A PROTOTYPICAL PATTERN IN DREISER'S FICTION APPROVED: Graduate Committee: M r of'so MiA or rofb'esor Committee Member Committee Member Chairm of Graduate Studies in English Dean f the Graduate School /A/0 , 90G A PROTOTYPICAL PATTERN IN DREISER'S FICTION DISSERTATION Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By Bobbye Nelson Wood, B. S., M. A. Denton, Texas December, 1974 Wood, Bobbye Nelson, A Prototypical Pattern in Dreiser's Fiction. Doctor of Philosophy (English), December, 1974, 157 pp., bibliography, 139 titles. Beginning in 1911 with Jennie Gerhardt and continuing through the publication of The "Genius" in 1915, all of Dreiser's major fiction is curiously marked by the same re- curring narrative pattern. The pattern is always triangular in construction and always contains the same three figures-- a vindictive and vengeful parent, outraged by an outsider's violation of personal and societal values; an enchanted off- spring; and a disruptive outsider who threatens established order. In spite of each work's different characterization, setting, and episode, the narrative conflict invariably arises from the discovery of an illicit relationship between offspring and outsider, and the narrative climax involves a violent clash of wills, with victory sometimes going to the parent and sometimes to the outsider. The denouement is consistently sorrowful and pensive in tone, with a philo- sophical epilogue which speculates on man's melancholy and puzzling fate. A traumatic event in October of 1910 accounts for the recurring pattern and serves as a prototype for Dreiser's major narratives of the next four years (Jennie Gerhardt, The Financier, The Titan, "The Girl in the Coffin," The "Genius"). In October Dreiser was fired from his prestigious position as editor-in-chief of all Butterick publications, because of his imprudent but insistent attentions to Thelma Cudlipp, the seventeen-year-old daughter of one of Butterick's assistant editors. Simultaneously Dreiser lost his job, his grand salary, his respectable reputation, and his young lover, circumstances which led to a time of deep depression and threatened suicide. As a means of personal therapy, the work is important which began in the winter of 1910, for through casting him- self in the role of misunderstood outsider, Dreiser used each narrative to examine his feelings concerning the ruptured love affair and the resulting loss of status. Each narrative thus served as a ritual of exorcism or atonement. The recurring narrative pattern therefore becomes a subliminal roadmap of Dreiser's thinking, as he moved from self-pity in Jennie Gerhardt to The "Genius"'s determined transcendence and reconciliation through art. In addition to personal emotional therapy, the work of the 1911-1914 period established Dreiser's artistic reputa- tion. Although in 1900 with Sister Carrie Dreiser had initially established his literary reputation, he had been forced to table his literary plans for a decade, while he struggled with economics, domesticity, and editorial respon- sibility. When the cataclysmic dismissal afforded him both time to devote to fiction and a unique psychological ap- proach, he became within four years the recognized leader of the new American movement of naturalism and the inspiration for those realists who would come after him. As both a guide to personal therapy and a key to the work with which Dreiser established his artistic identity, the recurring narrative pattern is important. Its examina- tion (1) illuminates an obscure period in Dreiser's life, (2) reveals his personality priorities as he turns the kaleidiscope of introspection to observe the Cudlipp crisis from various angles, and (3) offers to the discerning reader a reliable clue to the developing system of aesthetics of one of America's greatest artists. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. THE RECURRING PATTERN AND THE PROTOTYPICAL EVENT. ....... 0 0 1 II. THE PATTERN IN JENNIE GERHARDT...... .. 0. 20 III. THE PATTERN IN THE FINANCIER......... .. 0. 39 IV. THE PATTERN IN THE TITAN...-..... 59 V. THE PATTERN IN "THE GIRL IN THE COFFIN" . 80 VI. THE PATTERN IN THE "GENIUS" . .. 0.. a . 97 VII. DREISER AND THE PATTERN ... 0... 119 BIBLIOGRAPHY .. 0 . 149 CHAPTER I THE RECURRING PATTERN AND THE PROTOTYPICAL EVENT The Pattern Beginning in 1911 with Jennie Gerhardt and continuing through the publication of The "Genius" in 1915, all of Dreiser's major fiction is curiously marked by the same re- curring narrative pattern. The pattern is always triangular in construction and always contains the same three figures-- parent, offspring, and outsider. Narrative conflict invari- ably arises from the discovery of an illicit sexual relation- ship between offspring and outsider, a relationship that violates the parent's moral code, threatens disruption of established social order, and generates intense feelings of vengeance and reprisal. In spite of different characteriza- tion, setting, and episode, the -climax is always a clash of wills, with victory sometimes going to the parent, some- times to the outsider. The denouement is consistently sor- rowful and pensive in tone, and in two out of the five works, a philosophical epilogue reports that it is man's melancholy fate to watch in wonder and uncertainty as the fruit of his desire turns to ashes. 1 ,4AA. - -- -.- , .- , -. Mi 2 In Jennie Gerhardt, for example, Archibald Kane, a wealthy carriage-maker and a firm believer in class responsi- bility, struggles to protect his son Lester from the clutches of a beautiful but impoverished outsider named Jennie Ger- hardt. Using his wealth and position as levers, Mr. Kane threatens disinheritance unless the liaison is broken, and he is successful. Sorrowfully but with the perception and sensitivity that is such an integral part of her personality, Jennie urges Lester to obey his father's wishes and claim his inheritance. Because she loves Lester, it is no satisfaction to Jennie to learn that in his bitterness he is slowly com- mitting suicide, symbolically glutting himself on the very goods so highly prized by the society he leaves Jennie to join. Too much food, liquor, and travel, too many servants, and too little exercise at last take their toll, and Lester dies, helpless and unhappy. In Jennie Gerhardt, though the parent figure is victorious over the outsider and social order is preserved, the outcome is bitter, and the melodra- matic denouement treats in full detail the pathos of this dubious and emotionally blighting victory. The Financier (1912) continues the triangular narrative pattern, but this time it is the ruthless, individualistic outsider named Frank Algernon Cowperwood who conquers. Cow- perwood falls in love with the vivacious young daughter of a Philadelphia contractor and stock broker, and succeeds in making her first his lover and then his wife, in spite of 3 the fact that at the climax of their long battle her staunch Irish Catholic father has him sent to prison for two years. The fast-paced narrative tone indicates Dreiser's lively in- terest in his subject, and the action strongly implies that a dominating, confident, utterly ruthless mind--"fitter" than its contemporaries--ought to be victorious over a con- ventional society. More than likely, however, this tone was in keeping with the facts of the pyrotechnical career of the high-living model for Dreiser's story, Charles Tyson Yerkes, the Chicago street-railway tycoon. A thoughtful and intro- spective epilogue slows down the pace, prophesies doom for a relationship running so blatantly counter to society's mores, and examines speculatively the seeds of defeat that lie with- in the fruit of such a victory, in spite of personality structures. "What wise man might not read from such a beginning, such an end?" 1 he asks. The Titan, second in the trilogy that was to cover Cow- perwood's life, takes a mellower tone, and the battle shifts from a literal triangular confrontation to a metaphorical. Here Cowperwood is opposed by an established coalition of Chicago businessmen, who speak of themselves in parental images and who work to defeat Cowperwood's plans for a street- railway monopoly, as punishment for his piratical raids on 1 Theodore Dreiser, The Financier (1912; rpt. Cleveland: World Publishing Co., 1946), p. 503. 4 their wives, daughters, and vested business interests. And they are successful in driving him from Chicago, although their method of arousing citizens' committees eventually defeats their monopolies also and leads to public ownership of utilities and municipal transportation. Cowperwood turns toward Europe for new business prospects, but the old exhi- laration in conquest is gone, and domination is only a dull habit, not a joy. The old game of Cowperwood versus the con- ventional world, in other words, is no longer fun, and a philosophical epilogue suggests that morality will in the long run prevail over ruthless individualism. In "The Girl in the Coffin" (1913), a play which inter- rupted Dreiser's work on The Titan, the outsider, a much re- spected labor leader named John Ferguson, and the parent figure, an Italian immigrant mill worker named William Mag- net, struggle over Magnet's consuming desire for revenge upon his dead daughter's unknown lover. Magnet never learns that Ferguson is the father of the aborted baby that killed his daughter, and the conflict is resolved by both men's renewed dedication to humanitarian service, a goal more important than either revenge or physical desire. A word reported from the deathbed of the daughter praises this position and tacitly urges both men to devote their energies to helping their suffering brothers, thereby winning both fame and a more lasting personal satisfaction. 5 The "Genius" (1915) also resolves the narrative con- flict arising from the triangular pattern with a dedication to an independent goal--art.