Jennie's Tragedy

Jennie Gerhardt was one of Theodore Dreiser's most important works. It told us a story of a girl's miserable life. Since its publication in 1911, it aroused extensive attention. Many people have made a lot of analysis about the reason of Jennie' tragedy. Since the researches of both domestic and abroad pay close attention to archetypal criticism and spiritual analysis, while the author of the paper will analyze Jennie's tragedy from Darwinism and Feminism. Darwinism was an important theory in biological field, now more and more observers apply it in literary analysis, early in the 18^th century, based on western bourgeois democratic theory, Feminism developed and large scale movement broke out, and the aim was to summon women's consciousness of equal status with men.Survival of the fittest was the core and the sole of Darwinism, that is to say, every creature in the world must face all kinds of influence and challenge from inside and outside, and those who couldn't adapt must be eliminated. Jennie Gerhardt was the typical traditional woman, she was pure, kind and fable, and she was different from those New Women who didn't comply with men and were independent in economy. The thesis is divided into five parts by applying the two theories.The first part is the introduction about the author Theodore Dreiser and his work Jennie Gerhardt, the background of the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century and the naturalist writing style.The second part analyzes methodology of tragedy and its social meaning, through presentation of tragic theories in order to grasp essence of tragedy, and Theodore Dreiser's tragic style.The third part is to explain Jennie's tragedy from Darwinism and Feminism. Environment, Jennie's character and Religion were three key factors. In the section of Environment, The forming and the development of Darwinism, and Darwinist influence on American naturalist writing was introduced. The core theory of Darwinism is "struggle for existence" and the "survival of the fittest". In The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, natural environment play an important part in biological living, in Jennie's life, because of her poor family, she struggled for the existence of her family unceasingly. The author of the paper will get the conclusion that natural environment is one of the factors of Jennie's tragedy. Religion also play an important part in Jennie's tragedy. At that time, all people's mind was controlled by religion, and people will judge the others' deed by the principles of religion, they couldn't accept Jennie's marriage to Brander who was much elder than her, and they also believed that it was terribly wrong for Jennie to be pregnant before marriage, and in their opinion, Jennie broke the rule of religion. So, they bundled her off, which was the direct reason for her tragedy in future. Another reason is that women and men are unequal at that time, especially for Jennie who was a traditional woman, and different from those New Women who required equality with men in every area. Traditional women were of flabbiness, and they suffered a lot from society, that was so-called "second sex", and that was the inevitable reason of Jennie's tragedy. The last reason is from Jennie's own characteristic, she was pure, selfless and vain, and she showed extreme forbearance. During the connection with Brander, Lester and Letty Pace, she always considered the others' benefit and sacrificed herself, and she was also vain which was the inner reason for her tragedy.The fourth part is about the apocalypse of Jennie's tragedy to modern society. The first one is that we should pursue harmony between two sexes, and the second is to back to ego.The fifth part is the conclusion: environment, religion and Jennie's character are the key reasons for her tragedy, and to point out the motive and the significance of the paper.