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
Hurstwood lives in a brick building on the North Side, near Lincoln Park, in a 10-room apartment with a yard and stable. He lives with his wife, Julia, and son and daughter, George Jr. and Jessica. The family employs a maidservant whom Mrs. Hurstwood often switches, as she is fussy and hard to please. The household, though finely furnished, “[lacks] that toleration and regard without which the home is nothing.” Hurstwood is generally reserved and uninvolved in the domestic sphere, preferring to step away and ignore family problems rather than argue about them.
From the outsider’s perspective, Hurstwood’s situation in life is very comfortable. Materially speaking, he has everything that Carrie desires: a large house, fine furniture, honest occupation, and, presumably, fine clothes and accessories as well. However, it seems that Hurstwood finds an equally cold family as Carrie did in Minnie and Hanson. Though his relationship with his family does not appear strained, it is hardly warm.
Themes
Hurstwood used to be fond of his daughter, Jessica. Unfortunately, as she grew older, the now 18-year-old Jessica developed “notions of life which were decidedly those of a patrician,” and became a seeker of only fine clothes and company. Hurstwood’s 20-year-old son, though “connected in a promising capacity with a large real estate firm,” is vain and does not particularly care for his family. Mrs. Hurstwood is a social-climbing type who cares for nothing but socioeconomic status. On one occasion, when Jessica relates that a certain Martha Griswold was cast in a school performance, Mrs. Hurstwood simply remarks that “her family doesn’t amount to anything.”
It seems that the main problem that Hurstwood has with his family can be attributed to their vanity. Jessica, like Carrie, yearns for a life of glamour, and desires fine clothes and sophisticated company. The difference lies in the fact that Carrie is less vocal about these desires. On the other hand, Mrs. Hurstwood, in addition to sharing Jessica’s desire for glamour, appears to also be a judgmental type who looks down on those who are less fortunate. The mother and daughter generally appear vain and intolerant. Given Carrie’s condescending attitude toward her former coworkers at Speigelheim & Co., Jessica and Mrs. Hurstwood serve as a harrowing picture of who Carrie could become.
Themes
Hurstwood has lived in this sort of household atmosphere for years, but is not tempted by other women unless they are “immediately and sharply contrasted” with his own marriage. On occasions that he meets “a woman whose youth, sprightliness, and humour […] make his wife seem rather deficient by contrast,” he refrains from doing anything scandalous. Hurstwood believed in having “a dignified manner, a clean record, a respectable home anchorage.” Thus, he still often goes to social gatherings with his wife.
Hurstwood, being comfortable, does not find it necessary to make changes in his household. He usually has nothing better to compare his family to. Furthermore, his desire to remain respectable keeps him from finding joy in affairs—Hurstwood prioritizes his own dignity. Still, Hurstwood does not appear to happy, as he seems to be leading life the way he does simply because he is used to it.
Themes
Recently, expenses have been rather high for the Hurstwood household, given Mrs. Hurstwood and Jessica’s spending habits. Hurstwood, irritated with his household, decides to accept an invitation for an aldermanic junket in Philadelphia. He enjoys the trip and is sorry to go home. The narrator interjects that the kind of household atmosphere the Hurstwoods have can only “become dryer and dryer,” and will “eventually be tinder, easily lighted and destroyed.”
Mrs. Hurstwood and Jessica appear to have no relationship with Hurstwood—they simply spend his money. The fact that Hurstwood does not want to return home after the junket shows that, perhaps unbeknownst even to himself, he has grown to dislike his family. Given this dislike, Hurstwood’s home life is more fragile than he imagines.
Themes
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