Josh Nejely Mrs. Myers AEIII Per.

. 4 30 May 2012 When First We Practice to Deceive Whether one looks to the Serpent of the Garden of Eden, to the wiles of Shakespearian lovers or to the splendor of the peacock angel who once sat at the feet of Allah, one sees a single, monumental theme uniting almost every tale ever told. Its a brilliantly bright beacon upon the weft of human nature: the theme of deceit and manipulation. In Kate Chopins The Awakening and Theodore Dreisers Sister Carrie, this theme is thoroughly explored. Though the two authors have differing ideas about what exactly manipulation looks like, there is an overwhelming aspect of similarity between the two works as they paint a picture of the heartache that is the reward of those who would manipulate or employ falsehoods. In a cold, analytical manner of speaking, deceit can be defined as the use of lies or falseness. On the same pathway, manipulation is simply shrewd and devious action designed to get one anything one wants. Following closely to the words of the Bible, most churches condemn lies and all of their relatives as an abomination hated by God. In Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk states a general opinion of those who follow this religious view saying, A tiger can smile. A snake will say it loves you. Lies make us evil (71). Manipulation is equally despised. Politicians and especially presidents are scorned for using false promises to manipulate the people into voting in the right direction. The idea of a puppet-master is equally feared and despised as evidenced in childrens stories like Pinocchio and in myths of the cruelty of the Fates. Both of these views subscribe to the belief that the wages of sin are death, but this stark, black and white interpretation of deception finds no place within the pages of the novels of Chopin and Dreiser.

In these pieces of literature, a different story emerges. It appears to be a softer view, but in the end the remunerations are only death for some and a lingering pain for others. Deaths release is often to be proffered over a living death that stretches tapestry upon tapestry of agony across ones life. These changes begin when love or perhaps more fundamentally, desire takes hold of a person and becomes the impetus for said manipulation. Beginning in the first few chapters of Dreisers Sister Carrie, the reader finds a young girl Caroline, affectionately called Sister Carrie. She is truly nave and as yet untouched by the effects of lies and has no known desire to manipulate. This changes almost immediately with Charles Drouets whisper, That is one of the prettiest little resorts in Wisconsin (Dreiser, 84). Immediately both Drouet and Carrie are, caught up in the process of mutual mediation (Ouzgane). Each has a notion of what the other wants and is suddenly doing everything possible to become their idea of what the other wants. Walter Ben Michaels highlights this when he says that in the world of Sister Carrie, What you are is what you want, in other words, what you arent (382). Drouet acts as though he is the perfect companion for Carrie as he uses his knowledge as one whose dress or manners are calculated to elicit admiration (Dreiser, 87). For her part, Carrie tries to seem sophisticated and is suddenly aware that her clothes arent quite gorgeous enough. This leads to her continuously growing desire for more and more material wealth. Thus begins the vicious cycle of deceit and manipulation that forms a major theme of the novel. In Kate Chopins The Awakening, this theme is introduced in much the same way. Though the protagonist, Edna Pontellier is married at the commencement of the novel, she is, like Carrie, nave, with her innocence taking shape in her original state of the obedient and obliviously happy wife. Much as Carries innocence disappears swiftly, Ednas happiness as a

housewife vanishes shortly. This is first evidenced when Edna remarks to herself that one of her friends life as a mother is a colorless existence which never uplifted its possessor beyond the region of blind contentment (Chopin, 915). From this point on, Edna seeks to throw off the heavy veil of motherhood that ensconces her so that she might be able to lead a richer existence. To do this she begins to weave a web of deceit to lie not only to her husband but also to herself and to her closest friends. She enjoys flirting with Robert Lebrun and slowly falls in love with him even as she falls deeper into the pit of deception she has dug for herself and Lebrun. Her discontent with her situation and her husband grows rapidly though she is not yet willing to sacrifice everything to the manipulation she practices to rid herself of the undesirable elements of her life. Likewise in Sister Carrie, Carries manipulation grows with the addition of a new love interest. Mr. Hurstwood is introduced and Carrie is almost immediately drawn to him by the air of elegance he holds about himself. She professes to remain in love with Drouet, but as time goes on, she is less and less able to hide her attraction to Hurstwood. Ironically, shortly after she begins to fall for Hurstwood, Drouet, with whom she has been living, says that he has often thought you'd make a corking good actress (Dreiser, 2095). Carrie finds that she loves to act onstage as well as offstage, and through Drouets careful coaching, is able to deceive him to even greater levels. Eventually Drouet trusts Carrie and Mr. Hurstwood to such a degree that he suggests that when he is about to go away on a business trio, he suggests that Hurstwood should stop by to make sure Carrie is not lonely. During this time Hurstwood asks Carrie to come and live with him. He conceals that fact that he is a married man because he knows that Carries dream is to be married. He is hopeful because there is no reason he would be led to inform Carrie concerning his married state (Dreiser, 1925). He believes that this is one thing he can

give her that Drouet cannot, so he assumes this role to convince Carrie that he is the perfect man for her. Carrie agrees to go to live with Hurstwood, and thus is the first victim of manipulation found. Drouet learns of Carries plans and tries to convince her that he will marry her. Despite his efforts Carrie refuses to stay, and Drouet is heartbroken. In The Awakening, Chopin pays less attention to the string of victims, implying that the destruction wreaked by deceit can be localized: only affecting those directly at the heart of the deception. Edna becomes increasingly less interested in her role as a mother, and longs for something different. She says that it seems the utmost folly for a woman at the head of a household, and the mother of children to waste days in an atelier which [could] be better employed (Chopin, 914). She continually lies to herself and others as she stops just shy of admitting her feelings for Lebrun. In spite of her cloak of lies, Lebrun notices her growing affection for him. At this point, Sister Carrie and The Awakening differ. Instead of the selfish manipulation that occurs in Dreisers novel, the reader sees a bit of self sacrifice when Lebrun runs away to Mexico in an effort to save Edna from losing everything she should hold dear. Lacking the readers insight, Edna is disconsolate at Lebruns absence and becomes the victim of her own deceptions. She convinces herself that her efforts to hide her feelings for Lebrun were so perfect that he had no choice but to leave to avoid his unrequited love. She tears at her soul as she attempts to somehow cleanse herself of this wrong, but she cannot reconcile herself to her guilt. Eventually, she leaves her husbands home while he away on a trip and prepares a home for herself in the hopes that Lebrun might someday return to her. Throughout this transition, Chopins usually meticulous attention to detail lapses (albeit intentionally) and fails to mention any of the effects of Ednas awakening on her family. The lions share of detail focuses solely on Edna.

Unlike Chopin, Dreiser exhibits the massive and multifaceted effects Carries intrigue has upon the principal players of Sister Carrie. In his attempt to run away with Carrie, Hurstwood not only ruins the lives of the members of his old family, but he also destroys his good name and that of his employer as he embezzles ten thousand dollars in his frantic attempt to please Carrie. For her part, Carrie acts as though she is having the time of her life with Hurstwood, and, for a while, perhaps she is. She bends to Hurstwoods every whim with her mask of deception tuned to match his every desire. For a time, life goes on. The couple escapes to New York and lives the picture of the American middle class life, but eventually the maelstrom of chaos and deception that heralded their departure from Chicago catches up with them. Hurstwood is contacted and required to return the money he stole from his company. When he does so, Carries nigh perfect mask cannot cloak her desire for material possessions. The two grow steadily further apart as they descend deeper into poverty. Ultimately, Carries materialism trumps whatever love she may have had for Hurstwood, leaving him as the latest on a long string of the casualties her manipulative desires had created. Returning to her earlier ideals of feeling the claim of each trinket and valuable upon her personality (Chopin, 336), she becomes a famous actress. Shes beautiful and wealthy. She has everything one could ever desire, yet the aftermath of her flings with Drouet and Hurstwood seethes within her soul, putting an aura of sadness across her entire career. She is never truly able to throw off the shadow of her deception. Stunned by what he sees as Carries vicious betrayal, Hurstwood swiftly plunges towards a living hell. He tries to find work, but his searches become increasingly more fruitless until at last he is reduced to begging. In the end, even this fails him, and as the tide of fraudulency sweeps over his head, he gives in to death with Carries name on his lips.

The final results of the manipulation in The Awakening are no less terrible though they are perhaps, more confined. After a long period loneliness, Edna breaks the confines of her solitude with a visit to an old friend. There she learns that Lebrun has plans to return to the Gulf. Immediately, her imagination soars, and her dormant dreams of love again resurface. She spins a new matrix of lies, and she envisions Lebruns return to her arms. Much as Carrie and Hurstwood travel to the pinnacle of existence before their fall, Edna reaches glorious heights as her entire view of the world is again enshrined about Lebrun. Her fall is quick but devastating. When Lebrun returns he is welcomed into Ednas new home. He agrees to live there with her, but he seems to have an aspect of sadness just beyond his joyous faade. He loves Edna, and the self-sacrificing ideals that inspired his flight to Mexico have not disappeared. He knows within himself that their love cannot be. He refuses to take Edna away from the man she once called her husband, but his love for her is such that he cannot bear to see her distress. He allows her to think that he would be happy to remain with her forever, but his lies are revealed the very next day. Edna is still euphoric that her long-sought love is at last returned to her, and she returns to the house expecting to find Lebrun waiting happily for her. When she finds the house empty, she is able to remain upright by telling herself that Lebrun has simply left for a while though the house tells a different story. As she enters the parlor every last vestige of her foundation is torn brusquely away. Lebrun has left a note for her saying, I love you. Good-by--because I love you (Chopin, 1820). Deprived of the support of both her self-deceit and Lebruns self-sacrificing lie, she lays awake on the couch all night and long into the next morning. The novel reaches its finish as Edna steps deep into the Gulf of Mexico. Even as her construct of fluid deception had closed upon her the previous night, so do the waters of the Gulf close over her head exchanging the cold agony of manipulations vacancy for deaths eternal release.

In close correlation to the themes expressed in The Awakening and Sister Carrie, Sir Walter Scott exclaimed, What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive! (169). This idea of the hideous complexity of manipulation and deceit is extended in the novels of Dreiser and Chopin to expose the heart-wrenching effects that are inescapable to those who would deceive with both the best and the worst intentions. In The Awakening, the effects of lying seem to be isolated to those most closely entwined in them. In Sister Carrie the tale is told of a trail of heartbreak that extends far beyond the initiators. While these two ideas would at first seem to be in opposition, when the effects of the mendacity are seen, the parallels between the themes of the two novels are clear. Deceit and manipulation may not lead straight to death as papists would have one to believe, but the miry pit of anguish that encompasses those who practice to deceive is a snare that those of weaker hearts flee even unto the final borders of mortality to escape.

Works Cited Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Pennsylvania: Penn State Electronic Classics, 2008. Kindle ebook file. Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie. New York: Doubleday Publishing, 1900. Kindle ebook file. Michaels, Walter Benn. Sister Carries Popular Economy. Critical Inquiry 7.2 (1980) : 373390. Ouzgane, Lahoucine. "Dreiser and Sister Carrie's Kingdom of Greatness." Anthropoetics. University of Alberta, 15 May 2004. Web. 21 May 2012. Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005. Print. Scott, Sir Walter. Marmion: a tale of Flodden Field. Cincinnati: American Book Company, 1982. Print. .