturalists d escribe real life in a crude way, the way things really are; they don’t escape into a world of imagination.•Naturalists would go to the slums and write about the life of poverty and crime instead of going to a middle-class neighborhood and writing about middle-class life.•The naturalists’ tone in writing is less serious and less sympathetic but more detached and more pessimistic.Representatives of American Naturalism•Stephen Crane(1871-1900)斯蒂芬·克莱恩：The Red Badge of Courage《红色英勇勋章》•Jack London杰克·伦敦：The Call of the Wild《荒野的呼唤》Martin Eden《马丁·伊登》•Theodore Dreiser•Frank Norris: the Octopus《章鱼》An American TragedyQ: Who are the major characters?Clyde Griffiths –a bellboy in the hotel; Roberta Alden –a working girl at the factory; Sondra Finchley –daughter of a wealthy bossQ: Why is the story not only a tragedy, but also an “American Tragedy”?• A tragedy: A man’s losing struggle against forces that shape human destiny.•Clyde’s life is doomed t o a tragedy. He attempts to break free of the environmental, economic, social, and fatalistic forces but fails. These forces, such as the mental and physical traits that he inherits at birth, the surroundings in which he grows up, the financial status of his family, their lower-class background, and happenstance (the automobile accident, for example), cannot be surpassed by any human being in the world.•An American Tragedy:•The story of An American Tragedy reveals the cultural and moral price of the frenzied drive for wealth and status which is officially encouraged as the realization of the “American Dream”. It is the materialistic society that is as much to blame as the murderer himself.Chapter XLIIWhat happens at the beginning of this episode?What’s the difference between the two letters in terms of their language and the different life they represent? What’s your impression on Sondra and Roberta?What does Clyde feel when both letters reach him?What does he do after reading the letters?What impresses him in the newspaper?What does Clyde feel after reading the news?Chapter XLIIIWhere does Clyde decide to go finally?What attracts Clyde most when he arrives at Twelfth Lake? Could he entertain himself with Sondra freely? Why?What happens in the moon night when Clyde is with Sondra? Do you think Sondra is serious about their relationship?What does Sondra tell Clyde the next morning and what’s her declaration?What does Clyde suggest? What’s Sondra’s reaction?Can you describe Clyde’s response wh en Sondra refuses to elope with him? Does Clyde decide what to do at the end of this chapter?。
Theodore Dreiser
An America Tragedy
《美国的悲剧》
※德莱赛成就的顶峰
※是“对美国制度的一个控诉” ※这部小说打开了一扇窗户,我们可以通过它 近距离地观察19世纪末20世纪初期美国社 会的本质
Plot Summary
Clyde, raised by poor and devoutly religious parents who force him to participate in their street missionary work, is anxious to achieve better things. His troubles begin when he takes a job as a bellboy at a local hotel. The boys he meets are much more sophisticated than he, and they introduce Clyde to the world of alcohol and prostitution. Clyde enjoys his new lifestyle and does everything in his power to win the affections of the flirtatious Hortense Briggs. But Clyde's life is forever changed when a stolen car in which he's traveling kills a young child. He reestablishes himself as a foreman at the collar factory of his wealthy long-lost uncle in Lycurgus, New York. While remaining aloof from him as a kinsman and doing nothing to embrace him personally or advance him socially, the uncle does give him a job in his factory. Although Clyde vows not to consort with women in the way that caused his Kansas City downfall, he is swiftly attracted to Roberta Alden. Roberta falls in love with him. Clyde initially enjoys the secretive relationship and ultimately persuades Roberta to have sex with him , but Clyde's ambition precludes marriage to the penniless Roberta. He dreams instead of the elegant Sondra Finchley. As developments between him and Sondra begin to look promising, Roberta discovers that she is pregnant.
Theodore_Dreiser_西奥多德莱塞_ppt
Major features of Naturalism
Naturalism is a harsher and extreme form of realism. The naturalists have a major difference from the realists.
They feel realists as far too “genteel”. Naturalists do not look at the average, but at the violent,
Theme: man’s life is dominated by their heredity and environment.
Language: unpolished, lacking in academic skills and unwieldy in stucture.
The author’s tone is more ironic and pessimistic.
sensational, sordid, unpleasant and ugly aspects of life. They would go to the slums and write about the life of
poverty and crime. They write about war, prostitution, criminals, and all of
are controlled, determined. The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires. Life becomes a struggle for survival. Two of the naturalist’s recurrent concerns are: social systems that destroy and dehumanize, and individual experience of loss and failure.
Theodore Dreiser (西奥多
Sister Carrie
• 小说描写了农村姑娘嘉莉来到大城市芝加哥寻找幸福， 嘉莉是个俊俏的农村姑娘，她羡慕大都市的物质生活来 到了芝加哥谋生。严酷的现实破碎了她的美梦，迎接她 的是失业和疾病。在走投无路时，她做了推销员杜洛埃 的情妇，后来由于更大的欲望又做了酒店经理赫斯特伍 德的情妇。与赫斯特伍德私奔后，在纽约由于偶然的机 会她成了走红一时的演员，挤上了上流社会，实现了她 的梦想，最终物质却无法满足她心灵的寂寞，而赫斯特 伍德也身败名裂、穷困潦倒，以自杀终其一生。该作品 细腻地展示了嘉莉的生存景观及心路历程，以真切的现 实主义为鲜明的特征，比较真实地揭露了20世纪初人们 狂热的追求美国之梦的悲剧事实，揭示了驱驶人们享乐 却最终幻灭的本能主题，说明了在以金钱为中心的美国 资本主义社会里不可能有真正的幸福。
• • • • • •
American dream Change and transformation Choices and consequences Wealth and poverty Identity sex
• Theodore Dreiser is regarded as an outstanding representative of American naturalism.
In 1894, he moved to New York began his Publishing career.
In 1945 Dreiser was died
Background
• Dreiser lived in the stage of monopoly of American capitalism rapid development period. • The core of the American value is materialistic. • Dreiser was influenced by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
Part 4 Theodore Dreiser 德雷塞 嘉莉妹妹
Representatives: 自然主义的代表作家 Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Jack London and Theodore Dreiser. Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is the first American naturalism work. Stephen Crane的《街头女郎梅季》是第一部 自然主义作品。 Norris’s McTeague is the manifesto of American naturalism. Frank Norris的《麦克提格》的美国自然主义的最佳体现。 Dreiser’s Sister Carrie is the work in which naturalism attained maturity. Theodore Dreiser 的《嘉莉妹妹》是自然主义的顶 峰之作。 These writers’ detailed description of the lives of the downtrodden and the abnormal, their frank treatment of human passion and sexuality, and their portrayal of men and women overwhelmed by blind forces of nature still exert a powerful influence on modern writers. 自然主义作家们对这些压抑的， 不正常人物生活的描 写 ， 对 待激情，性的坦白，女人和男 人被自然力量摧毁的刻画等，深深影响了现代作家。
Sister Carrie (1900): the first novel, masterwork Jannie Gerhardt (1911) The Fanancier (1912) The Titan (1914) The Stoic (1947) These three works form Trilogy of Desire which shows Dreiser's shift from the pathos of helpless protagonists to the power of those unusual dominating individuals.
美国文学 Theodore Dreiser
• Carrie • traveling salesman, Chas H. Drouet • Hurstwood
•
The novel begins with the scene of Carrie leaving for Chicago in search of better prospects in life. She makes acquaintance with a travelling salesman, Chas H. Drouet during the journey. He is a typical urban society man who believes more in appearances than in meaningful existence. In her sister’s flat Carrie rapidly realizes the urgent need for employment. But Chicago city intimidates her with its size and complexity. She gets employment at a shoe factory which pays small wages. She loses even this job when she falls ill. In effect, • circumstances drive her into the hands of Drouet. She leaves her sister’s flat to set up her own house at Drouet’s insistence. Carrie is also introduced to Hurstwood in these circumstances. As Carrie realizes that she does not have a life with or without Drouet, she finds herself being wooed by Hurstwood who is increasingly infatuated with her, despite being a married man.