Tragedy Research On The Novels By Dreiser

Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) was one of the greatest American novelists in 20^th century ,his works have made a great impact upon American literature and even the literature of the world. Novels by Dreiser was a reflection of American scoiety,his writing theme was to disclose American life style and the problems of the social system. Dreiser dared reflect the dark side of life,therefore most of the novels by Dreiser ended in tragedy.The thesis was divided into three chapters,which focused on the main long novels by Dreiser,analyzed the main tragic reasons,the historical and social sources of the tragedy,the tragic characteristcs,the artistic characteristics and ideological development process.Chapterâ… :the life and creations by Dreiser. This chapter introduced the life of Dreiser,the creation history of Dreiser,the creation and ideology development of Dreiser.Chapterâ…¡:the reason for the tragedy in the novels by Dreiser.The first section was mainly about the tragedy and the spirit of tragedy. What was tragedy,tragic and the development of tragedy?The tragic spirit was dwelled on that though ancient Greek people knew the revolt was in vain and their failure was inevitable,they still fought hard and struggled bravely.The second section explained the historical and social sources of the tragedy in the novels by Dreiser. With the development of social science,the ghost and gods were no more,however,the tragedy by social change existed in the novels by Dreiser.The third section focused on the ideological source of the tragedy in the novels by Dreiser. The period during the late 19^th century and the first 20^th century in America was a time that the capitalism developed rapidly. During this period,there were radical social reforms,the rapid economic development led to vast social contradictions and tragedy and various kinds of thoughts and concepts. Biological Evolution by Darwin and On Pessimism Will by Schopenhauer,especially Spencer's Agnosticism had a great influence upon Dreiser.Chapterâ…¢:the tragic characteristics of the novels by Dreiser.The first section focused on the personality of the characters.Most of the heroes in the novels by Dreiser were people in the lowest stage whose instincts,feelings and mentality were pictured vividly,whose struggle with the environment and the society were depicted exhaustively. The structure arrangement of Dreiser's novels was display of creativity, which had bright artistic feature, the character and the plot were compact windingly.The second section dwelled on the artic expression in those novels.Modern city in the novels was the background of the stories,which promulgates the real life by complex and grotesque and gaudy social activity.In Dreiser's writing, the city must merely is definitely secluded as the story, In Dreiser's writing, city was not only the story background, but also it mingled with each other and with the personage activity, as if it formed an organic whole with the character.Urban street, store, theater, housing, light, dining room, office, factory and so on also had obtained one kind of special pattern of word ,which gave the work rich meaning and made readers feel being personally on the scene and had embodied acute insight of writer.The third section dwelled on the ideological characteristics of the novels. Dreiser's novels had clear development vein in the thought. Dreiser's novels in the earlier period was in favor to the exposition of the false morals of American society ,telling the readers the hypocrisy and the cruelty of the capitalism ethics morals,vigorously protesting and critisizing the social unfair phenomenon ,the social system as well as the marital morals. This also reflected the thought change of Dreiser.The heroines,with different personality and vivid images,though ended in tragedy in the novels by Dreiser,made an intelligent,independent,and passionate impression upon readers.