Theodore Dreiser : The Bulwarkへの道(1)

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概要

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• Theodore Dreiser, who has been described as a naturalist, reveals the pessimistic view that there is no purpose in life and how helpless a human being is in the world. But "even while he was writing his early books he believed in a mystical Cosmic Consciousness that one would hardly have suspected from reading these books," says Charles Child Walcutt. Dreiser is indeed disposed to turn from materialism to spiritualism, from naturalism to mysticism. He seems to have believed in "a Creative Divinity," when he wrote that "there must be a Creative Divinity, and so a purpose, behind all of this variety and beauty and tragedy of life" in The Btlwark. Solon Barnes believed in "a Creative Divinity" when he was taking a walk in the beautiful garden. In his works Dreiser suggests mystical existence in the description of nature. Sister Carrie, however, begins with the scene in which Carrie leaves her native town, Columbia City, where people converse with nature, for Chicago, one of the greatest cities at that time, which means that Drieser rejects to admit a higher power beyond natural phenomena. He maintains both the purposelessness of life and human dignity through Hurstwood's striving against fate. Toward the end of this novel Carrie wins applause as an actress. But when he describes Carrie being driven by her cravings in contrast with Hurstwood keeping his dignity, Dreiser himself seems not to be satisfied with such pessimistic view as he reveals in this novel. In Dreiser's next novel, Jennie Gerhardt there is a touch of irony in Gerhardt's experience that his beloved daughter, Jennie strays from the path of righteousness while other children, though selfish, do not sin. There is such a parallel point in Gerhardt's experience and Solon's that Jennie Gerhardt steps up to The Bulwark. On the one hand Dreiser reveals his determinism when he tells us that "we're moved about like chessmen by circumstances over which we have no control"; on the other he admits "a higher power which produced all the beautiful things-the flowers, the stars, the stars, the trees, the grass." It seems to be important for Dreiser to have admitted "a higher power" by which he seems to suggest "a Creative Divinity" in Jennie Gerhardt.

• 仙台大学の論文

著者

• 本間 喜美子

  仙台大学

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