Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Sister Carrie, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Urban Life and Decay
Morality and Instinct
Wealth and Class
Summary
Analysis
Carrie is “an apt student of fortune’s ways—of fortune’s superficialities.” For Carrie, fine clothes are “a vast persuasion”—she would rather go hungry than to forgo her appearance. Drouet’s company feeds Carrie’s eagerness to learn about the finer world. She takes his praise “at its full value” and pays attention to other women he praises in order to imitate their grace. Although Drouet’s comments are not tactful and considerate of Carrie, she takes them “affably.” However, because “his admiration is so pointedly and generously distributed,” Carrie also thinks less of Drouet.
Carrie appears to prioritize a fine appearance over everything else. In this way, she holds innocently superficial values. Her desire to improve her appearance leads her to be particularly sensitive to those with a fine appearance around her. Drouet’s praise for women around Carrie shows his lack of regard for Carrie’s feelings and his inability to be a sensitive lover. He seems to like women on the whole a bit too much. In this way, Drouet is quite similar to the catcalling men from the shoe factory, just less brazen.
Themes
Literary Devices
Others in Carrie’s apartment building are also a source of education for Carrie. Mrs. Hale, the wife of a theater manager, often gossips with Carrie, helping her younger friend find her way and formulate her perspective. Carrie is confused by Mrs. Hale’s traditional sense of morality and emphasis on “trivialities” and wealth. Her own feelings act as “a corrective influence,” pushing her away from Mrs. Hale’s teachings.
Mrs. Hale’s superficiality and praise for wealth recalls the vanity of Mrs. Hurstwood and Jessica. Like the females of the Hurstwood family, Mrs. Hale talks about wealth as if it were the only thing worth having in the world. Although Carrie, too, desires wealth, the fact that she shows some mental resistance to Mrs. Hale’s teachings demonstrate that Carrie has the potential to rise above superficiality and pursue a life with more depth.
Themes
In addition to Mrs. Hale, the wife and daughter of a railroad treasurer from Indiana also live in the apartment building. The daughter studies music in Chicago while her mother keeps her company. Although Carrie does not make their acquaintance, the piano music that drifts into her apartment affects her deeply: “her nervous composition [responds] to certain strains, much as certain strings of a harp vibrate when a corresponding key of a piano is struck.” One evening, while Drouet is out, Carrie hears a particularly “soulful and tender” piece, and, becomes “for the moment a repentant.”
Carrie shows an instinctual appreciation for art—the railroad treasurer’s daughter’s music cultivates this. Carrie’s appreciation for music reinforces the idea that she can rise into someone who is not simply impressed by wealth—she desires something akin to beauty in her life. Indeed, the fact that the music makes Carrie feel repentant shows that art may pave the way for Carrie to transcend the superficiality around her.
Themes
Drouet returns and sees Carrie crying. He assumes that his absence caused this sadness and suggests they waltz to the music. The narrator relates that this is Drouet’s “first great mistake”: his suggestion to waltz “made clear to Carrie that he could not sympathize with her.” On the other hand, Drouet’s opinion of Carrie is rising. Carrie observes Drouet’s remarks about the railroad treasurer’s daughter’s grace and implemented “those little modish ways” into her own bearing. This leads Drouet to admire her more.
Evidently, Drouet does not display the same artistic sensitivity that Carrie does. In contrast to Carrie’s melancholic appreciation, Drouet’s suggestion to waltz shows that he has a rather superficial understanding for the finer—the more artistic—things in life. On the other hand, Drouet is sensitive to the improvements in Carrie and observant when it comes to how women carry themselves.
Themes
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Because of Carrie’s constant efforts toward self-improvement, the Carrie that Drouet first met is very different from the Carrie that Hurstwood first met: “the primary defects of dress and manner had passed.” Indeed, Hurstwood, upon leaving Carrie’s residence, wondered how Drouet had won her over, as he perceives Carrie to be superior to her supposed husband. Hurstwood plans to bring her a bouquet sometime, unafraid of offending Drouet.
On the outside, Carrie is a different person from the girl on the train at the novel’s beginning: she is now well-dressed and well-mannered. She understands how an attractive woman is supposed to act and has implemented that understanding in her behavior. Consequently, she is now thoroughly out of Drouet’s league. The fact that a fine man like Hurstwood is attracted to Carrie shows that her looks and behavior fit right in with women of the upper classes.
Themes
A few weeks later, Drouet encounters one of his “well-dressed lady acquaintances” and takes her to dine. Hurstwood, happening to be in the same restaurant, sees them and thinks of how this flirtation is unfair to Carrie. Drouet feels no misgiving until he notices that Hurstwood is “cautiously pretending not to see.” Drouet then feels troubled, sees his companion to her car, and approaches Hurstwood, telling him the lady is just “an old acquaintance.” Hurstwood remarks on the lady’s beauty and Drouet denies having feelings of attraction for her. Hurstwood then invites Drouet and Carrie to the theater to see Joe Jefferson. Unbeknownst to the ignorantly jovial Drouet, Hurstwood wishes to expose Drouet’s infidelity to Carrie.
The fact that Drouet has no scruples about meeting other women in public, in front of people who know him to have a “wife,” demonstrates a lack of social acuity. More importantly, it shows a lack of regard for Carrie. Hurstwood’s discomfort at seeing Drouet with another woman indicates that Hurstwood has an abundance of social tact. His desire to expose Drouet to Carrie also shows that Hurstwood has a sense of justice. The two men, though friends, are as different as can be: Drouet appears to be a foolish dandy while Hurstwood is prudent and well-behaved.
Themes
One evening, Drouet tells Carrie that he will take her to the show. At first, Carrie refuses the invitation, saying that she has promised to attend the Inter-State Industrial Exposition with Mrs. Hale. A maidservant then brings a note from Hurstwood, inviting Drouet and Carrie to see Joe Jefferson. Carrie then agrees to break the engagement with Mrs. Hale, as “it seem[s] that the combination of Hurstwood, Drouet, and herself [i]s more agreeable than anything else that had been suggested.” Carrie proceeds to dress herself and arrange her hair very carefully.
Carrie’s initial refusal of Drouet’s invitation shows that she is already tiring of his company. Indeed, she is more willing to spend time with the vain Mrs. Hale. The fact that Carrie agrees to see a show on Hurstwood’s invitation shows that, although she may not realize it, she is already interested in Hurstwood. This interest is reinforced by the way that Carrie dresses herself in a way that is, no doubt, intended to impress Hurstwood.
Themes
At the theater, Hurstwood compliments Carrie. During their time in the theater box, Hurstwood spends his time leaning towards Carrie and speaking to her about Jefferson. Carrie finds Hurstwood’s elegance and her surroundings pleasant “beyond expression.” Hurstwood and Carrie enjoy a nebulous flirtation by sneaking glances at each other, which fills Carrie with “a flood of feeling as she had never before experienced.” Drouet is dull in comparison, and by the end of the third act, Carrie finds him defective. The evening ends with Drouet utterly unaware that “a battle had been fought and his defences weakened.”
Drouet’s ignorance when it comes to the flirtation between Carrie and Hurstwood shows a lack of acuity and reinforces the idea that he is not clever enough for Carrie. The fact that Hurstwood invites Carrie to the theater and flirts with her shows that Carrie has attractive enough qualities to garner the attentions of an upper-class gentleman. Carrie has made a thoroughly beautiful woman of herself, and her attraction to Hurstwood in the presence of Drouet indicates that at this point she presumably holds little to no regard for Drouet as a lover.
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