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Theodore Dreiser and his "Trilogy of Desire" - essay
Theodore Dreiser
The tragedy of Cowperwood's Fate in Dreiser's "Trilogy of Desire"
Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann "The Golden Pot"
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In the " Trilogy of Desires "("The Financier "(1912)," The Titan "(1913)," The Stoic " (1946)), the author shows the fate of the entire nation, which was under the heel of monopolies at the end of the 19th century.
The main character of the novels is a large capitalist predator Cowperwood, whose career can be traced against the broad social background of American life.
In "The Financier" we get acquainted with Cowperwood's childhood and youth years in Philadelphia, with the formation of his tastes, views, interests, with the beginning of his financial activity.
Cowperwood quickly learns the wolfish laws of the capitalist world.
He never risks his own capital and is ready to put other people's money on the line at any time.
For his operations, he illegally uses funds belonging to the city and earns large sums.
Only by chance does Cowperwood end up in prison.
But even in prison, he finds himself in a special position : through front persons, he continues to play on the stock exchange.
If Cowperwood's career is just beginning in The Financier ,if there he only learns the laws of the capitalist jungle, then in the Titan he appears as a fully formed predator.
The scope of its operations increases many times, an increasing number of people fall into the orbit of its influence.
Cowperwood achieves that it becomes the largest monopolist in the field of urban rail transport.
The Chicago capitalists are trying to counteract it.
Seeing him as a dangerous competitor, they create financial difficulties for him, conduct a campaign against him in the press.
But he is smarter, more astute than them.
All their attempts to ruin him or force him to leave Chicago are doomed to failure.
But does this mean that Cowperwood is omnipotent, that there is no such force that could stop him?
Such a force is found, It turns out to be the people.
The people stop Cowperwood's victory march.
The people are trying to ensure that Cowperwood does not manage to take over all the transport in Chicago.
Creating the image of Cowperwood was undoubtedly Dreiser's greatest achievement.
Cowperwood is the central figure of the series of novels.
In his person, the writer portrayed a typical representative of American monopolistic capital.
Cowperwood strives only for the fulfillment of his desires.
Hence the name - "The Trilogy of desire".
Cowperwood is characterized by an insatiable thirst for wealth, power, and pleasure.
The higher Cowperwood rises, the more inhumane and immoral it becomes.
He breaks and cripples the lives of other people.
Everyone who falls into the orbit of his influence, who connects their fate with him, sooner or later become his victims.
At the same time, he never feels remorse, does not repent of his crimes.
In "Financier" and "Titan" you can see an unusually complete and colorful picture of the development of financial capital at the end of the XIX century: a description of the stock exchange, financial crashes and ups, panic, a fierce struggle for power.
So, in the Financier, a panorama of the panic on the stock exchange after the famous fire in Chicago, which caused a shock to the country's economy, is beautifully drawn.
Dreiser talks about how American capitalists created their fortunes, how they exercised control over the country's economy and politics.
Dreiser finished the "Trilogy of Desire" with the novel "Stoic".
It remained unfinished and was published posthumously in 1946.
The duration of the "Stoic" falls on the beginning of the XX century.
Its main characters are Cowperwood and his beloved Berenice Fleming, who first appears in the pages of "Titan".
In" Stoic " Dreiser reveals new features inherent in American imperialism.
The example of Cowperwood's predatory activity clearly shows the expansion of American capital into England.
Having failed to extend the concessions for urban railways in Chicago, Cowperwood moves its operations to Europe - to London.
He becomes the owner of some lines of the London Underground.
And here he seeks to monopolize the ownership of railways, eliminating competitors from his path.
As in the first two novels of the trilogy, "Stoic" shows Cowperwood's complete immorality.
Cowperwood gets rid of his annoying wife Eileen.
For her, he hires a special person, whose duty is to entertain her, pretend to be in love., Cowperwood's lover becomes a young beauty Berenice Fleming, whom he is old enough to be a father.
But he also cheats on her with other women.
Cowperwood is almost sixty years old.
His health is deteriorating.
But he cannot live outside the sphere of financial activity.
The constant thirst for success, wealth becomes fatal for Cowperwood and leads him to death.
Although at times Dreiser still continues to admire the colorful figure of his hero, he debunks him to the end in the last part of the trilogy.
The debunking of Cowperwood goes along several lines.
Looking back on the years he has lived, Cowperwood is forced to admit that his activities were absolutely fruitless and even harmful.
To avoid oblivion, in an effort to perpetuate his name, Cowperwood bequeaths his palace and art gallery to New York.
But now, after his death, the property is seized.
A lengthy trial begins, which consumes most of his fortune.
Wealth acquired in an unrighteous way is just as unrighteously plundered.
The palace and the paintings are sold under the hammer, without becoming the property of the people.
So Cowperwood's life ends in complete collapse.
For all these years, he has done nothing but evil to people.
He created nothing, left nothing behind.
The memory of him is fading fast.
Cowperwood's miserable demise is not only his physical death and the collapse of the philosophy of individualism.
Cowperwood's death symbolizes the harmful nature of capitalism, its complete futility.
Berenice becomes disillusioned with Cowperwood's activities.
She comes to the conclusion that it is necessary to live differently.
But what is the meaning of life, where is the truth and how to find it?
To answer these questions, Berenice goes to faraway India and there, far from the West with its crude mercantilism, tries to find peace of mind.
For four years, she has been studying the teachings of yogis, the philosophy of Hinduism.
However, it is not so much the revelations of the yogis that amaze her, as the suffering and poverty of the Indian people, languishing under the heel of the colonizers.
And again, unresolved questions arise before her.
Why do people live so badly, who is to blame for this?
The image of Berenice is important in the book.
With his help, Dreiser not only exposes Cowperwood, but also outlines a positive program.
Returning to America, Berenice tells Dr. James about everything she saw.
But he tells her that there are whole districts in New York where people live no better than Indian beggars.
Accompanied by Dr. James, Berenice gets acquainted with the neighborhoods of the East Side - the poorest neighborhood in New York.
The picture of poverty shakes her.
With the money earned from the sale of the house and jewelry, she founded a children's hospital and became a nurse there.
So Berenice, overcoming Cowperwood individualism, comes to the conviction that it is necessary to be useful to people.
She tries to alleviate the suffering of the few children who were lucky enough to get to her hospital.
Dreiser leads Berenice to philanthropic activities.
But Berenice already understands that philanthropy cannot destroy the existing social evil in the world.
"Well, but what about the rest, thousands and thousands , because you canot take them all to yourself?
What about them?
All her attempts to help are just a drop in the ocean.
What will be the further path of Berenice?
Although the writer did not have time to complete the "Stoic", the course of his thoughts in the last chapters of the novel is characterized by clarity and certainty.
In the last chapters of the novel, Dreiser leads the reader to the idea of the need for some fundamental changes.
Decisive changes are needed to eliminate disenfranchisement, exploitation, poverty and make life happy.
The author of the "Trilogy of Desire" ends with such a worthy ending.
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