Sister Carrie by Theodore Dressier | Characters, Summary, Analysis

 Sister Carrie by Theodore Dressier | Characters, Summary, Analysis

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Theodore Dressier was an American novelist and journalist who adhered to the Naturalist school of literature. Just like literary Realism, Naturalism is a rejection of Romanticism while supporting Determinism and scientific objectivism to offer social commentary.

Theodore Dressier was born in 1871 and died in 1945. He is known for his two great novels titled Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925).

Theodore Dressier chose to write against the norms. In Sister Carrie, he portrayed a young country girl who decides to escape Wisconsin's rural life to Chicago. She fails to find a good job that may pay a living wage. She is preyed upon by several men and she decides to use them as a ladder to rise up in society. Ultimately, she becomes a successful and famous actress, yet fails to find peace and satisfaction in her life.

Sister Carrie is a significant novel as it broke the trend of Romantic moralism that dictated punishment for adultery. There is a stark difference in the stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter in which the female protagonist is punished for having an affair outside her marriage and Sister Carrie, that portrays adultery as an acceptable norm and doesn’t suggest any punishment. Sister Carrie has been called as ‘greatest of All American Urban Novels.’ The novel tells three tragedies Carrie’s tragedy of success, Hurstwood’s tragedy of failure, and Drouet’s tragedy of ignorance.

Sister Carrie is a sarcastic commentary against the great American dream as the featured characters of the novel succeed at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code.

Main Characters of Sister Carrie

Caroline Meeber is the protagonist. Her family calls her Carrie. She becomes the second wife of George Wheeler, also known as Geroge W. Hurstwood. Later on, she becomes a famous successful actress by the name of Carrie Madenda. Minnie Hanson is Carrie’s elder sister whose husband is Svan Hanson. Charles H. Drouet is a buoyant traveling salesman who persuades Carrie to be his mistress to lead a prosperous life. Jessica Hurstwood is George’s social-climbing wife who continues to try to be close to men of high-class society. Mr. and Mrs. Vance are neighbors of Carrie and George Hurstwood. Robert Ames is a brother of Mrs. Vance whom Carrie regards as an ideal man. Lola Osborne is a friendly chorus girl with whom Carrie works. Later on, Lola persuades Carrie to leave Hurstwood and live with her in her apartment. Lola realizes the great potential of Carrie and becomes her ‘satellite,’ or parasite.

Summary of Sister Carrie

The story of Sister Carrie depicts three main characters and how they fell, were harmed, and corrupted by the fraudulent claims of the spurious American dream.

Carrie Meeber is living in Columbia City, Wisconsin with her family. Her elder sister Minnie is married to Svan Hanson and they live in Chicago. Frustrated by the poverty of her family, Carrie decides to move to Chicago to get a job with the help of her sister. During the train travel to Chicago, she meets a traveling salesman Charles Drouet. Charles is attracted to Carrie and they exchange contact information. When Carrie reaches her sister’s house, she realizes that her sister is also living a middle-class life and her home lack affluence. Carrie gets a job at a shoemaker factory but she is not satisfied with the salary. Charles meets Carrie and suggests she leave her sister’s dull poor house and move with him in his high-class apartment. To persuade Carrie, he slips two notes of 10 Dollars. Carrie discovers a new way to earn money to fulfill her materialistic desires, yet she is not convinced. The next day, she again meets Charles and tries to give his money back to him. Charles denies taking the money back, instead, he takes Carrie to shop at Chicago Departmental Store. He buys a nice rich jacket and a pair of shoes for Carrie. Carrie now makes up her mind and moves to Charle’s apartment to live with him.

Gradually, Carrie loses her provincial countryside mannerism and becomes a suave clever city girl. One day, Drouet introduces Carrie to Geroge W. Hurstwood who is the manager of a Fritzgard and Moy’s bar where Charles regularly visits. Hurstwood is a rich married man. He is the husband of Julia Hurstwood who is a social-climbing wife. He is the father of a 20-year-old son and a 17-year-old daughter. When he sees Carrie, he gets infatuated with her. Carrie doesn’t know if Hurstwood is married or not. As Charles goes on traveling for his business purpose, Hurstwood decides to meet Carrie in her apartment. Carrie realizes that Hurstwood is way too rich than Charles and when Hurstwood tries to seduce her, she submits to his desires.

One night, Drouet promises to find a suitable actress to play the role of Laura in Augustine Dally’s melodrama Under the Gaslight. He persuades Carrie to play the role. Carrie is hesitant but decides to try. During the performance, she fumbles but Charles continues to cheer her up and at the end, she offers a satisfactory delivery of the role. Hurstwood also visited the theater and on seeing Carrie performing the role, his infatuation towards Carrie turns into an obsession and he decides to snatch Carrie from Charles by any means.

Drouet comes to know about the affair between Hurstwood and Carrie. Julia Hurstwood also comes to know that her husband has been seen with another woman. Julia confronts Geroge Hurstwood and threatens him with consequences. Hurstwood meets Carrie and asks her to move with him. Carrie asks him if he will marry her, to which Hurstwood says yes. Later on, Drouet confronts Carrie and chides her for her infidelity. He informs her that Hurstwood is already married and is a father of a 20-year-old son and a 17-year-old daughter. Charles then leaves Carrie alone and moves out of the apartment. Knowing the married life of Hurstwood, Carrie rejects his proposal too and is now alone.

Hurstwood is too frustrated by his wife’s warnings and Carrie’s rejection. As he drowns himself in liquor in his own bar, he realizes that one of the lockers of Fristgard and Moy’s has been left unlocked for the night. He decides to steal money from the locker. He takes more than $10,000 from the locker. He then sends a message to Carrie in which he falsely pretends that Charles is too ill and she may go to see Charles with him. Hurstwood takes Carrie to Montreal, Canada. He succeeds in mollifying Carrie by faking a marriage with her though he is still married to Julia. Later on, an investigator finds Hurstwood and demands all the money back that he stole or he will face a jail term. Hurstwood gives back most of the money that he stole to avoid persecution. He then moves to New York City with Carrie where he buys a minor share in a saloon. He and Carrie start living in New York City in a rented apartment by the name George and Carrie Wheeler. Initially, Carrie is happy but Geroge is not earning enough from the saloon and soon the financial restraints create a gap between Carrie and George. Carrie makes friends with her neighbor Mrs. Vance whose husband is very rich. Robert Ames is a cousin of Mr. Vance. He is a bright scholar from Indiana. Carrie gets impressed by Robert Ames who makes her realize that appreciation of great art is more important and satisfactory than materialistic success.

After a year or two, the landlord of the saloon decides to sell the shop and Geroge’s partner decides to terminate the partnership. George is too adamant and proud to do any other job and decides to stay at home until he finds a new venture to make money. Ultimately, his savings also dwindle away. Then he forces Carrie to make some economic contribution. Carrie is hesitant but decides to join a chorus as she is good-looking. Geroge continues to deteriorate his situation while Carrie starts gaining success as he proceeds to play minor roles along with being a chorus girl. She meets Lola Osborne her fellow chorus girl. Lola offers her career advises and guides her to become a full-fledged actress. Lola realizes Carrie’s potential and decides to taste success at Carrie’s back while she herself cannot achieve success. Meanwhile, Geroge continues to waste his little money and becomes a drunkard. A streetcar driver’s strike is going on in New York City. Geroge decides to become a scab and break the strike by becoming a streetcar driver to earn some money. However, he could do this only for two days and the other cab drivers on strike confront him and injures him. Geroge is then forced to stop driving the cab. Carrie is unaware of his reason but when she comes to know that George has again stopped working, she decides to leave him and move to Lola Osborne’s apartment.

Geroge continues to suffer ill-fate and ultimately turns into a street beggar while Carrie continues to achieve success as an actress by the name of Carrie Madenda. Lola becomes her advisor. One day, Carrie comes to know that Geroge committed suicide in a flophouse. She contemplates her own situation and realizes that though she has attained materialistic success, she is hollow, lonely, dissatisfied, frustrated, and almost dead inside.

The novel ends here. George Wheeler suffers the tragedy of failure and meets an ignominious end as a beggar. Carrie, despite attaining success, finds her life meaningless as she suffers the tragedy of success. Charles Drouet, who thought of a happy family with Carrie suffers the tragedy of ignorance. This is it for today. We will discuss another important work of Theodore Dressier in the next video. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!