The Confrontation between Desire and Morality: A Study of the Freudian Tendency in Sister Carrie
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1101.13Keywords:
psychoanalyses, id, ego, superegoAbstract
Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie (1900) suffered sharp criticism at the very moment of their appearance. Most critics and readers pointed out he depicted something amoral, especially on sexual amorality. Yet, with the development of feminism, a few years later Sister Carrie was appraised as the model of ‘new woman’ of the late 19th century. In the light of Freudian thought, the paper will not only draw attention to the confrontation between desire and morality but also to the effects of human inner mind in the external world in attempt to explore the permanent factors that influence human’s actions.
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