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Chapter 46
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
During the wintertime, Hurstwood spends his days waiting for food at charities. By January, Hurstwood concludes that “the game [is] up with him.” In “his wretched clothing and meagre state of body,” people were taking him “for a chronic type of bum.” Hurstwood continues to beg.
Hurstwood falls to rock bottom in not only socioeconomic status but also in state of mind: he no longer carries any notion of hope for himself. He looks like someone who has been on the streets for all his life—no one would suspect that he was once wealthy and influential.
Themes
One day, while walking down Broadway, Hurstwood feels the painful contrast between his state and that of the pedestrians surrounding him. He then sees a large advertisement for the Casino with Carrie’s name and face, and impulsively decides to go in the theater to see Carrie. The attendant of the theater pushes Hurstwood out. Infuriated and hopeless, he turns away, thinking, “she owes me something to ear.”
The attendant pushes Hurstwood out because he looks like he cannot even afford to go to the theater. In other words, Hurstwood looks like a vagrant. His discomfort with regards to the “painful contrast” between his appearance and those of the pedestrians mirrors Carrie’s discomfort while walking next to the fine ladies years ago in Chicago. While Carrie has achieved the American Dream, Hurstwood has fallen to the American nightmare.
Themes
At this time, Carrie is reading Père Goriot, a book that Ames has recommended to her. She realizes “how silly and worthless” her earlier reading was. Carrie and Lola briefly talk about the cold weather. Lola relates that she wants to “go sleigh riding” but Carrie is full of sympathy for “the people who haven’t anything tonight.”
Carrie is working toward her goal of becoming a woman that Ames would approve of—she reads canonical literature in order to improve her mind. Carrie’s sympathy for the homeless people is ironic, given that her abandonment led Hurstwood to become homeless.
Themes
Meanwhile, Drouet is in the lobby of a hotel, planning to go to dinner with “a couple of girls” and “have a dandy time.” Passing on a Pullman are Mrs. Hurstwood, Jessica, and Jessica’s rich husband. The three are discussing what to do. Jessica is beautiful but “turned supercilious by fortune.” She remains conscious of the attentions of “banker’s son, also from Chicago,” even in her husband’s presence, and conjures a “show of indifference” when he passes by on the Pullman.
Drouet has not changed through the course of the novel—he is still a cheerful skirt chaser. Jessica and Mrs. Hurstwood have attained their goal of marrying Jessica off to a wealthy man. Jessica, unlike Carrie, has not fallen into the saving hands of a superior mind—she is now completely superficial and made more so by her wealth. Not all characters in the novel have changed like Carrie and Hurstwood.
Themes
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Hurstwood is in a crowd near the lodging house, waiting for the building to open. The weather is brutally cold. After getting in and “[laying] down his fifteen cents,” Hurstwood goes to his room, “a dingy affair—wooden, dusty, had.” The room has a small gas jet. Hurstwood thinks for a while, then turns on the gas jet without lighting a match. He dies thinking, “What’s the use?”
Hurstwood commits suicide not in a moment of painful despair, but in a moment of agonizing indifference. He no longer has the capacity to feel great emotions—by the time of his death, he is merely a shell of a man. Hurstwood’s life, decline, and death show that in although it is easy to rise in America, it is also easy to fall.
Themes
Carrie, despite her success, feels lonely. She had drawn near to things she found beautiful but “time proved the representation false.” The narrator relates that at every stage of life, Carrie had thought she would be happy at the next, but she never achieves happiness. She sees no more of Drouet and never learns of Hurstwood’s death. Carrie is disillusioned. Indeed, “even had Hurstwood returned in his original beauty and glory, he could not now have allured her. The narrator reflects on the pointlessness of Carrie’s pursuit, the “blind strivings” of her heart. She will always “dream [of] such happiness as [she] may never feel.”
Carrie has lost all her innocence. She begins to realize that wealth and fame are useless when it comes to bringing her happiness—they can only provide her with the foundation for comfort. Romance is no longer of any import for Carrie—after Drouet and Hurstwood, she is thoroughly indifferent to men, save for, perhaps, Ames. Carrie’s narrative has been one of disillusionment, which is ironic, considering that she has achieved the American Dream. Furthermore, the novel ends with Carrie utterly alone—she has no genuine love in her life. Happiness will always be out of Carrie’s reach, because she will always remain dissatisfied by looking to the next best thing. The city has caused Carrie’s soul to wither.
Themes
