A Literary Stylistic Analysis Of The Female Images In The Thorn Birds

Theodore Dreiser is an American writer who enjoys a high status in Americanliterature. His novel-Sister Carrie has attracted a lot controversy since it was published100years ago. The story took place in the late19thcentury and the early20thcentury-thetransitional period, in which phase the modes of production and life graduallytransformed from a rural way of life to the urban way of life. In the period of socialtransformation, many traditional ways of life and ethical mores were strongly hit, andpeople’s ideological understanding experienced a sharp change under the impact of rapidchanges. The protagonists-Carrie, Drouet and Hurstwood in the novel are commonpeople who live during that transitional period. The author selects these three charactersas the objects of the study. The author tries to comb the psychological characteristics ofthe main characters in the novel by applying Freud’s psychoanalysis as the theoreticalsupport of the thesis, to dig out the real cause of their desire, and the psychic reasons thatlead them to different destinies.From the perspective of Freud’s theory of personality, this thesis is divided intothree parts, namely introduction, main body and conclusion.The first part is the introduction. The author of the thesis introduces the outline ofSister Carrie, as well as the domestic and foreign research status of this novel. Andbased on this research status, the writer proposes the theoretical significance and theinnovation of this thesis.The second part is the main body of the thesis. According to Freud’s theory ofpersonality, the thesis makes a psychological analysis of the main characters with threechapters. The first chapter analyzes the desires of heroes and the heroine from the pointof view of personality structure. Firstly, it explores the insatiable heroine-CarolineMeeber’s endless desires. Carrie comes to Chicago with her American dream. At thattime, Carrie only seeks the most basic material needs, she does not want to go back to thecountryside or lead a poor life like her sister. It is under the impact of pleasure principleof id that makes Carrie reduce to Drouet’s mistress. However, the worry-free life couldnot satisfy Carrie, as a result, she has a higher level of material needs, and later she evenhas a pursuit of spiritual world. It is caused by the nature of id-the pursuit of pleasure and the evading of pain, which leads to her subsequence to Drouet and Hurstwoodrespectively. But when leaving Drouet and Hurstwood, Carrie has experienced transitoryhesitation, she hesitates because superego came into conflict with id. But under thecontrol of ego, Carrie’s tension is eased and her desires are satisfied. Secondly, the writeranalyzes the two men’s desires. Drouet is an empty man driven by his desire of beautyand wealth all his life. He is fully controlled by id, not influenced by superego at all.Hurstwood is a complete egoist, he wants to get Carrie without any responsibility, whichjust meets his desire for control.The second chapter, the writer analyzes the manifestation of the theory ofunconsciousness on the three characters from the perspective of personality dynamic.Firstly, the writer explores how Carrie becomes economically and spiritually independent.Carrie slowly gets out of the subconscious desires of materials at the primary stage. Thesense and reason defeat the subconsciousness and impulse, which makes Carrie acquirethe economic and spiritual independence. Secondly, the writer makes an analysis ofDrouet’s feature of pursuit of pleasure. In this consumerist society, Drouet is onlyinterested in sex subconsciously. Also under the influence of the unconsciousness, healways dresses up brightly to attract female’s attention. Thirdly, the writer explores thereason of Hurstwood’s decay. The commercial success makes Hurst wood hope that hecan control everything, especially his family. But, against all expectations, his position athome is declining gradually. The unconscious id cannot get assuaged, while Carriealways follows his advice, which just meets his desire for control.The third chapter, from the perspective of personality development, the writeranalyzes the different anxiety of the three characters with the theory of anxiety anddefense mechanism. Firstly, the writer analyzes Carrie’s moral anxieties. When Carrie isgoing to leave Drouet and Hurstwood, under the influence of superego, she feels uneasywhich results her anxiety. This anxiety is the moral anxiety according to Freud’s theoryof psychoanalysis. However, the anxiety is transitory. The desire for wealth and statusmakes her forget it quickly. Secondly, the writer analyzes Drouet’s so-called success.When dealing with the Carrie’s departure and Hurstwood’s betray, Drouet is relativelycalm. Drouet also lives as before and even more wonderfully, although he is older thanbefore, he is still dapper in appearance. At last, the writer analyzes Hurstwood’s fear for failure. Facing his business failure and Carrie’s success, the reality gives him greatpressure, which makes him feel fear, which is a reality anxiety. The double pressure ofreality and anxiety leads Hurstwood’s decay and death.The third part is the conclusion. Through the analysis in the main body, it concludesthat sister Carrie, Drouet and Hurstwood are all common people in the Americantransitional society. The prosperous economy and rich material continuously stimulatestheir desires for money and status. In this materialistic society, they can not get rid of thecontrolling of desires. Although it seems that the three characters have very differentfates, in fact their fates are determined by the same factor-the unconscious id.Confronting the strong id, the constraint function of superego could not be developed. Atthe same time, the ego gradually tends to meet the desires of id in the process ofmediating the relationship between the two. So, sister Carrie driven by the id, selects avariety of means to achieve her demands, even at the cost of violating the social ethics;Hurstwood is unable to forget the past glories, and is unable to adapt to the new reality;Drouet just desires for beauty, and he is indifferent to everyone. The three charactersbecome the victims of this materialistic society.