摘 要

美国现实主义作家西奥多·德莱赛的作品《嘉莉妹妹》一经问世便饱受争议，国内外对于这部作品的研究主要集中于三位主要人物以及作者的写作手法。本文将运用弗洛伊德关于梦的理论与方法来对《嘉莉妹妹》中明妮的梦境进行分析，探索梦境背后隐含的意义，帮助读者走进人物的内心世界，从而更好的理解小说的人物与主题，并借此来诠释梦在文学作品中的意义与价值。

弗洛伊德用来分析梦境的方法是象征解释与自由联想，他认为梦的本质是愿望的满足，而明妮的三个梦——煤矿之梦、水之梦、岩石之梦，虽然梦的显性内容各不相同，但表达的都是同一个愿望——拯救妹妹嘉莉。根据弗洛伊德的理论，做梦过程是白天的清醒生活中的活动激发了某个潜意识愿望，作者的研究表明，明妮潜意识中存在一个帮助嘉莉的愿望，但这个愿望由于某些原因受到压制，当嘉莉走投无路离家出走时，明妮对她的担忧与愧疚使得这个被压抑的愿望得到强化。而明妮在梦中所体验到的担忧、恐惧、焦虑等情绪其实就是她在现实生活中的真实感受，即因意识到嘉莉会成为别人的情妇而对她的命运感到担忧、恐惧，因无法帮助她而感到痛苦、内疚。

通过研究，不难看出，煤矿之梦和水之梦反映出明妮被压抑的感情，而岩石之梦则体现了她在现实生活重压下的生存焦虑。

关键词：《嘉莉妹妹》；明妮；梦的解析

Abstract

Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie has attracted great controversy ever since its publication. Researches from home and abroad center on the three main characters, the writer’s writing style and techniques. This thesis will employ Freudian dream theory to interpret Minnie’s three dreams in Sister Carrie so as to reveal the latent dream-thought and to explore the significance and value of dreams in literature works, allowing the audience to have a different glimpse of Minnie’s mental life and to obtain a better understanding of the character as well as the theme of the novel.

The translation of symbols and free-association are two important techniques in the work of dream-interpretation. According to Freud, dreams are the fulfilment of wishes. Although the obvious dream-content of Minnie’s three dreams are different, the wishes represented in the dreams are the same—to save her sister Carrie. On the basis of Freudian dream theory, one of the three situations of the dream-process is that one of the unconscious wishes has been aroused through the waking activity during the day. Through the research, the author finds that Minnie has a wish to help Carrie, which is repressed in the unconscious for several reasons. When Carrie gets into trouble and runs away from home, the suppressed wish is reinforced and revived by Minnie’s guilt and worry towards Carrie. In addition, the affect of worry, fear and anxiety that Minnie has experienced in the dreams is what she has experienced in the waking life: worry and fear for Carrie’s fate to be a mistress; pain and guilt for being unable to help Carrie.

Through the research, the author comes to the conclusion that the coal-mine dream and the water dream reveal Minnie’s suppressed emotion and that the rock dream reflects her living anxiety under the pressure of reality.

Key Words: Sister Carrie; Minnie; the interpretation of dreams

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Freudian Dream Theory 4

2.1 Sigmund Freud and The Interpretation of Dreams 4

2.2 Dreams as The Wish-fulfilment 5

3 Analysis of Minnie’s Dreams 7

3.1 The Coal-mine Dream: Worry 7

3.2 The Water Dream: Sadness 8

3.3 The Rock Dream: Fear 8

4 Psychological Analysis of Dream-processes 10

4.1 Motive Power of Minnie’s Dreams 10

4.1.1 Wish to Help Carrie from The Unconscious 10

4.1.2 Residues of the Day: Carrie’s Departure 11

4.2 Minnie’s Affect in the Dreams 11

4.2.1 Worry for Carrie’s Future 11

4.2.2 Pain for Incapacity to Offer Carrie Support 12

5 Conclusion 13

References 15

Acknowledgments 16

Interpretation of Minnie’s Dreams in

Sister Carrie

1 Introduction

Theodore Dreiser was a famous realistic novelist and the pioneer of modern American fiction. He was also considered one of America’s greatest naturalists. In the history of American literature, Dreiser firstly depicted the American city life without prejudice. His works were close to the common people’s life, honest, bold and passionate. Dreiser was true to life and bold in innovation. He broke through the traditional thinking in American literary world and liberated American fiction.

Dreiser’s first novel is Sister Carrie, published in 1900. It tells about a young country girl named Caroline Meeber (Carrie) who moves to the big city Chicago where she starts realizing her own American Dream. To get out of poverty, Carrie becomes a mistress to men that she regards as superior and later becomes a famous actress.

Sister Carrie has been controversial since its publication. The book was criticized mostly because of its immoral, atypical plot. Critics denounced Dreiser for presenting his characters without judging them. They viewed Sister Carrie as a violation of the social and moral norms. Carrie engaged in love affairs and other illicit sexual relationships without suffering any consequences. Instead, by selling her chastity, she gained fame, money and social status, achieving great material success. This showed contempt for prevailing norms—a character that practiced such sinful behavior must be punished in the course of the plot in order to be taught a lesson. Others responded negative to the novel that it was not a book appropriate to every reader indiscriminately because of its sexual content. In addition, Dreiser has often been critiqued for his writing style. Critics claimed that Dreiser lacked education and intellectualism, decrying his plots as unimaginative. Others called his style “vulgar”, “clumsy”, “awkward”, “uneven”, and “careless”. Dreiser was also criticized that the title was inappropriate. Moreover, some critics even viewed his work as grammatically and syntactically inaccurate.

Though Sister Carrie has received much censure for the heroine’s deviation from traditional morals, the author’s poor writing style and lack of formal education, the book remains influential and becomes popular over time. Sister Carrie is regarded as a masterpiece of realism, which veritably depicts the urban life under the background of American industrialization as well as the desires and ambitions of human nature. Critics did praise the book, and a large number of them seemed most affected by the character of Hurstwood, such as a critic writing for the New Haven Journal Courier, who proclaimed that one of the most affecting passages was where Hurstwood fell, ruined, disgraced. The novel has also been praised for its accurate depiction of the life of women in the nineteenth century, the protests in New York and the city life in Chicago.

Since its publication, Sister Carrie has attracted attentions of critics and scholars from domestic and overseas at large. Plenty of researches about it have been done. And it seems that every stone has been turned up. However, studies on the novel mainly focus on three aspects: the critical approaches applied on Sister Carrie, the theme and the writing skills of the book (马睿，2013).

One of the most applied criticism analytic methods is feminism. For example, A Feminist Reading of Sister Carrie: Carrie——the Aspiring Cinderella. This type of literary criticism illustrate from the perspective of feminism that women are not limited by their sex. Carrie’s supporters take sympathy with her courage, determination, and aspiration, regarding her as a new woman who is brave enough to break through the traditional moral constraints and bold to pursue personal happiness and self-actualization (Yin Juan, 2008). Additionally, many scholars prefer to study the naturalism in Sister Carrie, analyzing the influence of environmental factors and hereditary factors upon Carrie. For example, A Literary Study on Naturalistic Factors in Sister Carrie. Besides the naturalistic theme, a number of scholars analyze the psychology of the main characters by utilizing psychological theories of Freud, Jung and Maslow. In addition, there are also literary critics doing research on the social Darwinism, existentialism, and pragmatism in Sister Carrie.