An Essay On The Ethical Value Of Jennie's Tragedy

During the 1920's and the 1930's, the American literature stepped onto a new stage, which is the golden times of the American literature. During these twenty years, a lot of writers who flourished the literary world turned up. And also, American literature experienced a unprecedented booming period in the history. Just at that time, Dreiser Theodore played an outstanding role in the literary world. He is not only the most outstanding writer in twentieth century, but also the pioneer of American modern literature. In the history of American literature, he was the first one to describe the new city life in American without any prejudice, which is the great contribution to American literature. Alan Tait acclaimed Dreiser, Faulkner and Hemingway as the only three novelists in America after the World War.During his lifetime, Dreiser had written a large number of works. In 1900, he published his first novel Sister Carrie. After that, more works of him had been published, such as Jennie Gerhardt, The Genius, The Financier, The Titan, The Stoic, An American Tragedy and so on. Besides them, Deriser Looks at Russia, collection of political comment An American Tragedy, the collection of short fictions The portrait of a lady are all his masterpieces. Among all of these Jennie Gerhardt is one of his representative works. The novel depicts a fine-looking, good-hearted girl's tragic life. The girl, Jennie, has been in love with two upper-class men. She cohabits with them and gives birth to a girl. But unfortunately, she ended in a lonely life. This essay reveal the moral meaning of the Jennie's tragedy with the way of the literary ethics criticism.This essay explores the moral meaning of Jennie's tragedy in four chapters. In the first chapter, I try to find out the cause of Jennie's tragedy through the analysis of her three moral choices. And at the same time, I analyze the moral root of Jennie's tragedy to reveal the central point at Jennie's tragedy. And the criticism to the traditional ethics is expounded here. The chapter two is based on Jennie's experience. It looks at the changes of the concept of marriage and family which can show individual awareness awakening through the analysis of the tragedy. So Jennie's tragedy reflects an important moral phenomenon in the society then. The phenomenon is that the social moral concept has changed. In the third chapter, the essay reveals the necessity of the moral changes in the society from the social angle. At the same time the essay also analyzes the moral crisis in the society at that time. That is also the direct reason of Jennie's tragedy. In chapter four, I analyze Jennie's tragedy from writer's angle. Dreiser's long-period experience as a journalist, his experience during the period in which he created his works and the influence from Naturalism on him are all be considered in this chapter. All of these lead him to create Jennie's tragedy. At last, the conclusion reveals the violent criticize to the traditional moral standard. That is also to call on the moral rebuilt in the new times. And Jennie's tragedy just gives a new moral standard in the new times. The new standard is just fit for new development in the new society.