Another View of the Female Role in Sister Carrie
...iled refinements concerning dress and demeanor that augment a woman’s charm. In fact, Carrie quickly learns the importance and role of artifice and performance in social relations. She takes the time to imitate and develop the mannerism that particular men cherish in woman. She succeeds this way in her relationship with Drouet and later with Hurstwood. In addition, it is through Drouet’s planning of her debut as an actress and his encouragement during her performance that Carrie discovers her own talent, from which she becomes wealthy and famous in the end. Although Drouet has put forth a hand to help Carrie out of poverty and does change her life significantly, his gesture requires that this young woman change her standards of virtue. Carrie is aware that she must sacrifice a certain amount of innocence in order to make progress of any kind. She thus chooses to live in an illicit marriage with Drouet, compromising conventional social morality for financial gains. It seems that Carrie stays with Drouet only long enough to see that better things are available, comforts more extravagant than Drouet can provide, and cultural experiences as well as social nuances that Drouet seems unaware of. When Carrie realizes that this man has never seriously thought of marrying her and has nothing else to offer her, she drops him in favor of Hurstwood. Hurstwood serves as another step in her ladder to success. In Hurstwood Carrie sees all that lacks in Drouet. The first is that “Hurstwood appeared strong and sincere. He had no easy manner of putting her off. He sympathized with her and showed her what her true value was. He needed her, while Drouet did not care”(131). What is more, Hurstwood is an ideal figure to Carrie. He is a visitor from the “higher world” of wealth, power and influence. In addition to the possibility of finding honor and self-respect with Hurstwood, there is yet another reason for her attraction to him. This is the matter of sympathy that the man arouses in her. Unfortunately, when Carrie finally does “win” Hurstwood, it happens at the expense of his fine reputation and powerful influence. In New York, Hurstwood begins to lose the confidence and self-assurance that made him seem so hardy, dignified, and decisive. And when Hurstwood has slipped from very high on his own social ladder to a point below the register, Carrie sees him as no longer being an asset, and leaves him in favor of striking out on her own. As Hurstwood sinks into decadence and self-disgrace and eventually turns into a beggar, Carrie becomes more and more independent and detached from him and finally succeeds as an actress. Despite his failure to provide a better life for Carrie, Hurstwood serves as a steppingstone for her. It is Hurstwood who takes Carrie to this large city, New York. And it is also the downfall of Hurstwood that forces Carrie to go out and make something of herself instead of being a housewife for a life long time. In the end, she does achieve great success. As a young celebrity, she receives love letters and proposals from millionaires and famous figures, nevertheless, “in the least way it cited her to coolness and indifference”(420). Drouet comes to see her, but she no longer sees him as a friend worthy of her company. Actually, she sees herself as being too good for any of those men. In short, Carrie’s journey to success and her departure from the traditional role of a woman overlap. Besides Carrie, there is another woman in this novel who plays her female role unconventionally in regard to her relationship with her husband, that is Julia, or rather Mrs. Hurstwood. In Sister Carrie, Julia Hurstwood violates the traditional role of a woman within marriage as one being dictated and victimized by her husband. As a matter of fact, Julia is the one who maintains real power at home. She also takes an active part in the shaping of events that lead to Hurstwood’s descent from an affluent good fellow to a shabby panhandler. Though Hurstwood is depicted as a man of authority and power, he is capable of being victimized by a set of circumstances beyond his control, which can be exemplified by no other person than his wife. Mrs. Hurstwood’s power over her husband lies in two facts: the first one is that Hurstwood put most of his property in her name some years ago, therefore, the husband has to behave very carefully, for no one can tell what his wife might do if she becomes dissatisfied; the other fact is that his position is so closely related to his family life that he can make no changes because “it might affect his relation with his employers. They wanted no scandals. A man, to hold his position, must have a dignified manner, a clean record, a respectable home anchorage” (87). Consequently, even though all love between them has been lost over the years, their home life still “ran along by force of habits, by force of conventional opinion” (89). However, Mrs. Hurstwood is not a traditional woman. She is a cold, self-centered woman whose action under provocation one can never count, even Hurstwood has never seen her thoroughly aroused. And the way she acts is also different from other women. For instance, on noticing that her husband is not paying much attention to her by taking her out for public outgoings, Mrs. Hurstwood’s protest dose not come in the way of passion...