After marriage

Author: Theodore Dreiser (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-01
Features: Vividly depicts the real scenes of daily life in American society, profoundly reveals the tragedy caused by unhappy marriages and the destruction brought by vulgar life. Theodore Dreiser, an American novelist (1871-1945), was born into a German immigrant family in Indiana. Before his birth, the textile factory run by his father was destroyed by fire, plunging the family into extreme poverty. At the age of sixteen, Dreiser left home resolutely to seek a livelihood in Chicago. He spent four years in Chicago, barely making ends meet by doing odd jobs. Later, he became a trial reporter for Chicago's smallest newspaper, the Daily Globe, and thus entered the field of journalism. Over the next decade, he worked as a reporter and editor for several newspapers and magazines. Free and Married are written from the perspective of the protagonists in unhappy marriages, showing how kind and sensitive souls suffer under the oppressive weight of habit. Social Register is written from the perspective of a sharp observer to tell a tragic story of marriage. A dashing young reporter marries a repulsive woman, and then falls in love with a young, beautiful girl. However, the affair is exposed, causing a public uproar. Although the woman is falsely imprisoned, she publicly declares her true love. The man, on the other hand, is terrified by social conventions and eagerly abandons his lover, reconciling with the wife who framed her. The Second Object explores the theme of unhappy marriages from the perspective of mate selection and is one of the author's best short stories. A small, jade-like, kind-hearted and passionate woman faces the painful dilemma of choosing a partner; she rejects the frivolous Arthur but ised by him; she does not love the honest and slow-paced Barton but must pretend to be happy to marry him. Waiting for her is the stereotypical, monotonous life of small-town existence: giving birth to children, managing household chores, lacking love, and lacking joy. After careful consideration, she submits tearfully, lamenting in the depths of despair. Unlike the protagonist in Free, the old farmer in Lost Phoebe dreams of his deceased wife day and night, becoming obsessed and eventually leading a life like a sleepwalker. He lives in poverty, exposed to the wind and cold in desolate areas, persistently chasing his "Lost Phoebe." It is his mad wandering that traces the suffering of a lonely ghost.