珍妮姑娘悲剧分析论文

珍妮姑娘悲剧 On the Causes of Jennie’s Tragedy in Jennie Gerhardt 专业:英语 班级:09 姓名: 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 5 1 Influences Brought about by Social Transformation ................................................. 11 1. 1 Ethic Transmutation .................................................................................................... 11 1. 2 Moral Confusion ......................................................................................................... 14 2 Causes of the Tragedy from the Perspective of Freud‘s Psychoanalysis ............... 19 2.1 The Viewpoint of Psychoanalysis ................................................................................. 19 2.2 Jennie‘s Psychology ..................................................................................................... 21 3 Causes of the Tragedy from the Perspective of Darwinism ..................................... 25 3.1 Darwinist Analysis ....................................................................................................... 25 3.2 The Environment of Early 20th Century ....................................................................... 31 4 Causes of the Tragedy from the Perspective of Feminism ....................................... 38 4.1 Feminist Analysis ......................................................................................................... 38 4.2 Jennie‘s Feminist Thought ............................................................................................ 40 Conclusion............................................................................................................................. 44 Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................... 47 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 48 No 4 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, Abstract In the first half of the twentieth century, the American literature stepped onto a new stage, which is the golden time of the American literature. During these years, a lot of writers who flourished the literary world turned up. And American literature experienced an unprecedented booming period in the history. At that time, Theodore Dreiser played an incomparable role in the literary world. He is not only the most outstanding writer in the twentieth century, but also the pioneer of American modern literature. In the history of American literature, he is the first one to describe the new city life in American without any prejudice, which is the great contribution to American literature. Just because of this, he draws more and more attention of recent readers. Jennie Gerhard is Theodore Dreiser‘s second novel, which brought him first true commercial success. It told us a story about a poor girl‘s miserable life at the thend of 19 century. Since it‘s publication in 1911, it was well received by critics. Many people have made a lot of analysis about the reason of Jennie‘s tragedy. Since the researches of both domestic and abroad pay close attention on society and class, while the author of the paper will analyze Jennie‘s tragedy from Spiritual Analysis‘ theory, Social-Darwinism and Feminism under the background of the special social transformation in America. At that time, because of social transition, the rapid economic development and rapid urbanization, there were a variety of social problems. In the prevailing social conditions, social ethic changes and moral confusion makes Jennie‘s tragedy a social necessity. According to Freud‘s psychoanalysis theory, analyze Jennie‘s psychological process. This is the origin of Jennie‘s tragedy. Survival of the fittest was not only the core and the sole of Darwinism, but also applies to the Social-Darwinism, that is to say, every creature in the world must face all kinds of influences and challenges from inside and outside and those who couldn‘t adapt must be eliminated. Jennie is in the low status in the capital society, she couldn‘t be accepted by the upper class, and her final density must be abounded by the upper No 1 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, class. Take family as the most important thing, Jennie Gerhard has all of the typical traditional women‘s virtues-she was pure, kind and fable; she has no dependent social status but only has to depend on men. Different from those new women who didn‘t comply with men and were independent in economy, the fate of Jennie Gerhard must be a tragedy. The thesis is divided into three parts to discuss the cause of Jennie‘s tragedy by mainly applying the two theories above and discuss Dreiser‘s writing features in Jennie Gerhard. The first part describes the specialty of the social transformation in which Jennie lives-on the way of rapid modernization, the social economy of Jennie‘s time developed rapidly, so as the urbanization, but there are also many social problems such as social moral crisis and ethnical transmutation, while those are important reasons which led to Jennie‘s tragedy. The second part is to explain Jennie‘s tragedy by using the theory of Freud‘s psychoanalysis. Her psychological process, include desiring for material world, submitting to reality difficulties and imagining love and marriage. These internal factors make Jennie‘s tragedy inevitable. The third part is to explain Jennie‘s tragedy by applying the Social -Darwinism. The Social-Darwinism‘s core is ―struggle for existence‖ and ―survival of the fittest‖. In The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, natural environment play an important part in biological living. In Jennie‘s life, because of her poor family, she struggled for the existence of her family unceasingly, but was hurt again and again. So social environment is one of the factors of Jennie‘s tragedy. The last part will tell Jennie‘s tragedy from the perspective of Feminism. From the novel, one fact can be recognized, that‘s women and men are unequal at Jennie‘s time, especial for Jennie who was a traditional woman without social status, and different from those new women who required equality with men in every area. Traditional women were of flabbiness, and they suffered a lot from society, take the family as the only core of their lives and depend completely on men in economy. That was also the inevitable reason for Jennie‘s tragedy. No 2 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, The social environment‘s specialty, her psychology and personality, the influence of Social-Darwinism and Jennie‘s own Feminism thought are the key reasons for Jennie‘s tragedy, her tragedy is the result of both the inner reason and the outer reason. Key words: Jennie Gerhard;tragedy;analysis No 3 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, 摘 要 二十世纪上半叶，美国文学揭开了一个新的时期，这是美国小说创作的黄金时代。这些年美国文学界群星璀璨，异彩纷呈，文学创作呈现出空前繁荣的景象。西奥多?德莱赛作为最耀眼的作家在当时文学界异军突起。他既是二十世纪最杰出的作家，也是美国现代小说的先驱。在美国文学史上，他率先如实地描写了新的美国城市生活，为美国文坛做出了巨大的贡献。正因为如此，他越来越多地引起现代读者的关注。 《珍妮姑娘》是德莱赛的第二部小说，这本也为作者带来了真正意义上的成功。它讲述了十九世纪末期一个善良女子珍妮的悲惨生活。自从1911年出版以来，《珍妮姑娘》受到评论界的广泛好评，很多人对珍妮姑娘的悲剧根源做出了大量的阐释。国内外对于《珍妮姑娘》的研究多关注于社会和阶级这一客观的外部因素，而本文将主要从弗洛伊德精神分析角度、社会达尔文主义角度对处于美国社会转型期这一特殊时期的珍妮姑娘的遭遇进行分析来阐释其悲剧形成的原因。 由于当时社会转型、经济急速发展、城市化进程突飞猛进，社会存在着各种问题。在当时的社会状况下，社会伦理的改变及道德混乱使得珍妮悲剧的发生具有社会必然性。社会达尔文主义依据达尔文理论的核心——物竞天择、适者生存，阐述了珍妮姑娘作为资产阶级社会中的弱者，不会为上层社会所接受，其最终命运必定是被上层社会所抛弃。以家庭为中心的珍妮姑娘身上具有传统女性的一切特征——纯洁、善良、软弱、没有独立的社会地位、一味地依赖男人. 而这些与那些不依靠于男人，经济上独立的新女性是截然不同的,珍妮的命运注定只能以悲剧收场。本论文将主要运用以上三个理论来讨论珍妮姑娘的悲剧成因，并将讨论《珍妮姑娘》的深层意义。本论文共分为四个部分来分析珍妮的悲剧成因。 第一部分阐述了当时正处于美国社会转型期的特殊性——在急速的现代化进程中，珍妮所在的社会经济高速发展，城市化进程异常繁荣，同时也带来了许多社会问题，其中的社会伦理嬗变和道德混乱使得珍妮悲剧的发生具有不可避免的社会必然性。 第二部分运用弗洛伊德精神分析理论来解释其悲剧的成因。深入分析珍妮的心理过程，包括她对物质生活的渴望，对现实困难的妥协和对爱情与婚姻的幻想。这些内在的因素致使珍妮的悲剧不可避免。 第三部分运用社会达尔文主义来其解释悲剧成因。社会达尔文主义对珍妮悲剧的影响重大，它的核心理论同达尔文主义一样，都是讲的“生存斗争，适者生存”。从《物种起源》一书中，我们得知自然环境对生物的生存及发展起着重要的作用。珍妮出身贫寒，但是她为了自己及家人的生存，不断地与外界环境作斗争，却一次一次地受到伤害，从而可以得知社会环境是导致珍妮悲剧的一个重要因素 第四部分从女性主义角度来分析珍妮的悲剧成因。从小说中可以得知，在当时的社会，男女地位极不平等，尤其是像珍妮这样出身贫寒且没有社会地位的传统女性与那些刚刚兴起的要求各方面与男性平等的新女性形象截然不同。具有传统女性特征的珍妮性格懦弱，逆来顺受，生活中以家庭为中心，经济上完全依赖男性，在社会中处于极其不利的地位，这也是造成珍妮悲剧不可避免的因素。 社会转型期的特殊性、珍妮错误的心理行为，社会达尔文主义的影响及珍妮自身的女性主义思想都是珍妮悲剧的决定性因素，她的悲惨命运是内在因素与外在因素共同影响的结果。 关键词:珍妮姑娘;悲剧;分析 No 4 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, Introduction Regarded as one of the pre-eminent American novelists of the first half of the twentieth-century, Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) draws more and more attention of recent readers. Born in Indiana in 1871, Dreiser was the ninth child of the thirteen children in the family. His parents emigrated from Germany to America and his childhood was spent in extreme misery. After his father‘s wool mill was destroyed by fire, Dreiser‘s father was impaired and the whole family fell into poverty. Without steady income to make body and soul together, the family was forced to move constantly from town to town, while his father could hardly keep a job for long because he was always in debt. Seeing no hope in life, his father converted to Christianity to avoid the countless troubles and to seek serenity in God. Therefore the responsibility of supporting so many children was taken by his mother. She worked hard to bring up her children, to prevent them from suffering cold and hunger. In his novel, Jennie Gerhardt, Dreiser depicted his mother and father in the portraits of Mrs. Gerhardt and Old Gerhardt. Dreiser‘s harsh own experience of poverty and his early yearning for wealth and success later became dominant themes in his novels. And the misadventures of his brothers and sisters in early adult life gave him additional material on which to base his characters. The life experience of one of his sister named Mame later became his raw material to create his work Jennie Gerhardt. As far as such a family background is concerned, Theodore Dreiser scarcely had a sense of security from an early age. Quite a lot of his novels mirror his own life experiences. In his novels, he mainly deals with No 5 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, social problems and with characters who struggle to survive. The reader can feel that he was a man who was utterly faithful to his own vision of life. Like what Maxwell Geiswar expressed, ―Theodore Dreiser is the most distinguished member of the whole group of Modern American novelists. He was a realist … Yes, he, partly through his own innocence, perhaps, and early origins, told the truth about [1] life when he could discover it.Probably no one else in our literature has had such a direct and intimate feelings for the common forms of experience, pleasant and disgraceful. What gave his work its remarkable texture, its glamour, really was his simple sense of the variety and mystery of life on all its levels.‖ At fifteen, he left for Chicago alone to make a living , taking up various kinds of odd jobs like washing dishes, driving carriages etc. He was once financed by one of his teachers to study in Indiana University, but the school life bored him and he returned back to Chicago a year later. He worked as an apprentice with several journals and newspapers, which provided him with adequate training and experience in preparing for his literary writing. By working with these news agencies, he could have the opportunity to keenly observe the real American life at the time — the rich indulging in seeking pleasures while the poor striving for survival. In his fictions, Dreiser expressed his deeply sympathy with those who lack the means to satisfy their desire for things and needs that might seem trivial and even tawdry to others but to them constitute happiness and even beauty. To be poor, Dreiser realized meant not merely an inability to satisfy material needs but an emotional and a spiritual stifling and deprivation. He experience America life. No 6 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, Dreiser portrayed the world of his fiction with truth; he powered the modern world of commerce and mechanization; he portrayed the dismal depersonalization of the individual which results from urbanization and intensifying societal pressure to [2]conform; he drew us frankly and primly as a nation of status-seeker. Dreiser believed that all life is at the bottom tragedy, he found it difficult to express exactly what constitutes life. Life was dominated by invincible material forces, and of these the drives for power, money and sex were primary. In this sense, desire for what life appears to offer as self-fulfillment— good clothes, a fine apartment, becomes the motive force for Dreiser‘s fictional figures, money to spend — driving them either to a form of success, as with Carrie in Sister Carrie or to tragedy, as with Jennie in Jennie Gerhardt. One of Dreiser‘s favorite devices was the use of contrast between the rich and the poor, the power broker and the helpless. When he wrote about ―raw‖ experiences of life on his earlier works, he considered the economic society has an important impact on the life of his created people, which will be seen home in Jennie Gerhardt . Dreiser began his work on Jennie Gerhardt since January 1901. As Sister Carrie, his first notable fiction which he had been based on the experiences of his sister Emma, he would now write a novel about the early life of another of his sisters, Mame. Though he initially made some progresses and though a small publisher had agreed to subsidize its composition, he soon bogged down and had to put it aside because of the failure of Sister Carrie to achieve popular success which soon affected his ability to write. Dreiser did not complete it until the year of 1910. No 7 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, The novel was read in manuscript by several friends, who suggested changes for its conclusion that Dreiser adopted. The book was accepted by Harper‘s in April 1911 for publication in the fall. The novel belongs to the realistic category, featured [3]ordinary people in familiar, everyday contemporary circumstances. After his first novel Sister Carrie was published, Dreiser faced all kinds of attacks, misunderstanding, misrepresentation, artistic isolation and commercial seduction. Since at that time he was thought of as ―He simply had no personal style at all. Instead he absorbed the highly detailed, prolix, occasionally ornate but usually lucid magazine style the Mauve Decade and employed it as an impersonal [4]instrument in the fashioning of his fiction.‖ But he endured all these and stuck to writing and survived to be accepted and became famous later, as with Jennie Gerhardt followed which had received an ambivalent reception, since many reviewers were attracted by the protagonist‘s essential purity despite the ―unsavory‖ character of her career. No wonder the 1930 Nobel Prize winner in literature, also the first American who earned the honor, Sinclair Luis, believed that Theodore Drieser should be awarded the prize, since he had suffered so much before his works gained such fame and popularity. After Jennie Gerhardt , Dreiser returned to an active career as a writer with a burst of energy that lasted fifteen years during which he created his famous trilogy The Financier, which was based on the life of the American transportation magnate Charles T. Jerkes, in 1912, The Titan, which showed the influence of the evolutionary ideas of Spencer, in early 1914, The Genius, a semiautobiographical, in 1915 and his one of notable fictions No 8 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, — An American Tragedy, in 1925, etc. Jennie Gerhardt tells the story about a young girl who has two illicit sexual relationships with two wealthy men from the upper class. Jennie is the daughter of a large and impoverished German immigrant family living in Columbus, Ohio, where she and her mother are employed as cleaner in a local hotel. George Brander, a middle-aged bachelor and U.S. Senator who lives in the hotel, is deeply attracted by Jennie‘s youth and purity and seeks to aid her and her family. In return, Jennie is attracted by Brander‘s position and status. Driven by their respective personal needs, they have a love affair. As a result, Jennie becomes pregnant by Brander, who dies suddenly of a heart attack before he can fulfill his promise of marrying her. Jennie‘s father, a devout Lutheran, enraged by such a disgraceful thing, which brings scandal to the family, demands that she leave home. And she has no choice but to obey her father and moves to Cleveland with her illegitimate child — Vesta, where she finds employment as a maid at a well-to-do family. There she meets Lester Kane who is from a wealthy and prominent manufacturer family and becomes his mistress. Lester and Jennie live together for many years, but Lester has never married Jennie, however. And when his family‘s discovery of their irregular relationship threatens his position in the family firm, he chooses to desert her and marry a wealthy widow who is from his own plane. Jennie returns to the starting point of her circle of seeking for life pleasure. She is left empty and alone with two orphans of others‘. The conventional review and criticism to this novel is that the protagonist is No 9 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, much more polished than that in his first work, Sister Carrie who was commented as a character without any moral fiber in her. Jennie‘s emotional autonomy, her ability to make fulfilling emotional relationships with others, and her embedment within kinship and affective structures, all attracted many reviewers so much so that she had received an ambivalent reception. The critics believe that Jennie Gerhard is a realistic novel. It emphasizes the importance of human beings in the environment and praises Jennie‘s sacrifice for others. The author believes that Jennie‘s self-sacrifice to some extent is a kind of social requirement or self selection in such a masculine dominated society. The heroine will not be forgiven or accepted until she sacrifices herself. In the novel the heroine Jennie lives in a poor, hash family, she is a beautiful, warmhearted and hard-working girl. In order help her family to survive; she does some tiny works in a luxury hotel. From there and from then, her life is changed a lot affected by the noble men: Senator Brander, the first of her two her two lovers in her life. She gets Brander's favorite and love, and then she helped her family a little. When Brander died of diseases, Jennie met her second lover, Kane. This man influenced Jennie's whole life. Jennie devotes herself to the family and her lovers and is willing to sacrifice herself and bear all the painful results. But unfortunately, she lost her love from the beginning to the end of her life. She was not accepted by the upper-class. But the author give the heroine a mental satisfaction--she got Kane's true words, that‘s, Jennie is Kane's only lover and forever. Without material payment, the spiritual payment may be Jennie's best harvest. No 10 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, 1 Influences brought about by Social Transformation On the way of rapid modernization, American social economy realized the rapid development too. It presented the social economy booming as well as many social problems. Jennie Gerhard was turned up in such a background of the turning of the century era. This part will discuss Jennie‘s tragedy by the reason of the moral crisis and the ethics transmutation in that society. 1. 1 Ethic Transmutation American traditional ethics criterion in the social transformation no longer fit the needs of the development of the time and the society. With American industrialization and urbanization, the transformation of society in America had already emerged the transmutation in the mainstream of moral and ethical aspects. Since the 19th century, America stepped into the industrial stage. Its social economy got huge advancement with the flourishing of the industrial economy, and thus promoted the transformation of the society. The rapid industrialization and urbanization drive the radical transformation of society. At the end of the 19th century, the wealth of American society were collected in a small group of people quickly, the polarization between the poor and the wealth intensified. Urbanization brought great changes in social life style, and ―city‖ became a synonym of success, well-being and facilitate. Under the strong gravitation of the city, a large number of people were attracted to the urban areas with a cherish version of the good life. Of course, the city was not heaven for most of them; the urbanization had brought many negative effects such as the gap No 11 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, between rich and poor, ethnic conflicts intensify, pleasure corruption and so on. At the same time, individualism, materialism, money worship and hedonism prevailed. From 1920s, American economy continued to drift up, products grew further and services became more packing and consumer passion eruption. Any of the examples could promote the common people continue to compare their live with others. That often led to dissatisfaction with the current reality and eager to get a better life in the future. In a word, at the beginning of the 20th century, with the speed up process of American modernization, American economic life had changed and turned upside down. Those changes in economic life would inevitably lead to changes in cultural and spiritual life which made American mainstream ethical aspects changed after the war. The transformation of society not only means the major changes in the way of production and social; interests, but also the sign of the ethic concepts step into the transformation stage of development. Ethics is a unique comprehensive phenomenon in human society, it enriched and improved with human‘s self-development and social development and progress. As a social ideology, it deeply rooted in real lives, reflected the social life and work in the social life. This determined the inevitability of moral and ethical concepts in social transformation. After the war, the changes in mainstream of ethics and morality of America became emerged. The merciless killing of the war made Americans feel disillusioned, common practice in consumer thoughts influenced the rebellious No 12 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, young generation. They drove the cars, free access to cinemas, unscrupulous behavior and arbitrary. They were eager to take risks, experience sexual freedom, listen to jazz, dance in the ballroom crazy and drunk for fun; their morals were lax. One typical example was their strong reaction to the revision of prohibition in the Constitution in 1920. not produced any effective results, the Prohibition made the young men feel more exciting of drinking wine illegally. At the same time, with the improvement of economic status, American women‘s political status had improved greatly; that was an excellent excuse and opportunity for them to fight for sexual liberation and sexual status. It is no exaggeration to say that the traditional American sexual morality was nearly to the brink of collapse in 1920s. Lived in this social transformation, it is hard for Dreiser to escape the impact of age, and the form of his works reflects the thinking and culture conflicts of people at that time. When talking about the works that can reflect American new society and new reality, Berger, the author of Discover the Root of Modern America, treated Theodore Dreiser as one of these important writers. With great passion, Dreiser‘s works expressed people‘s confusion, thinking and struggling in new reality. If prior writers like Howells measured the new city with their ideal of rural youth and found the city ugly and various inadequacies, then Dreiser ―aware nostalgia for farm life is a kind of back emotions, and he used an almost brutal attitude to reject this emotion. ‖ He melted the feelings and seeing that he got from that time into his works; and the impression of the ethic transmutation in that special social transformation were deeply reflected in his works. There is no No 13 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, wonder that Jennie Gerhard is one of the most typical works; there are several descriptions of the urban life and the city life, the industrialization and the changes that the urbanization brought to people. By explaining the social environment changes of Jennie‘s family, the conflicts between the environment around and the thoughts of the key figures in the novel like Jennie, Brander and Lester, he showed he readers the whole society‘s ethic situation. Being under such an ethical environment, Jennie struggled in the great difference between the traditional ethics and moral ideals; she ended her life with tragedy. This also shows that the social ethic situation at that time determined Jennie‘s tragedy. 1. 2 Moral Confusion At the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th-which is also the time Jennie lives in, American society was in the moral confusion period dues to the transformation of the society and the environmental ethics. The old traditional view of ethics has changed a lot, the sanction of the ethic decreased step by step in the sharp turning society, ant that caused all kinds of moral problems, that was also the moral crisis caused by the conflict between the old ethic rule were improper and the new ethic rule were not set up yet. The authority and efficiency of a system was reflected on the reverence and observe it volunteer of the public. Once the system can not be actualized, it would become a blank paper, and the authority will not exist any more. Morality is an important value criterion in human beings‘ social life; it is the spiritual home for man to search the meaning of life, but its normalized usage is No 14 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, limited and weak. Due to the morality is a kind of soft constraints, it is easily to be over passed. Its way of working is mainly depended on the public opinion, self-controlling and the highly conscious of the free will. Unlike the powerful law with the support of the strong government, it needs the warmly common people‘s supporting. As social criteria, the law should be obeyed by force; once it was offended, the law-against will be punished severely; but as to the morality, even if it was offended, there is no even a little punishment to the morality-offender. That was the reason of the moral criteria‘s incapacity in the social transformation. There were a number of constraints on women in the traditional moral specification, such as unmarried women should be branded chaste, people should get married with each other at the same class and so on. Those rigid standards had become the whole community evaluation criterion to women‘s quantities. Once any one of these standards was violated, such as loss of virginity, no matter for what reason, no matter whether the two people were loved each other by heart, it wouldn‘t be accepted by the society; once the people from different classes communicate with each other, especially for these girls from lower class of the society, if they tried to contact with men from upper class, they would be abusive by the public both from the upper class and the lower class, and they would be treated as pariahs, seduced wealth young men like the prostitutes. It is obviously that these criteria didn‘t consider the actual situations, which were mot humane and unfixable to the actual society. In the new social development period, people in the world at that time treated things with old ethical criteria, without considering the No 15 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, actual situation. Jennie, a warm-hearted girl, only because she disobeyed the traditional ethic criteria, her neighbors, relatives and family abandoned her immediately, her father forced her to leave home without considering that she was just a little helpless girl, her lover‘s (Lester) family treated her as a role of prostitution. Compared those unkind actions with Jennie‘s precious qualities such as friendly, gentle and full of spirit of sacrifice for helping others, Jennie seemed so weak and helpless, and all of those made Jennie‘s tragedy in such a special period inevitable. Lived in such a world with moral confusion and pseudo- good, the beautiful and gentle Jennie would be the victim of tragedy. The soft nature of moral determined that its role in the society is flexible rather than rigid. Moral authority comes from the faith of people; while the submission comes from people conscious comply to it; if there is no such faith and conscious identity, then it would be discarded. The social environment in which the economy is the supremacy and the economy developed rapidly, the traditional moral standard suffered severe torture. In America at that time, the rapid industrialization and modernization caused by the pursuit of efficiency, but also to force people into a growing concern about his activities. While the general utility of the community made the main indicator of success in life firmly focused on the account of wealth. In such a environment, the successful and rich people were torn and material desires to expand one-sided and misshapen, and man reduced to ―economic animal‖ quickly. The people who treat economic interests as the most important brought heavy impact on social morality. No 16 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, The rapid social transformation and the moral loss and disturbance caused by this affected the moral authority and role seriously. The time when Jennie‘s tragedy happened was going through such a dominated change, which was the rapid transformation from the traditional agricultural society to the modern industrial society. Any kind of society transformation and revolution would bring some fluctuation or even turmoil. From the value orientation of sense, the social change means the decline and the disintegration of the old social norms, the new value system of initiation and establishment. The disappearance and turning up of things need a process, so in prior to the completion change, there must be a period of the old standard and the new value triggered side by side, and often accompanied by new rules and presents as a temporary absence of the value of anomie situation. In this case, it was inevitable for people to feel confused and bewildered, but the complexity of their social value indicators made people feel confused and difficult when they decided where to go and what to do. The moral crisis came into being by then. The harsh social revolution urged people wave ―Goodbye‖ to their tradition and step on the new modern life without made any preparation. Through the new life had begun, the new value system had not prepared completely yet while the old standard had no fro serious clean-up. The situation of the new and the old crossed often made the wrong and the right mistaken and made the things difficult to do. A large number of social phenomenons such as moral agitation and dislocation were a vivid illustration for it. This sheer confusion resulted in something like turn the impossible into fact, treat No 17 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, good moral as evil; the negative impact on the moral authority and the attack to the effect of the normalized usage of morality were obvious. No 18 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, 2 Causes of the Tragedy from the perspective of Freud’s Psychoanalysis 2.1 The Viewpoint of Psychoanalysis Psychoanalysis (or Freudian psychology) is a body of ideas developed by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud and continued by others. It is primarily devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behavior, although it can also be applied to societies. Psychoanalysis has three applications: 1. a method of investigation of the mind and the way one thinks; 2. a systematized set of theories about human behavior; 3. a method of treatment of psychological or emotional illness. Under the broad umbrella of what is psychoanalysis, there are at least 22 theoretical orientations regarding the underlying theory of understanding of human mentation and human development. The various approaches in treatment called "psychoanalytic" vary as much as the theories do. The term also refers to a method of studying child development. Freudian psychoanalysis refers to a specific type of treatment in which the "analysand" (analytic patient) verbalizes thoughts, including free associations, fantasies, and dreams, from which the analyst formulates the unconscious conflicts causing the patient's symptoms and character problems, and interprets them for the patient to create insight for resolution of the problems. The specifics of the analyst's interventions typically include confronting and clarifying the patient's pathological defenses, wishes and guilt. Through the analysis of conflicts, No 19 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, including those contributing to resistance and those involving transference onto the analyst of distorted reactions, psychoanalytic treatment can clarify how patients unconsciously are their own worst enemies: how unconscious, symbolic reactions that have been stimulated by experience are causing symptoms. Psychoanalysis isa psychological and psychotherapeutic theory ,which has its roots in the ideas of the Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Since then, psychoanalysis has expanded and been revised, reformed and developed in different directions. This was initially by Freud's colleagues and students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav Jung who went on to develop their own ideas independently from Freud. In the line with Freudian thought, psychoanalysis was revised and developed by neo-Freudians such as Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, Harry Stack Sullivan and Jacques Lacan. The basic tenets of psychoanalysis include the following:besides the inherited constitution of personality, a person's development isdetermined by events in early childhood;human behavior is largely influenced by irrational drives;irrational drives are unconscious;attempts to bring these drives into awareness meet psychological resistance in the form of defense mechanisms;conflicts between conscious and unconscious (repressed) material can result in mental disturbances such as neurosis, neurotic traits, anxiety, depression etc.;the liberation from the effects of the unconscious material is achieved through bringing this material into the consciousness (via e.g. skilled guidance, i.e. therapeutic intervention) No 20 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, Under the broad umbrella of psychoanalysis there are at least 22 theoretical orientations regarding human mental development. The various approaches in treatment called "psychoanalysis" vary as much as the theories do. The term also refers to a method of studying child development. Freudian psychoanalysis refers to a specific type of treatment in which the "analysand" (analyticpatient) verbalizesthoughts, including free associations, fantasies, and dreams, from which the analyst induces the unconscious conflicts causing the patient's symptoms and character problems, and interprets them for the patient to create insight for resolution of the problems. The analyst confronts and clarifies the patient's pathological defenses, wishes and guilt. Through the analysis of conflicts, involving transference onto the analyst of distorted reactions, psychoanalytic treatment can hypothesize how patients unconsciously are their own worst enemies: how unconscious, symbolic reactions that have been stimulated by experience are causing symptoms. 2.2 Jennie’s Psychology In the analysis of Jennie‘s behavior, her inborn disposition — the lust for the material — does contribute a lot to what she does and what she presents before the reader. Having suffered a lot from the severe reality, Jennie has an innate fear of poverty. Besides, she is a girl so unguided and unprotected. Provided some small money and benefactions by such a rich, honorable and respectable Senator, She feels life is much easier. So instinct at this time prevails over reason in Jennie. Without a doubt, such inclination of Jennie paves the ground for her later bad No 21 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, decision facing the hour of trouble and foretells her future tragic life. In her character, there roots the quality of passivity and submissiveness towards her fate. She is chased by different forces just like a bird driven by the hunter. In this regard, she is a fatalist. Another point worth mentioning here is Dreiser‘s writing style. He constantly juxtaposed the nature of a situation and his character‘s estimation of it in order to reveal the weakness of the character‘s personality and value. As far as Jennie is concerned, she has yielded on two occasions to the force of circumstances which might have been fought out differently. Facing the hours of trouble, Jennie always prefers to depend on some wealthy men‘s charity instead of herself. So Jennie is not entirely without mistakes in her life. Up to now, Jennie has sold herself cheaply twice alike. She is not only submissive before events, but also to people. No doubt, she would be used lightly and trampled under foot. All of these foretell her future tragedy. Like the bubbles, Jennie‘s illusive love and marriage to Lester disappeared once more just like which to Brander. To Dreiser, human tragedy comes as a result of the collision between man‘s biological needs and society‘s ruthless manipulation. Jennie, a woman full for tragedy, is a more passive character, she is a victim of the society. Apparently, Jennie is not entirely without mistakes in her life. Her admiration for the upper world; her lust and pursuit for the material world, all of these render her present her virginity indiscreetly, which causes lasting sorrow; her weakness and lack of confidence cause her submit to the environment facing the hours of No 22 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, stress; her resignation to adversity make her be rich men‘s mistress willingly but disgracefully without a name; her credulity makes her cheated once and once again but she never realizes to learn the lesson. She sacrifices herself to persuade Lester to marry the woman of his status and position and even wishes him joy, prosperity and peace; she is overwhelmed with joy when Lester calls for her to his deathbed and takes care of him till he has gone. All of these cannot be removed from when the reason of Jennie‘s tragedy is studied. Thus ends the novel of Jennie Gerhardt with the protagonist living together with two orphans she adopted. She loses everything: her beloved daughter, her imaginary love and marriage, the comfortable life she desires.What a failure she is! It‘s not doubt that Jennie is one of the purest, kindest and loveliest woman that can be found in the novels. She is a good daughter who is always caring her family more than herself; she is also a sweet wife who loves her master more than herself. And that is why the novel is well welcomed from the day it was published. A lot of critics even compare she and the protagonist of Sister Carrie, who is looked upon as totally immoral, believing that they are at the polar end as far as their characteristics are concerned. Jennie is not entirely without mistakes in her life. Her admiration for the upper world; her lust and pursuit for the material world, all of these render her present her virginity indiscreetly, which causes lasting sorrow; her weakness and lack of confidence cause her submit to the environment facing the hours of stress; her resignation to adversity make her be rich men‘s No 23 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, mistress willingly but disgracefully without a name; her credulity makes her cheated once and once again but she never realizes to learn the lesson. She sacrifices herself to persuade Lester to marry the woman of his status and position and even wishes him joy, prosperity and peace; she is overwhelmed with joy when Lester calls for her to his deathbed and takes care of him till he has gone … All of these cannot be removed from when the reason of Jennie‘s tragedy is studied. No 24 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, 3 Causes of the Tragedy from the perspective of Darwinism 3.1 Darwinist Analysis In Jennie Gerhard, there are too kinds of people exist-the wealth and the rich. Brander and Lester stands for the wealth that control every field in the society, such as the economy, politics, education and so on. They opposed most of the society‘s sources and dominated most common people‘s fate who lives in poverty. While Jennie stands for the poor-no money, no food, no education and of course no social status. They short of everything in life but they do every basic and humble job in life. Thus the stronger become more powerful and the weaker become less mentioned in human society. That is the practical exhibition of social-Darwinism, while the Social-Darwinism is the exposed of the famous Darwinism. In 1859, the famous English biologist Charles Robert Darwin published out his sensational masterpiece under the title On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Race in the Struggle for Survival. This book caused a revolution not only in biological science but also in people‘s religious beliefs in the later Victorian period. ―Particularly, the theory of evolution contained in his book encountered furious backlash from the church because Darwin‘s ideas left no room for divine intervention, and reduced man to the status of advanced apes. ‖ In the narrow sense, Darwinism refers to the theory of evolution advocated by Darwinism concerning the origin of species and the law of biological evolution. In a broad sense, Darwinism includes no only the theory of evolution brought by No 25 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, Darwin but also other theories of evolution raised by other thinkers, such as Herbert Spencer and Huxley. Thomas Huxley, for example, while accepting gradualism (principle strongly expounded in his deliberately provocative Evidence as to Man‘s place in Nature) rejected geographical speciation and natural selection. Herbert Spencer‘s philosophical ideas were called Social Darwinism and natural selection. Herbert Spencer‘s philosophical ideas were called Social Darwinism, an application of Darwinism laws of natural selection to the social area; he misappropriates the principle of natural selection to underwrite a form of social engineering. Thus Social Darwinism was presented on the stage, which asserted that the sufferings of the poor or weak were an inevitable consequence of the survival of the fittest. Natural selection means survival of the fittest is the core and soul of Darwinism. The kernel of natural election: ―(1) There exists variability among biology, and most of them are hereditary (2) There always exists over plus of procreation, and there exists speculate contradiction, which result in colorful struggle for existence, during the struggle for existence, most puny individual will die out without leaving any offspring, and the small of them would survive. (3) Natural selection is survival of the fittest, it is the process to keep the beneficial variation and eliminate the bad variation. (4) Sexual selection is also a kind of natural selection, which make the fittest to past down. (5) Natural selection is a figure of speech, ―Nature‖ means the organic and inorganic condition, and here exists no god. ‖ No 26 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, The result of natural selection contains two aspects: one is the biologic adaptability; the other is the formation of new species. The main points of adaptation of Darwinism: (1) biologic adaptation for environment is common, exists not only the conformation of configuration, but also the biological enginery, action and behavior. (2)Adaptation is the result of natural selection, natural selection keeps beneficial variation, which can make the biology fit the environment. The essence of natural selection is struggle for existence, if there is no struggle for existence, there is no nature selection. In Darwinism, the struggle for existence was not always bloody; it was extensive, figurative, including the dependent relationship between biology and environment, and the remains of life system. Naturalism was inspired by adoption of the principles and methods of natural sciences, especially the Darwinism view of nature, to philosophy, literature and art. Naturalism ―offers a Darwinism version of literary realism that elaborates the ever fuller, ever more oppressive contains of heredity and environment. ‖ Darwinism broke the traditional idealism; it produced new naturalism with pessimism and melancholy. In new naturalism, human beings are not the God‘s product; it‘s the part of nature and the result of natural course. Human‘s fate are not decided by the God, it is controlled by the mechanical and eyeless elements. Human beings are very tiny in the universe, and they can do nothing on their own fate, human‘s fortune is decided by inheritance and habitation. Darwinism No 27 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, influenced the development of naturalist literature based on fatalism. Some important writers at that time gave up romanticism and social critical realism, they accepted Darwinism and Marxism, and formed social and economical fatalism. They believed that the process of human beings was that of biology, and consequently they focus on the nature of creature. ―American naturalists believed that human beings were enslaved to environment and society, and survival is the top aim of human activity, through the law of the jungle, those preponderant outstanding ones keep on surviving which were controlled by the order of nature. So naturalist writers portray force, and try to discover the human beings‘ bestiality, at the same time, naturalist put people in gigantic natural or social background, which will embody their tiny and fragility. Human beings were the parts of nature as the other animals, so in the works of naturalism, there existed no morality or goodness, in order to show it, some naturalist writers replace pure imagination by external observation. ‖ In The Origin of Species, Darwin pointed out that creature‘s adaptability to environment and organism couldn‘t deviate their original living environment, and Dreiser also catered for this. Dreiser explained the result of organism after they deviated from their original living circumstance. From the parasites of the flowers to the monsters of the jungle and the deep we see clearly the circumscribed nature of their movements—the emphatic in which life has limited into a sphere…When men and women err—that is, No 28 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, passing out from the sphere in which they are accustomed to move—it is not as if the bird had intruded itself into the water, or the wild animal into [5]the haunts of man. From Jennie Gerhard, people can het the idea that Jennie and her family lived in the huge old-fashioned surrounding, while Brander and Lester lived in the high developed economic society. According to Darwinism, environment plays a crucial role in a man‘s life; even through it is invisible usually, it is immense as well. The main thoughts and deeds set up at Jennie‘s time prevented her from her nature desires. Public moral life demonstrates major people‘s opinions towards public issues or one‘s personal affairs. Usually, intimate association leads to the fusions of individualities in a common whole. Every culture has a kind of soil for its development and maturation. Unfortunately, Jennie lived in a still-oriented place. Based on Darwinism, evolution exists both in society and nature. Movement is the usual condition of things in the world rather than stillness. However, in Jennie‘s time, the social customs had both a long history and shackled by restricted religious system, they were tools for authorities to order on poor people. There, people adhered to carrion value towards the world. They regulated themselves by Christianity, all of the people in Jennie‘s group especially her parents couldn‘t accept Jennie‘s relationship with Brander. They believed that their neighbors would talk about it with critical and mock way. Jennie‘s parents brought her up with old-fashioned way and Christianity, so Jennie couldn‘t get the idea of what she No 29 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, should do. Unfortunately, Brander was dead at that time, which aroused a new problem that was Jennie‘s pregnancy. She was ejected by her father, which means she was ejected by her living group. Lester--Jennie‘s second lover--was a wealthy gentle man from the upper class. When he was connected with Jennie, he was also opposed by his family and his living group. Lester‘s father was going to cancel his right to get the heritage in order to force Lester to change his view. There was also another pressure from the public. The media could form an oppressive atmosphere and possibly suffocate its object even thought they had little connection. The newspaper always told the public that a wealthy young man was going to marry a maid with high cost of loosing millions of heritage, all of these from outside surrounding were the factors which induce him to leave Jennie at last. Brander and Lester stands for the superior status in America, while Jennie stands for the common people from the lower class. At the beginning of the 20th century, there existed great disparity between them—they belong to different class, which result in certain tragedy. Dreiser used the Darwinism to describe Jennie‘s process of pregnancy, it is vital metempsychosis, and everything came up in spring, during the process of pregnancy and ripe in the autumn. Darwin said ―The more things changed, the more they changed. ‖ Jennie was a pity girl from the lower class; she worked very hard to struggle for existence. She cast herself on Brander who can helped her and her family and which resulted in her pregnancy, just as a goat in ―Darwinism‖—no matter how she tried, she was the quarry of the wolf, No 30 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, puny inclining must be licked up by the strong organism. Dreiser has read a lot of books of Darwin, Huxley and Spencer and other scientists and sociologists; he was deeply influenced by Biological Determinism. Most of his books were full with of the mood of pessimism. In his opinion, America society is a jungle in which Life and Death struggle for survive, there is no moral exists there; and the only goal of life is to survive. 3. 2 The Environment of Early 20th Century thAt the early time of 20 century, America has experienced the industrial revolution. For women, the industrialization offered them opportunities to become wage earners outside the household. Young women who can enter factories were originally regarded as a place dominated exclusively by men. However, the type of jobs provided for women was quit limited. Women‘s low education attainment at that time determined their low status in the society. Many social, economic and cultural factors contributed to women‘s low education. It imposed the greatest hindrance to enhance an equal opportunity and status for women. Their low status hindered their education, and the lack of education, in turn, constricted their social status and position. In fact, women were generally subordinate to men in every aspects of life. Their social status was mostly contingent on their husbands‘ and parents‘ social and economic position. And this phenomenon is clearly shown by married woman at that time. Most wealth was controlled by a few people at that time, and it was the No 31 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, beginning of so called ―Gilded Age‖, that was a time full of extreme and no abstention, during the time from the war between the states to the end of the WW?, the American economy developed a lot in steel, steam, electric power and petroleum, and steel became the main industry in America. During that time, city developed a lot, and Chicago became the 2ed largest city in USA. More and more rich people appeared, and more and more gap came up between the rich and the poor. Unfortunately, Jennie‘s family belonged to the late; they were poor people who lived in the low status. Then, Jennie met two men who loved her and help her and her family from the poverty. While all of these induced Jennie‘s tragedy. Dreiser is a naturalist; most of his works can reflect the naturalism. Almost all of the naturalists believe that the environment is a huge external power, human beings is influenced and controlled by the natural environment and social environment; human beings final fate is determined by man‘s inner heritage and the external natural environment. This force is inscrutable, incredible and irresistible. Dominated by the force of nature, people‘s free will is minimal, or even not exists. Man is only the victim of the nature force that he couldn‘t control. In this sternly miserable and unfriendly world, the development of the things is controlled completely by the nature rule but not human being‘s will. In Jennie Gerhard, Brander climbs to the senator in his life successfully, and Lester‘s family climbs to the highest point of the social class hierarchy. Both of the two men are charming, and poor Jennie saw Senator Brander and the rich young man Lester with an admiring look, the rich and the poor was divided by a No 32 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, high wall as sharp as a knife. Brander was dead before he fulfills his words—marries Jennie; Lester abandoned Jennie because Jennie was rejected by Lester‘s family. Lester‘s family regarded his marriage with a wealthy woman at the same social status as imperative and did everything in their power to persuade him to break with Jennie. They finally succeed—Lester married Lefty Pace who was from upper class too. Jennie was an ashamed and unconfident girl from poor family, she is afraid to meet strangers to show their images of poverty. Here is the description of Jennie at the beginning of the novel: She was of a helpless, fleshy build, with a frank, open countenance and an innocent, diffident manner. Her eyes were large and patient, and in them dwelt such a shadow of distress…. any one could see where the daughter behind her got the timidity and shamefacedness which now caused her to stand back and look indifferently away…… poverty was [6] driving them. . When one number of Jennie‘s family was ill, they couldn‘t afford money. Sometimes there is even no slice of bread in their house. But Lester‘s family is quit different from Jennie‘s. The following part is the description of Lester‘s family: It was a great, rambling, two-story affair, done after the manner of the fence chateaux, but in red brick and brownstone. It was set down among flowers and trees, in an almost park-like enclosure……old Archibald No 33 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, Kane, the father, had amassed a tremendous fortune, not by grabbing and browbeating and unfair method, but by seeing a big need and filling [7]it…… From the description of the house outside where Lester lived, one thing can this is a typical rich bourgeoisie family, at that time, the be judged, that is – ranking conception in people‘s mind was serious, and children from the upper class must be matched for marriage with those from the same class. While Lester was different , before meeting Lefty, Lester was doomed to marry her, and his family would like to accept her too because they are both from the upper class. This is the obstruction for Jennie and Lester. From Darwinism, people can get that male took more predominance than female. In Jennie Gerhard, in order to save her family, Jennie depended on two men successively, and this was also the main root of Jennie‘s tragedy. Social class was divided clearly during Victorian period, and there were strict testament system, that is to say, parents will set up a testament for their children to share the belongs after their death. It was a kind of law at that time, and it was not easy to change. In Jennie Gerhard, Lester‘s father was angry about Lester‘s illegal relationship with Jennie, so he set up a testament for Lester, as following: Owing to certain complication which have arisen in the affairs of my son Lester, I deem it my duty to make certain conditions which shall govern the distribution of the reminder of my property and one-fourth of the stock of the Kane Manufacturing Company and one-fourth of the reminder of my various No 34 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, prosperities, real, personal, money, stocks and bonds, to be held in trust by him for the benefit of his brother Lester, until such time as conditions as may hereinafter be set forth shall have been complied with…… Afterwards Lester was to have ten thousand ponds a year for three years, during which he has two choices of doing either one of the two things: first, he was to leave Jennie. If he hadn‘t married Jennie, he would have brought his life into moral conformity with the wishes of his father. In this event, Lester‘s share of the estate was to be immediately turned over to him. Secondly, he might choose to marry Jennie, if he had not already done so, in which case the ten thousand a year, specifically set aside to him for three years, was to continued for life-but for his life only. Jennie would not have anything of it after Lester‘s death. The ten thousand in question represented the annual interest on two hundred shares of L. S. and M. S. stocks which were also to be held in trust until his decision had been reached and their final disposition effected. If Lester refused to marry Jennie or to leave her, he was to have nothing at all after three years. Lester didn‘t tell Jennie, but before long, Jennie knew about it. She knew that, if Lester lost his property that means Lester would lose everything in upper class. She knew that Lester was in dilemma, so she left him actively. Humble birth, low status and uncertain identity troubled Jennie all the time, whether it is from home or from the society, she was deeply affected. When she moved to the Hyde Park, she got on very well with her neighbors. But the upper-class –ladies went away from her and even looked upon her after they got No 35 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, to know Jennie‘s real background. Jennie‘s daughter was laughed by other children too. She even had to lie when she wanted to invite her father to come to live with her. As to Lester, he couldn‘t to marry Jennie because he had to take into account his family‘s reputation. Jennie knew that she was looked down by others, her life was unstable. That was what she got from the society, the result of what she did, the result of her choice. At the same time, people can get an idea that family plays a critical role in socialization at that time. In this sense, family members‘ attitude would influence a person‘s behavior more or less. Prejudice against women could be found. Jennie was governed by strict home principles. Born in a Christian family, Jennie grew up in an environment full of religious beliefs. Everyone in her family believes that a girl should be a virgin before she got married. Once she lost her chastity, she would be punished and go to the hell after death. So, even through Jennie sacrificed herself for the families‘ survive, they didn‘t appreciate after they got the ability to support themselves. They thought that Jennie did ―a stupid thing‖, she is a shame for the family, and what Jennie did would influence their future. ―Since Jennie left, Martha had married. After a few years of teaching architect, they were united after a short engagement. Martha had been always a little ashamed of her family, and now, when this new life dawned, she was anxious to keep the connection as slight as possible. She notified the members of the family of the approaching marriage-Jennie not at all-and to the actual ceremony she invited only Bass and George…‖ No 36 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, From the passage above, one conclusion can be made, Jennie‘s tragedy was not just from the society but also from her family. They all believed that Jennie was the oldest sister in the family; she had the responsibility to support the family numbers. Jennie went out for jobs with her mother in order to earn bread for the family, while her siblings didn‘t feel grateful, and they all felt ashamed because of their sister‘s pregnancy before marriage, so they all left Jennie and left home where they thought there are bad fame there. At last, it was Jennie who came back to her father and beside him until the last minute of his life. No 37 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, 4 Causes of the Tragedy from the perspective of Feminism 4.1 Feminism Analysis The term ?feminism‘ has many different uses and its meanings are often contested. For example, some writers use the term ?feminism‘ to refer to a historically specific political movement in the US and Europe; other writers use it to refer to the belief that there are injustices against women, though there is no consensus on the exact list of these injustices. Although the term ―feminism‖ has a history in English linked with women's activism from the late 19th century to the present, it is useful to distinguish feminist ideas or beliefs from feminist political movements, for even in periods where there has been no significant political activism around women's subordination, individuals have been concerned with and theorized about justice for women. So, for example, it makes sense to ask whether Plato was a feminist, given his view that women should be trained to rule (Republic, Book V), even though he was an exception in his historical context. Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women. This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment. The Utopian Socialist and French philosopher Charles Fourier is credited with having originated the word "feminism" in 1837.The words "feminism" and "feminist" first appeared in France and the Netherlands in 1872, Great Britain in [the 1890s, and the United States in 1910.,and the Oxford English Dictionary lists No 38 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, 1894 as the year of the first appearance of "feminist" and 1895 for "feminism". Today the Oxford English Dictionary defines a feminist as "an advocate or supporter of the rights and equality of women". Feminist theory, which emerged from these feminist movements, aims to understand the nature of gender inequality by examining women's s ocial roles and lived experience; it has developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues such as the social construction of sex and gender. Some of the earlier forms of feminism have been criticizedfor taking into account only white, middle-class, educated perspectives. This led to the creation of ethnically specific or multiculturalist forms of feminism. Feminist activists campaign for women's rights – such as in contract law, property, and voting – while also promoting bodily integrity, autonomy, and reproductive rights for women. Feminist campaigns have changed societies, particularly in the West, by achieving women's suffrage, gender neutrality in English, equal pay for women, reproductive rights for women (including access to contraceptives and abortion), and the right to enter into contracts and own propert. Feminists have worked to protect women and girls from domestic violence, sexual harassment, and sexual assault.They have also advocated for workplace rights, including maternity leave, and against forms ofdiscrimination against women. Feminism is mainly focused on women's issues, but because feminism seeks gender equality, bell hooks and other feminists have argued that men's liberation is a necessary part of feminism, and that men are also harmed No 39 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, by sexism and gender roles. 4.2 Jennie’s Feminist Thought In Jennie Gerhard, Dreiser creates the heroine—Jennie as an angel in the male dominating society, who is beautiful, virtuous, submissive and kind. Jennie has uncommonly prepossessing appearance and well-rounded, graceful form full of youth and health. When Brander and Lester first meet Jennie, they are attracted by her beauty. Besides, Jennie is the girl who loves her family so much. She is willing to bear the hard work to support the family. From her earliest youth goodness and mercy had molded her every impulse. ‖ Jennie was born in a poverty-stricken and vulnerable family with other brothers and sisters. Grasping poverty undermines the family life of the Gerhardt‘s, for their relations with one another are so constantly threatened by the struggle for survival and by Old Gerhardt‘s fanatically puritan conscience. [8] Affected by her parents, Jennie becomes a submissive girl who believes ―Young girls and boys ought to be good and obey their parents. ‖ Old Gerhardt is the patriarch of the family, who is also the first man that controls and changes Jennie‘s life. When he knows Brander is pursuing her daughter, he feels painful and wrathful. He doesn‘t care about Jennie‘s feeling and drives Jennie away from home. However Jennie thinks it is natural to accept such control and arrangement. No 40 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, ―She had no excuse to offer and no complaint to make. If any blame attached, very [9] likely it was hers. ‖Thus the religious conscience Jennie learns from her father， and Old Gerhardt‘s attitude to Jennie is the main reasons to cause Jennie‘s tragedy . Brander falls in love with Jennie when he first meets her. ―He felt exceedingly young as he talked to this girl,‖ he loves Jennie for her ―soft girlishness, there laid deep-seated in her a conscious deprecation of poverty and a shame of having to own any need. ‖ And Jennie‘s poor clothes and her poverty make Brander instinctively want to help her and be with her. Apparently Brander loves Jennie so much and wants to marry her. However we must notice that Brander‘s love is a kind of discourse of patriarchal consciousness. His love comes from the feeling of satisfaction when he is protecting Jennie. Thus Brander and Jennie‘s relation is to some extent a kind of sympathy rather than love. When Brander helps Jennie and her family, there comes a feeling of self complacency. Brander gets Jennie when she is in big trouble and then abandons him after his sudden death. But Jennie doesn‘t blame Brander who makes her pregnant and brings her pain. She endures humiliation and fosters her illegitimate daughter Vista. In the patriarchal culture men play the role of dignity, power and authority and women should be subject to men. Men and women‘s relation is replaced as a binary opposition: active and passive; strong and weak; protector and protectee. Jennie and Lester‘s relationship follows this mode. Although Jennie experiences the painful relation with Brander, her virtuous nature is not changed at all. When No 41 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, Jennie is more tempted to give herself to Lester, her self-doubt comes from the conventional notion that no man will have her because of he illegitimate daughter [10] Vesta. Jennie‘s hesitation is broken by her father‘s accident—burning his hand. Again her family is in hot water. In order to help her family, she accepts Lester‘s love and lives with him. However no one will consider Jennie as a bad girl. On the contrary Jennie is considered as a filial daughter and a duteous mother. She tries her best to give her father a better life. Although ―Lester was not inclined to marry her and put her right‖, she devotes herself to him. Her chief desire is that life would give he―Lester and Vista together‖. When her social situation is undermined by rejection from neighbors and Lester‘s family, Jennie experiences great pain. But she never expresses her grief in front of Lester; on the contrary she would like to be abandoned to make Lester a happy life. Lester first wants Jennie just because of her beauty. He is the man who has ―sensual nature‖, ―If he chose to have irregular relations with women, he was capable of deciding where the danger point lay‖. ―As to Jennie, his original object in approaching her had been purely selfish‖. Besides, Lester is ―the son of a wholesale carriage builder of great trade distinction,‖ he wants to take more stocks of his father‘s company like his brother Robert does. Time passes when Lester finds he really loves Jennie, he faces a dilemma. On the one hand Lester wants to keep relationship with Jennie; on the other hand he doesn‘t want to give up his social status and his father‘s legacy. At last his self-centered nature makes him abandon Jennie. As we can see that the patriarchal power actually is men‘s economical power. No 42 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, Lester wants to come back to his family just for the reason that he is afraid of losing his power and authority after he gives up his belongings. And Jennie‘s economical relying on men is of course a big mistake she has made. As a woman, if she doesn‘t have her own money, thoughts and status in the society, but only believes in men and depends on them, she will always be subordinate to men and has to bear the risk of being abandoned. Although Jennie has so many virtues she can‘t escape from the control of patriarchal power. Her tragedy is definitely will happen sooner or later. No 43 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, Conclusion Jennie Gerhard is Dreiser‘s second novel; it shows people a poor, pretty, hard-working and self-sacrificed girl's tragic life. Jennie, with good-hearted for other people, disputed the external forced excluded, helped the people around her. She is a simple, kind-hearted girl; her family‘s happiness is her first dream and motivation, she can protect her family number and their happiness. But no matter how wonderful Jennie was, she couldn‘t be accepted by her family mumber and the upper-class from the beginning to the end. And finally, she lived lonely by herself. This thesis provides four main arguments to explain the cause of Jennie‘s tragedy--moral crisis and ethic transmutation in the social transformation,Jennie‘s psychology and personality, the influence of Darwinism and environment and the influence of Feminism. These are the inevitable factors to Jennie‘s miserable life. During the social transition, the United States was full of conflicts of the traditional ethics and modern ethics, old morality and new morality. When the old constraints of traditional moral standards have been weak, Dreiser observed it with a keen eye and critic the traditional moral standard in his works. He understood that these traditional moral can not prevent the increasing unhealthy society, even bring original good people evil fate. When Dreiser revealed the traditional moral hypocrisy, he called for a new morality to establish, that is the morality of realistic, forgiveness and sympathy. Of course, Dreiser showed his attitude in Jennie Gerhard; he pointed out that the old morality and traditional No 44 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, ethics are one of the key reasons for Jennie‘s tragedy. In this thesis some psychoanalytical theories are employed to analyze Jennie‘s personality and her behavior, to reveal how she becomes men‘s attachment. It is her inner ideology that works on her in her pursuit for strong desire for material and illusive love as well. Considering psychoanalysis, personality is an important factor in the subject. The outside factor like the poverty and hours of trouble only contribute to her constantly pursuing her dream partly, while her innermost disposition does play an important role considering her behavior. In the light of the Darwinian principle, Jennie was the lower class in every aspect such as in economy, status and so on. According the rule of ―the survival of the fittest‖, she must be abandoned out of the strong and merciless society; she was doomed to be destroyed in the process of her pursuit of happiness. America was a society of great gap between the wealthy and the poor, men thand women at the beginning of the 20 century. The society was controlled by men; women were confined to the family and to depend on men economically. Jennie was such a woman-she depended on men, and she had no her own method, economy and social status; she was not a modern woman but a traditional woman; she was in passive status both in the society and in love. There is also Jennie‘s character which caused her tragedy. Jennie was warmhearted and sacrificed girl who always considered other people around her. In order to help her family to get out of poverty, she went out to find job with mother. During that time, she met two men who loved her and helped her, but both of them No 45 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, didn‘t marry her, and that made her being looked down upon by her family numbers and neighbors. Finally, Jennie left her lover actively and lived a miserable life from then on. In Jennie Gerhard, all of the characters were controlled by the untouched and unpredictable environment and society, there is no so-called the strong or the weak; both men and women are the victim of the capital society. As a masterpiece of tragic novel, Jennie Gerhard is opened for further research and understanding. No 46 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, Acknowledgement I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have helped me during the writing of this thesis. Firstly, I would like to give my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Prof. Han ,who has provided me with valuable guidance in every stage of the writing of this thesis. Without her guidance, I could not have completed my thesis. Secondly, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the teachers who have ever taught me throughout my college years. My knowledge of Western culture and the communication of intercultural culture enriched gradually. Thirdly, I would like to thank my classmates and roommates, for their encouragement, support, comments and wise advice. No 47 沈阳大学毕业设计,论文, Bibliography [1] 胡发贵. 社会转型时期道德作用的变迁[J].学海,2002,23(2):145 -147 [2] 刘连杰，李新霞. 19世纪末20世纪初美国的城市问题及其改善 [J]. 山东省农业管理干部学院学报,2006,20(4):106-107 [3] Richard Lehman, Theodore Dreiser. His world and his novel[M]. Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1969.5:10-36 [4] Jack Salzmann, Theodore Dreiser. The Critical Reception[M]. New York: New York Publisher, 1995.6:21-54 [5] Donald Pizer. American Realism and Naturalism[M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2000.10:40-71 [6] Robbins Ruth. Literary Feminism[M]. New York: St. Martin‘s Press, 2000.8:112-165 [7] Philip Gerber, Theodore Dreiser. Revisited[M]. 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