SISTER CARRIE再考 : 潜在世界の意味

<p>Sister Carrie is one of the most naturalistic works among Dreiser's six novels. But it contains some anti-naturalistic elements; and we make a discovery of a meaning as a literary work in their rebellion against the apparent world which is subject to the "chemical" determinism. Christopher G. Katope tells us that Sister Carrie gives consistent shape to H. Sepencer's principles and is based on rather strict naturalism. Louis Auchincloss recognizes it as "a perfect determinist work". We should naturally consider it to be very naturalistic and leave no room for doubt on it. But it seems to me that they insist on naturalism in the work too much to give thought to anti-naturalistic elements. At the back of the apparent and naturalistic development, namely, in the latent world, in Sister Carrie lurks an anti-naturalistic stream. That is, the development implies a double-meaning. As Charles Walcutt and Miacheael Millgate point out, Dreiser reveals a stream of the human spirit of rebellion against the "chemical" determinism in the work. It originates in Carrie's innate and merciful quality. Carrie's actions are due, on the one side, to "chemism", but on the other side, due to her innocence and mercy. And also, her actions are rebellions against "conventional morals" in the capitalistic world; though they seem to be "chemico-physical", they are the process in pursuit of an ideal, or beauty, too. We find a great significance where the two streams get entangled. The apparent world which controls Sister Carrie is that of hedonism in Chicago and New York where material civilization flourishes abnormally. Characters are a "wisp", a "craft", a "vessel" and so on that are tossed about by the delicate atmosphere of a city. Having an insight into the law of the survival of the fittest in the under-current of the various phenomena of the capitalistic mechanism, he searches for its source concealed from view and originates his own principle which he calls "chemism" afterwards. It is a kind of starting action based on instincts and "tropisms". In his case inherent desires are the fundamental workings to act necessarily in concert with both the interior innate operations and some exterior stimuli. Man cannot behave himself for the mark decided by his own free-will, but he can only act in accordance with "chemism". In particular, insisting that man is much more influenced by the exterior, Dreiser puts emphasis upon inhuman powers in the outside. "Chemism" is inevitable for men, so we may conclude that Sister Carrie is under the control of "chemical" determinism. Considering that inherent capacity responds to stimuli from both the inside and the outside, we may call "chemical" determinism to be "biological and social determinism". But we don't consider the world of Sister Carrie to be that of "chemical" determinism from beginning to end. The stream against it is latent in it, too. Dreiser doesn't simply depict life as it is in the work, but there he puts in some rebellions faintly. Pursuing the source of humanity or new morals in the cosmos, the latent world denies the inequalities to which capitalism gives rise and is in expectation of the harmony with the cosmos and the new world of socialism. Though Sister Carrie is Dreiser's virgin work, it has the sign of the Providence of the universe and Communism that he clearly responds to in his later years. And a kind of altruism is thought necessary through sympathies for the oppressed. In denial of egotims, a new human relation is looked for. Through the revival of human conscious action, Dreiser draws a dividing line between good and evil; accordingly, he shows us how to live as human beings. The interest in the "Creative Force" of the</p><p>(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)</p>