Female, Consumption, Dilemma--The Tragedy Of Women In Theodore Dreiser’s Trilogy Of Desire

In the late of the19th century and the early of the20th century, America gradually transformed from a productive-based society to a consumer-oriented one where the significance of consumption was highlighted and the conspicuous consumption gained extensive popularity. When people were purchasing commodities, apart from use value, people would take the symbol value of them into consideration. As a writer apt at capturing the latest trend of society, Dreiser’s works "represent all the special subjects of his period, and change the whole revolutionary realities of most American people’s life". Among all his works. Trilogy of Desire displays the panorama the social situations and consumer states of American of that time well. This paper will apply the theories of feminism criticism and consumer culture to discuss the embarrassing situation of females——they are consumers and consumed, the dilemmas caused by consumerism and the various tragedies exerted on women on account of their unfavorable situations.This paper consists of five parts.Chapter One reviews the important status of Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser in American literature, his epic work—Trilogy of Desire, female characters in this novel, summarizes the present studies of Dreiser and Trilogy of Desire at home and abroad, and introduces the theoretical framework of this paper including Veblen’s and Baudrillard’s theories of consumption and Simone de Behavior’s views of feminism.Chapter Two analyses the subject positions of women as consumers, the main characteristics of female consumption at that time, probes into the limitations and hypocrisy of female consumption, and discloses the tragic fortune of women caused by consumerism.Chapter Three concentrates on the condition that women are treated as commodities which are equaled with artworks, sexual tools and symbols of males’ social status, exploring women’s attitude to being treated as commodities and their miserable endings. Chapter Four points out that the aim of female consumption is turning females into qualified commodities and the embarrassing condition of women—they are consumers and consumed, analyzes the dilemmas caused by consumerism, including consumer dilemma, female morality dilemma due to the double standards, and female marriage dilemma, disclosing the fact that patriarchy is the main cause behind these dilemmas.Chapter Five is the conclusion of the whole paper. This paper reflects the tragedies of women in consumer trend, revealing that in the patriarchy society, even if women are thrusted into the position of consumers, they are still the chattels and commodities of males.