The Relationship Between Carrie And Hurstwood

Throughout pages 321-355, Carrie’s theatrical fame and resulting loneliness, Charles Drouet’s absence, and George Hurstwood’s downfall into poverty and suicide are crucial events that take place. Until now, Carrie has left Hurstwood and profits greatly with her acting. In contrast, Hurstwood becomes jobless and continuously gambles to Carrie’s dismay. Theodore Dreiser reiterates that the former relationship was based on the reason that Hurstwood depended on her for “something to eat” (274). Hurstwood’s gradual shift from being a top manager of Fitzgerald and Moy’s saloon to a beggar ends Carrie and Hurstwood’s relationship and renews her independence.
As the story progresses, Carrie begins to realize that she has become the breadwinner of the Hurstwood household by playing roles in theatrical plays.
From the beginning, Carrie seeks Hurstwood’s affections (92). However, when she lives with Hurstwood and he loses his job, his laziness and stingy nature begins to show. Due to his bad luck in finding a job and expectation for Carrie to be a housewife, Carrie takes up her own agency, or “the degree to which a subject is able to determine the course of their own actions” (9/11 Lecture), abandoning Hurstwood to pursue acting. Eventually, Carrie’s career exceeds a regular earning of a hundred fifty dollars, which pays her bills and supplies her with “wholly satisfactory” clothing (321). Through the omniscient POV, her Broadway performances attract affluential people and Drouet to appraise her talent, as well as a poor Hurstwood who begs her for money. “And now Carrie has attained… life’s object, or at least, such fraction of it as human beings ever attain of their original desires” (352). Therefore, Carrie shifts from the theme of wanting a romantic partner, to one that practices laissez faire or, “the belief that individuals can pursue self-interest in the market with little inference” (9/22