19세기말 미국사회와 여성정체성의 문제:『시스터 캐리』와『환희의 집』의 경우

Theodore Dreiser and Edith Wharton explore the conflicts and rapid changes in American women's status as the country turned from the agrarian and domestic economy of the nineteenth century to the consumer capitalism of the twentieth century. The two novelists focus on the role of women as object of sight and signs of value in the money saturated urban industrial culture. In Sister Carrie, the center of Carrie's life is the theatre and Carrie sells her youth and vitality to male consumers. In The House of Mirth Lily Bart turns her body into a living, moving object for the male viewers' judgement and possession. Both novels explore female protagonists' theatrical selves, but Dreiser and Wharton have very different perspectives. Dreiser who came from an extremely poor family explores a working class woman who turns out to be a rich actress. Wharton writes about Lily's downfall from the gilded society of leisure class to the wretched poverty and death. This paper tries to explore these two writers' views on the problems and opportunities inherent in the crisis of female identity at the turn of the century American culture through Sister Carrie and The House of Mirth.