Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (1900)
characters:
Carrie Meeber – protagonist. At start of novel, she travels to Chicago to stay with her sister Minnie and brother-in-law Sven Hanson. Impressed by consumer culture and cosmopolitanism in Chicago but is unable to participate fully as a low-paid factory worker. When she loses her first job, her sister’s family cannot support her and she becomes Charles Drouet’s mistress until she leaves him for George Hurstwood. Leaves George Hurstwood when his income does not meet her desires and becomes a famous and well-paid New York City actress.
Charles Drouet – meets Carried on train to Chicago when she is on the verge of returning home, and gets her to move in with him. Remains unchanged throughout novel.
Minnie Hanson – Carrie’s sister, who she lives with when she first gets to Chicago. Carrie hates Minnie’s life of hard work and long days and leaves with Drouet to escape that.
Sven Hanson – Minnie’s husband works cleaning refrigerator cars at the stockyards. Represents immigrant attitude that values work and the slow accumulation of wealth. Tolerates Carrie only because she might bring extra income.
George W. Hurston – manager of Fitzgerald and Moy’s, Hurston is charming and successful. Falls in love with Carrie, gives up family home and job and steals $10,000 from employer to run away to New York with her. Becomes idle after his business fails in New York, and after Carrie leaves him he becomes a homeless man and eventually kills himself.
Fitzgerald and Moy – run the Chicago bar where Hurstwood is employed. They do not press charges against him after the theft.
Julia Hurstwood – Hurstwood’s wife who holds the family land in her name and is focused on her success and that of her daughter Jessica. Reacts to Hurstwood’s relationship with Carrie by hiring a detective and lawyer and filing for divorce.
George Hurstwood, Jr. –Hurstwood’s son, a lawyer at a real estate firm. Refuses to associate with Hustwood after his mother files for divorce.
Jessica Hurstwood – Hurstwood’s daughter. Succeeds in her attempt to enter high society and marry money. She and her mother are leaving for Rome in the final chapter.
Frank A. Hale – officer of the Standard theatre.
Mrs. Hale – wife of Frank Hale, introduces Carrie to wealthy lifestyle and helps make Carrie realize Hurstwood is more refined than Drouet.
Mrs. Vance – Carrie’s New York neighbor who introduces her to Broadway society. Teaches Carrie to act the part of a wealthy woman. Carrie longs to be her social equal.
Bob Ames – Mrs. Vance’s cousin. Makes Carrie disillusioned with her success as a comedy actress and she wants to perform more dramatic works. Modeled after Thomas Edison.
Lola Osborne – chorus girl who helps Carrie. Becomes Carrie’s roommate even after her success.
the captain – a New York homeless man. Other homeless men gather around him each day and he asks passers by for the price of a bed until each man has a place to sleep.
setting:
1889 Columbia City
Chicago, IL
New York, NY
Chapter I.
characters:
Carrie Meeber
Charles Drouet
Minnie Hanson
setting:
August 1889
train from Columbia City to Chicago
Chicago train station
plot:
In August 1889, Caroline Meeber board a train to Chicago from her native Columbia City with a small trunk, a satchel with her toiletries, her lunch in a box, and a yellow snap purse with her ticket, the address of her sister, and four dollars. The narrator observes that "When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard or virtue and becomes worse. Of an intermediate balance, under the circumstances, there is no possibility" (3-4). The superhuman forces are, according to the narrator, as dangerous as the human - "A blare of sound, a roar of life, a vast array of human hives appeal to the astonished senses in equivocal terms. Without a counselor at hand to whisper cautious interpretations, what falsehoods may not these things breathe into the unguarded ear! Unrecognized for what they are, their beauty, like music, too often relaxes, then weakens, then perverts the simplest human perceptions" (4). Carrie finds a sort of counselor in Charles Drouet, a "drummer" or traveling canvasser for a manufacturing house. Carrie is impressed by Drouet's clothes and manner, and he advises her about what to see in Chicago and offers to show her around. As they approach Chicago he asks her address and gives her his card, with the intention of going sight seeing Monday night, and when they arrive he watches to made sure that she finds her sister safely.
Chapter II.
characters:
Carrie Meeber
Minnie Hanson
Mr. Hanson
setting:
Minnie's 3rd story flat on Van Buren Street in Chicago
Chicago's metropolitan area, where Carrie wanders on her first day
plot:
Mr. Hanson values Carrie's presence only for its potential to offset the cost of renting the flat and thus increase the amount he is able to save each month, and he barely speaks to her on the first night until she asks where she should go to look for a position. The furniture and decoration in the apartment is poor an ill-matched, and without a clear idea of what is missing Carrie is disturbed by the lack of harmony. Carrie realizes that she cannot have Drouet come to visit her in the flat, and writes to tell him so.
Chicago at this time does not thrive on established industry but on preparations for its own growth, and because of the cheapness of the land the manufacturing houses are on a massive scale that makes them unrecognizable to Carrie. "The entire metropolitan centre possessed a high and mighty air calculated to overawe and abash the common applicant, and to make the gulf between poverty and success seem both wide and deep." (17).
Chapter III.
characters:
Carrie Meeber
gray-haired man - at the first place where Carrie enquires for work - kind in manner
Mr. McManus - works at Storm and King; advises Carrie to apply to a department store since wholesale drygoods only hire experienced help
Mr. Spiegelheim - manager at a manufacturing house that makes caps for boys
Mr. Brown - manufacturer at a shoe factory
setting:
Chicago manufacturing district
plot:
When Carrie reaches the wholesale district, she starts to look around for a place to apply but then becomes self-conscious and adopts the air of someone on an errand. She gets up the courage to enter one place and is heartened by the kind manner of the clerk even though they do not have work from her. The manager at a second place is rude, which dashes her confidence. Fortified by a bowl of soup that is all she can afford, she enters Storm and King (a dry goods manufacturing house she has passed several times) and Mr. MecManus suggests that she try a department store. At The Fair (a department store) she is sent away for lack of experience although she leaves her address since, "We want girls occasionally" (24) and on Jackson street she hesitatingly enters one building of Spiegelheim and Co. in response to an ad for "wrappers and stitchers." Mr. Spiegelheim says she can come Monday morning if she likes at three and a half dollars per week. Her last stop is at a shoe shop, where Mr. Brown tells her she can come back Monday to work for four and a half dollars a week.
Chapter IV.
characters:
Carrie Meeber
Minnie Hanson
Sven Hanson
young man w/order slips
setting:
the Hansons' flat
shoe company at Adams and Fifth Avenue
plot:
Carrie's imagination runs wild with all the purchases she imagines she can make on her new salary, and Minnie's question about whether Carrie will have to spend any of the salary on carfare does little to dampen her mood. "Disposed as she then was to calculate upon that vague basis which allows the subtraction of one sum form another without any perceptible diminution, she was happy" (30). Hanson brightens up some with Carrie's news, but she stumbles on his disapproval when she asks the location of the theatre H.R. Jacob's. "At her suggestion of going to the theatre, the unspoken shade of disapproval to the doing of those things which involved the expenditure of money - shades of feeling which arose in the mind of Hanson and then in Minnie - slightly affected the atmosphere of the table" (31). Carrie invites her sister to go to the theatre with her and convinces Minnie to half-heartedly ask her husband, but he says no and Carrie goes down to sit at the bottom of the stair instead.
On Monday, Carrie gets a glimpse of what Sven Hanson's life must be when she rises at 6am to see him just finishing his breakfast. She eats, and then walks to the shoe company. A boy there carrying order slips, on learning why she is there, takes her to a girl who was using a machine to punch eye holes in one piece of the upper and instructs her to teach Carrie her work and then report to him. The girl does so and when she leaves Carrie notices, "The pieces of leather came from the firl at the machine to her right, and were passed on to the girl at her left. Carrie saw at once that an average speed was necessary or the work would pule up on her and all those below would be delayed. She had no time to look about, and bent anxiously to her task, managing to do fairly well" (37). The girls to either side slow down as much as they can to help her, and at one point when she is fumbling with the clamp the foreman's hand appears from behind her to fix the error and he tells her not to keep the line waiting. The room is dim and becomes hotter as the day wears on. Her stool is uncomfortable, and the girl next to her advises her to stand, but this is soon equally uncomfortable. Lunch finally comes and Carrie, too tired to approach the other girls, eats at her station. The narrator comments that the work would not have been so bad in pleasanter conditions but that at that time it was not thought worthwhile to spend money on comfort for workers, so that foot rests, swivel chairs, break rooms and such amenities were not thought of. Carrie is bothered by the rude joking of the girls and boys during the lunch break, and is relieved when the half hour is up and work begins again. The afternoon seems very long, and Carrie is insulted by the attentions of several young men as she leaves the building.
Chapter V.
characters:
Charles Drouet
C.W. Hurstwood - manager of Hannah and Hogg's
setting:
Hannah and Hogg's
the Monday when Drouet was to have seen Carrie
plot:
Drouet, having received Carrie's letter, does not go to see her but dines at Rector's and then goes to the resort Hannah and Hogg's. Drouet "only craved the best as his mind conceived it, and such doings seemed to him a part of the best" (42). Drouet was interested in being near successful people, and had been pleased at Rector's some time before to be introduced to Mr. C.W. Hurstwood, manager of Hannah and Hogg's. Hurstwood had risen to his current position through perseverance and industry during long years of service. Hurstwood's job includes, in part, the art of knowing each customer's social standing and tailoring his greeting accordingly. The narrator comments at some length at the attraction of resorts for men who, like Drouet, are not drinkers, and notes that the conversations that can take place in such places are necessarily less useful or complete than could take place in another place. "Nevertheless, the fact that men here gather, here chatterm here love to pass and rub elbows, must be explained on some account. It must be that a strange bundle of passions and vague desires gives rise to such a curious social institution or it would not be" (45). Before he leaves to see the play A Hole in the Wall, Drouet is asked by Husrwood to come see him afterward. Drouet jokes that it is to tell him about some woman, and tells Hurstwood about a "little dandy" he has met on the train. "This was Carrie's name bandied about in the most frivilous and gay of places, and that also when the little toiler was bemoaning her narrow lot, which was almost inseparable from the early stages of this, her unfolding fate" (49).
Chapter VI
characters:
Carrie Meeber
Minnie Hanson
Mr. Hanson
Drouet
setting:
Chicago - Minnie's flat, Windsor dining room on Monroe Street
plot:
Carrie tells Minnie that she doesn't like her new job much, and Minnie and Hanson think she should keep it anyway. This is the day when Doruet was to come and instead of preparing the way with Minnie and Hanson for his possible arrival despite the letter, Carrie goes to sit at the bottom of the stairs. Hanson tells Minnie that Carrie should not sit at the bottom of the stair because it doesn't look good. Hanson comes down to the bakery for bread but thinks as he does so that now he will know what Carrie is doing, and Carrie realizes this and dislikes him for it. Carrie's work becomes easier but more tedious, and she is even less impressed with the other girls and boys in the shop. She must walk to work because her wage will not pay carfare after he board, but some evenings she is too tired to walk home. When it rains and Carrie has to borrow an ugly umbrella of Minnie's, she spends some money on a new one and meets Minnie's disapproval. When winter comes on and Carrie is without warm clothes, Minnie lets her pay just two dollars board so that she can buy warm clothes, but before Carrie can get a jacket a very cold day comes and Carrie gets sick for three days. It's taken for granted that she has lost her position, and she looks for another without success for a few days, running into Drouet on the fourth. He takes her to dinner at the old Windsor dining room on Monroe Street, asking her about herself and her work and telling her what he has been doing. When they part, he insists she take twenty dollars for clothes and urges her to let him help her and to meet him the next day for the matinee.
Chapter VII
characters:
Drouet
Carrie Meeber
Minnie Hanson
Sven Hanson
setting:
restaurant
room Drouet rents for Carrie
Minnie's flat
plot:
Drouet is generous and good-hearted and, although he would not have helped a young man in the same way the narrator suggests that it is only because a man would not have been appealing to his sympathy in the way that Carrie is. As the strongest proof of this, the narrator offers the fact that Carrie does take the money, "Carrie was unwise, and therefore, like the sheep in its unwisdom, strong in feeling. The instinct of self-protection, strong in all such natures, was roused but feebly if at all by the overtures of Drouet. Evil was not in him. On the contrary there was kindliness, non-understanding, strong physical desire, vainglory, a great admiration for the sex, laughter, even tears, but at these no woman trembles" (64). Arriving home, Carrie lies and says that she has a chance at a position at The Boston Store. Minnie says that i it dofesn't work out Carrie should perhaps go home soon, and Carrie begins to think that the money Drouet has given her can do no good because she can't spend it without Minnie and Hanson asking questions, and she resolves to give the money back. Carrie leaves early that morning to look for work, but then shrinks from applying anywhere and eventually finds her self in The Fair looking at coats. At noon, she meets Drouet and, when he asks why she doesn't have new clothes, says that she can't take the money. He takes her to a restaurant off State Street, in Monroe for dinner. The narrator observes that "In reality Carrie had more imagination than he did, more taste. They discuss Carrie's plans and Drouet encourages her to stay and to let him help her with clothes and a room, admiring her the whole time. The narrator reflects, "The thing in her that could sink and make her feel depressed and lonely as a finer mental strain than he possessed. She was not like the common run of store-girl. She wasn't silly" (69). Drouet takes Carrie to see the coats and by degrees convinces her to buy a coat and shoes and stockings, to let him buy her a purse and a pair of gloves, to take a furnished room for her things and to leave Minnie's for the room that night. Carrie leaves a note for Minnie saying not to worry and when Minnie objects to her going down to sit on the stairs, Carrie says she won't do it again after this.
Chapter VIII
characters:
Carrie Meeber
Charles Drouet
Minnie Hanson
Sven Hanson
Hurstwood
setting:
Carrie's room
theatre and restaurant
Minnie's flat
plot:
"Among the forces which sweep and play throughout the universe, untutored man is but a wisp in the wind. Our civilization is still in a middle stage—scarcely beast, in that it is no longer wholly guided by instinct; scarcely human, in that it is not yet wholly guided by reason. On the tiger no responsibility rests. We see him aligned by nature with the forces of life—he is born into their keeping and without thought he is protected. We see man far removed out of the lairs of the jungles, his innate instincts dulled by too near an approach to free will, his free will scarcely sufficiently developed to replace his instincts and afford him perfect guidance. He is becoming too wise to hearken always to instincts and desires; he is still too weak to always prevail against them. As a beast, the forces of life aligned him with them; as a man, he has not yet wholly learned to align himself with the forces. In this intermediate stage he wavers—neither drawn in harmony with nature by his instincts nor yet wisely putting himself into harmony by his own free will. He is even as a wisp in the wind, moved by every breath of passion, acting now by his will and now by his instincts, erring with one only to retrieve by the other, falling by one only to rise by the other—a creature of incalculable variability. We have the consolation of knowing that evolution is ever in action, that the ideal is a light that cannot fail. He will not forever balance thus between good and evil. When this jangle of free will and instinct shall have been adjusted, when perfect understanding has given the former the power to replace the latter entirely, man will no longer vary. The needle of understanding will yet point steadfast and unwavering to the distant pole of truth." (73)
The narrator says that reason and instinct are both present in Carrie, but with instinct playing the larger part. When Minnie gets Carrie's note in the morning, she wonders what will become of her sister. Carrie meanwhile is not all that distressed by her situation - she likes the way she looks, and she is with Drouet frequently while he buys her things and shows her around. One day, she is distracted by seeing a girl who used to work with her at the machines but is quickly swept up again in the sparkle around her. She goes for a late after-theater lunch with Drouet and the narrator remarks that a person in whom habits had become more fixed would have avoided such an activity because of a vague feeling of it not being right, but that this feeling would have more to do with the deviation from the habitual - "The victim of habit, when he has neglected the thing which was customary with him to do, feels a little scratching in the brain, a little irritating something which comes of being out of the rut, and imagines it to be the prick of conscience, the still, small voice that is urging him ever to righteousness" (77). Carrie and Drouet walk back to Carrie's room and the narration cuts to a sleeping Minnie, who dreams that she and Carrie are at the entrance to a coal mine where, above her protest, Carrie is lowering herself in by means of a rope and basket. The scene shifts in Minnie's dream and now she sees Carrie on a board or land that reaches far out into some water. The board is going down and Minnie calls out to Carrie but Carrie keeps reaching farther, and gets farther away. Hanson wakes Minnie up and the narrative cuts to Drouet and Hurstwood a week later. Hurstwood hasn't seen much of Drouet and asks when he goes out on the road again. Drouet says soon, and then invites Hurstwood to come out to his house some evening soon, presumably to meet Carrie.
Chapter IX
characters:
George Hurstwood
Mrs. Hurstwood (Julia) - tries to shine and is bothered by others' better success, interested in conventional round of society of which she is not a member but her daughter might be
George Jr. Hurstwood - Hurstwood's son, 20 yrs., has promising position in a large real estate firm, living in the house for free and thought to be saving up for real estate investments, not especially communicative or interested in the family
Jessica Hurstwood - Hurstwood's daughter - 17 years old, goes to high school with really rich girl, very concerned with clothing
Mary - any one of a series of maids Mrs. Hurstwood fires
Eddie Fahrway - a boy Jessica likes, father is rich
Miss Palmer - classmate of Jessica, playing Portia in school performance
Martha Griswold
Herbert Crane - a boy who likes Jessica, but who she considers too poor for her
Blyford - a boy who walked home with Jessica and whose father is a soap manufacturer
setting:
Hurstwood's North Side residence near Lincoln Park - 10 rooms, stable
plot:
The Hurstwoods are eating and talking idly when Hurstwood leaves. Jessica informs her mother that she is going to be in a performance in the lyceum upstairs from the highschool and that, as she is going to be in it, she'll need a new dress. Hurstwood is sometimes irritated by his family, but enjoys the finery tht he associates with dignity and social distinction. His life is mainly at work, and he is careful to keep up appearances with his family because, "A man, to hold his position, must have a dignified manner, a clean record, a respectable home anchorage" (85). He recognizes that all men have affairs, but he considers it folly not to be careful of appearances in such situations. When some business associates invite Hurstwood on a local alderman's junket to Philidelphia, he goes and does not bring his wife. "The whole subject was glossed over, with general remarks, but Mrs. Hurstwood gave the subject considerable thought. She drove more, dressed better and attended theatres freely to make up for it" (87). The narrator decribes Hurstwood's home life as driven by force of habit and conventional opinion and comments that it might continue that way indefinitely or might not.
Chapter X
characters:
Carrie Meeber
Charles Drouet
George Hurstwood
setting:
three furnished rooms in Ogden Place, facing Union Park, on the West Side
plot:
Carrie and Drouet are living in three furnished rooms in Ogden place. Carrie, relieved of certain difficulties which she had carried formerly, is not confronted with new mental ones. "She looked into her glass and saw a prettier Carrie there than she had seen before; she looked into her mind, a mirror prepared of her own and the world's opinions, and saw a worse. Between these two images she wavered, hesitating which to believe" (89). Carrie is bothered by moral qualms, but sees returning to her previous situation an intolerable alternative. When Drouet tells Carrie that he has invited Hurstwood over, she renews an inquiry into when they will be married and Drouet assures her just as soon as he gets a particular deal closed up - "He was referring to some property which he said he had and which required so much attention, adjustment and whatnot, that somehow or other it interfered with his free moral, personal actions" (92). Carrie is somewhat anxious to be married by also has begun to realize what he lacked in cleverness, and so she is not desparate to win his affection. When Hurstwood comes, Carrie sees that he is both more clever and more charming than Drouet. They play euchre and Hurstwood instructs Carrie, doing his best to see that she wins. He leaves a good impression on Carrie and Drouet is glad that his friend seems to approve his choice.
Chapter XI
characters:
Carrie Meeber
Charles Drouet
Mr. Frank A. Hale - manager of the Standard theatre. He and Mrs. Hale live respectably from hand to mouth on $45/week.
Mrs. Hale - 35 yr. old brunette
railroad treasurer's wife and her daughter - live across the hall from Carrie and Drouet, they are from Evansville, Indiana and the daughter is there to study music
setting:
walking around Chicago, driving by the mansions on Prairie Avenue
plot:
The narrator emphasizes the power of desire in motivating Carrie's actions and also points out that those we criticize for their moral failures may have been tested more severely than we ourselves ever are. "Carrie was an apt student of fortune's superficialities. Seeing a thing, she would immediately set to inquiring how she would look properly related to it . . . . The greatest minds are not so afflicted, and on the contrary the lower order of mind is not so disturbed" (98). As they walk about, Drouet comments when he admires something about a woman, and Carrie responds by imitating the admired quality, such as a graceful walk. "He went on educating and wounding her, a thing rather foolish in one whose admiration for his pupil and victim was apt to grow" (100). One day, they go driving by the mansions on Prairie Avenue and see a young man and woman in a carriage. Drouet admires the girl and the houses alike, and Carrie notices the difference between her companion and the young man in the carriage, and seeing that couple and these mansions makes poverty seem even more horrible. On the way home Drouet happens to drive near the Hanson flat and Carrie is struck by the difference and asks him to take a different way. Carrie goes out sometimes with Mrs. Hale, and is influenced by the other woman's tastes and opinions. One day, she is at home hearing the girl across the hall play a moving piece of music and crying when Drouet comes home - he asks her to waltz, an incongruous proposition that the narrator says reveals his inability to sympathize with Carrie and constitutes his first mistake. Carrie is naturally imitative, and picks up the ways and mannerisms that she sees admired in others. By the time Hurstwood comes over to meet Carrie, she is much more impressive than the young woman Drouet had met on the train.
Chapter XII
characters:
Charles Drouet
well-dressed female acquaintance of Drouet
George Hurstwood
Carrie Meeber
setting:
a restaraunt
McVicker's theatre
plot:
Drouet goes on about his life as before - forgetting Carrie in his pursuit of beautiful women in other cities, but charmed by her in Chicago. She, noticing his defects in taste and cleverness, sees him in a modified light and is not anxious to marry him. Hurstwood admires Carrie without thought of Drouet's priority. When Drouet returns to Chicago once and runs into a well-dressed female acquaintance, he dines with her before returning home and Hurstwood, happening to see them, reflects, "Ah, the rascal . . . that's pretty hard on the little girl" (108). Hurstwood begins to look on Drouet as a rival, and invites the couple out to see Joe Jefferson. One night when Carrie is planning to go to The Exposition with Mrs. Hale, Hurstwood writes requesting their company to Joe Jefferson and they go. Hurstwood is enthusiastic about Joe Jefferson and entertains both she and Drouet, and by the evening's close she is convinced that he is far Drouet's superior. Carrie tells Hurstwood and Drouet that she has had a nice time and - "'Yes, indeed,' added Drouet, who was not in the least aware that a battle had been fought and his defences weakened. He was like the Emperor of China who sat glorying in himself, unaware that his fairest provinces were being wrested from him" (110).
Chapter XIII
characters:
Miss Carmichael - was at McVicker's with George Jr.
setting:
Hurstwood house
plot:
Hurstwood's marriage is buoyed on his and his wife's shared interest in maintenance of social integrity. Much of Hurstwood's property is in his wife's name, and "Hurstwood conducted himself circumspectly because he felt that he could not be sure of anything once she became dissatisfied" (112). George Jr. had seen Hurstwood with Carrie and Drouet, and mentions it at breakfast. George had told Mrs. Hurstwood that he would be busy that evening, and she begins to demand his time first by having him visit with the boring Mr. Phillips and his wife and then by requesting that he come to a matinée. When he refuses the matinée she is angry. Hurstwood is more and more attracted to Carrie, whose excursions and talks with Mrs. Hale have the appeal of wealth increasingly on her mind. Hurstwood comes over one night that winter when Drouet is out of town, and his easy conversation with Carrie impresses her. "The forces which regulate two individuals of the character of Carrie and Hurstwood are as strange and as subtle as described. We have been writing our novels and our philosophies without sufficiently emphasizing them - we have been neglecting to set forth what all men must know and feel about these things before a true and natural life may be led. We understand that not we, but the things of which we are evidence, are the realities" (119).