| 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. Jennie Gerhardt is Dreiser' s second novel, which brought the author first true commercial success. The novel is much more published than his first novel-Sister Carrie and well received by critics. The protagonist, Jennie, is loved by both the reader and critics for her purity, tenderness and her self-sacrificing for the whole family. Traditionally, the novel is considered by critics as a tragedy of society and class. In this thesis, Freud' s psychoanalysis about the personality is applied to analyze the protagonist' s behavior and deep thought to understand her behavior and attitude towards life from a fresh point of view. The main body is divided into four chapters, with each part dealing with a different aspect of the protagonist' s tragedy from the point of personality. The first chapter deals with the protagonist' s inner desire for luxury with the illustration of theory of Freud' s psychoanalysis about the personality; the second chapter is concerned with Jennie' s submission to difficulties as well as the rich men around her to satisfy her desire for the material; the third chapter discusses Jennie' s illusive love towards men from the upper class; and the last chapter is the conclusionindicating Jennie' s own responsibility for her tragedy from the point ofher personality. By such analysis the thesis aims to illustrate from the point of view of character' s personality the causes of tragedy of such a person of sorry. |
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