CHAPTER III THE ELEMENTS OF NATURALISM IN
DREISER’S JANNIE GERHARDT
3.1 Determinism
The naturalistic elements which have been explained in chapter II will be analyzed one by one in connection with Dreiser’s novel, Jennie Gerhardt. One of the
characteristics of naturalism is determinism; that is, the doctrine that all events, including human choices and decisions have sufficient causes. In other words, the
characters are very weak and helpless in their struggling against their own existence. They are trapped in a fierce world whose events are determined by the uncontrollable
forces. They have to succumb to their own destiny. They are like pawns in chess. It seems that destiny or fate is so powerful that it cannot be changed by the human
power. One of the characters in the novel, William Gerhardt, Jennie’s father, is the
first one in the novel who is weak and helpless in his struggle against his own destiny. The only one he owns as the mainstay is his house, but it is on mortgage. If
he cannot pay his loan in the bank in three years, his house will be taken by the bank. He is burdened by various duties: he has to pay the principal and the annual interest
of the loan money to the bank; he as to pay for the doctor’s bill, the butcher, the baker, the grocer, and so on. His earnings as a glass blower are far from enough to
support his family. Therefore, it is natural if he feels helpless and hopeless.
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“Gerhardt was helpless, and the consciousness of his precarious situation – the doctor’s bill, the interest due to
the mortgage, together the sums owed to butcher and baker, who, through knowing him to be absolutely honest, had
trusted him until they could trust no longer all these perplexities weighed upon his mind and racked him so
nervously as to delay his recovery.” Dreiser, 1963: 16-17
The only way how to survive is asking his wife and his daughter, Jennie, for help. Fortunately, both of them are willing to find jobs. His wife, Mrs. Gerhardt, gets
the job in the cleaning service with the wages of three dollars a weak. Jennie helps her mother do the service and the laundry in the hotel. In his old age, Gerhardt is
described as a weak and helpless person. He is really trapped in a fierce world, and he yields to his own destiny. He has nobody to take care of him except Jennie. Now
he lives with Jennie and depend his whole life on her. Jennie Gerhardt, the leading character of the novel, is also trapped in the
fierce world so that she cannot fight against her own fate or destiny. When she is eighteen years old, she yields to an old man and loses her virginity because she is
very poor and needs financial help desperately. Brander, the senator, is very kind, generous, and helpful to her and her family. She has to pay back his generosity. It
means that she is trapped in his hands. She is too weak and helpless to resist his temptation. It also indicates that she yields to her own fate.
Jennie then comes across Lester Kane, a young man who comes from high class society. He is rich, handsome, generous, and helpful. The first time he meets
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Jennie, he falls in love with her. He says that he will help her financially. In the beginning, she refuses her offer to help her because of her dignity and her daughter
whom she has gotten from Brander. Lester does not know that she has a daughter. However, she is too weak to resist his offer to help her family. She loves her parents
and does not want to see them suffer. Her accepting Lester’s help means that she succumbs to her own destiny. She herself does not know why she yields to this
young man. “She had yielded to another man. Why? Why? She asked
herself, and yet within her own consciousness there was an answer. Though she could not explain her own emotions, she
belonged to him temperamentally and belonged to her… There is a fate in life and a fate in fight. This strong,
intellectual bear of a man, son of a wealthy manufacturer, stationed, so far as a material conditions were concerned, in a
world immensely superior to that in which Jennie moved, was nevertheless, instinctively, magnetically, and chemically
drawn to his poor serving maid…….” Dreiser, 1963: 136
The first time she meets Lester Kane, she feels sympathetic with him. However, because of her poverty and low-class level, she feels discouraged to show
her feeling toward him. It is her weakness and helplessness which causes her to surrender to his seduction.
She actually tries hard to resist the temptation. She realizes that she will encounter difficult problems is she accept his persuasion. She is thinking of her
father, her mother, her brother and sister who will definitely disapprove of her
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action. They will consequently hate her for the rest of her life.” Was she allowing herself to slip into another wretched, unsanctified relationship? “Dreiser, 1963: 142
she realizes that she is going to another “wretched” relationship. But she is too weak to resist it. The following dialogue between Lester and her will show her helpless she
is in confronting her own conscience.
“ … come, he said, “ and get in this carriage with me. I’ll take you home.”
“No, “she replied. “I don’t think I ought to”. “Come with me, I’ll take you home. It’s a better way to talk.’’
Once more that sense of dominance on his part, that power of compulsion. She yielded, feeling all the time that she should
not….” Dreiser, 1963: 143
Although she is a good woman, her fate is very miserable. Her father accuses her of doing a sinful deed when she is pregnant without a husband. Lester’s family
does not approve of their relationship since she comes from the low class. She knows that in some way she should make herself right with the society, but she really does
not know how to do that. “So this was her real position in another woman’s eyes. Now
she could see that the world thought. This family was aloof from her as if it lived on another planet. To his sisters and
brothers, his father and mother, she was a bad woman, a creature far beneath him mentally and morally, a creature of
the streets. And she had hoped somehow to rehabilitate herself in the eyes of the world. It cut her as nothing before had ever
done. The thought tore a great, gaping wound in her sensibilities. She was really low and vile in her Louse’s eyes,
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in the world’s eyes, basically so in Lester’s eyes. How could it be otherwise? She went about numb and still, but her ache of
defeat and disgrace was under it all. Oh, if she could only see some was to make herself right with the world, to live
honorably, to be decent. How could that possibility be brought about? It ought to be – she knew that. But how?”
Dreiser, 1963: 152
From the quotation above, we can see that Jennie is so helpless in elevating her social life that she becomes depressed. There is a real gap between her social status
and Lester’s family. For them, she is only one of the ‘creatures’ of the streets, she is nothing compared with Lester and his family. But she can do nothing since she is
weak and helpless. Lester is very kind to her and her family. He buys a big house for them in
Claveland. He also gives her a lot of money and affection. She is once more trapped in Lester’s hands. It is actually easy for her to decide to refuse Lester’s offer, but she
is too weak to do that. She finally goes with him to New York and lives with him without being married. All she has done, in her opinion, is for the sake of her
family. They are very poor and there is someone who will help them financially. Moreover, Lester says that he loves her. Jennie also thinks that no one will marry her
since she is sinful. Lester than arranges their dwelling in Chicago where they can live together
happily. It is true that they are happy although they are not a married couple. He loves her very much and she also loves him. She feels secure now and can send an
allowance to her family in Claveland. What else can she do in her life except accepting this condition? Lester’s family would not know their illegitimate relation if
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Lester’s sister, Louise, did not come to their apartment. Louise comes to visit her brother and finds out that he keeps a “concubine” in his apartment. Louise then
despises her intolerably; she hurts her feeling. Louise says that Jennie is not suitable for Lester since Jennie comes from the lower class. Jennie cannot stand the
circumstance, but she always doubts whether she will leave Lester and goes back to Claveland.
“For the first time in her life, aside from the family attitude, which had afflicted her greatly, she realized what the world
thought of her. She was bad – she knew that. She had yielded on two occasions to the force of circumstance which might
have been fought out differently. If only she had had more courage If she did not always have this haunting sense of
fear If she could only make up her mind to do the right thing Lester would never marry her. Why should he? She loved him,
but she could leave him, and it would be better for him. Probably her father would live with her if she went back to
Claveland. He would honor her for at least taking a decent stand. Yet the thought of leaving Lester was a terrible one to
her – he had been so good. As for her father, she was not sure whether he would receive her or not.”
Dreiser, 1963: 2390
From the quotation above, we can see that Jennie is trapped by her own fear and uncertainty. She can do nothing to change her fate. She surely yields to her own
destiny. She also cannot do anything when Lester plans to leave her. She is like a pawn in the cheese game. She is too weak and helpless to change her fate. She has to
accept it. She is always a loser. Lester gets married with Letty Pace who is richer and higher in the social status than she is.
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Lester Kane is also too weak and helpless to resist the temptation, dealing with his relationship with Jennie. If he leaves her, he will lose his opportunity to
become a rich and powerful man in business. He knows that his father’s will have a requirement to be followed if he does not want to lose everything. But he loves
Jennie. When he knows that she has lied to him about Vesta, he decides to leave her, but he is not able to do that.
“Curiously, now, as he thought, his first meeting with Jennie at Mrs. Bracebridge’s came back to him. What was it about
her then that had attracted him? What made him think, after a few hours’ observation, that he could seduce her to his will?
What was it – moral looseness, or weakness, or what? There must have been art in the sorry affair, the practice act of the
cheat and, in deceiving such a confiding nature as his, she had done even more than practice deception, she had been
ungrateful….. His first impulse, after he had thought the thing over, was to walk out and leave her.”
Dreiser, 1963: 208-9
He leaves the apartment, but after a few steps, he comes back. Sometimes he thinks that it is better for him to leave Jennie in order stabilize
his position in society and in business. If he can leave her, his father will trust him to lead the company. But how could he leave her because he loves her? Jennie will
never say anything if he leaves her. It all depends on him now, but “…it seemed cruel, useless, above all…it would be comfortable for himself. He liked her – loved
her, perhaps in a selfish way “Dreiser, 1963: 193.
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He is, of course, not able to leave Jennie. She is so good, so motherly, so womanly that he seems to depend on her. When he is busy in his office and becomes
tired, he goes home and finds a relaxation with her. She is clever enough to soothe him, and she is faithful to him. How could he leave her without a shame?
3.2 The Web Accidentalness and Causation
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