Abstract: Sister Carrie is a famous American realist novelist of Theodore Dreiser. Sister Carrie wrote a rural girl came to Chicago to find happiness. To get rid of poverty, she sold her virginity and cohabited with a salesman and hotel manager. At last, because of her beauty, she became an actor. This article reveals that the heroes in the novel tried to change the reality and get happiness. But eventually their experiences became all sorts of tragedy. By analyzing the three main characters’ experiences and desires in Sister Carrie, aims to dig up the causes of their failure. Besides the external causes, this paper also analyzes the internal reasons for their failure of desires. They looked money and desire as happiness. Of course, they are the factors of the failure of their desires. The ills of capitalism are the root cause of their tragedy. This paper summarizes the root cause of the failure of their desires is that they could not get rid of capitalism.

Key words: Sister Carrie; desire; happiness; capitalism

CONTENTS

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction1

1.1 Introduction to Theodore Dreiser

1.2 Introduction of Sister Carrie

2. Experiences of Three Main Characters..2

2.1 Experience of Sister Carrie

2.2 Experience of Hurstwood

2.3 Experience of Drouet

3. Desires of Three Main Characters.4

3.1 Desire of Sister Carrie

3.2 Desire of Hurstwood

3.3 Desire of Drouet

4. Analysis on Failure of Their Desires..6

4.1 Internal Causes

4.2 External Causes

5. Conclusion..7

Bibliography...9

Acknowledgments..10