The Tragedy of the Quaker Hero as a Reflection of the Crisis of Spiritual Life in Theodore Dreiser's novel "The Bulwark"

Demina Olesya PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Department of Linguodidactics and Translation Studies, Ufa University of Science and Technology 450076, Russia, Republic of Bashkortostan, Ufa, Kommunisticheskaya str., 19 Fagimovnao@yandex.ru

Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) can be called one of the outstanding artists of the word of the USA at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. His work has been the subject of numerous studies of both foreign literary criticism and domestic critical thought. The first publications covering the artistic heritage of the American novelist appeared at the beginning of the XX century. Critics in the United States were not friendly to Theodore Dreiser, while in Europe the writer's work found recognition. In America, Dreiser's works were called "mediocre" and "inhumane", and the author himself was accused of "mechanical naturalism". ^[17] Such an attitude towards the writer has been the main line of criticism in foreign literary criticism for a long time.

Despite the negative assessment of the writer's work, Theodore Dreiser's work attracted the attention of many critics. Among the major works are the studies of A. Keizin and Ch . Shapiro ^[17], R. Lundena ^[15], F. Matissen ^[16], M. Tjader ^[18], D. James ^[19], etc.

In Russian American studies, S. S. Baturin ^[1-2], Ya. N. Zasursky ^[5-8], N. I. Samokhvalov ^[14], A.M. Zverev ^[9], Morozkina E. A. ^[12] and others made a significant contribution to the study of the writer's creative heritage. In the second half of the XX century, a number of dissertation studies of various aspects of T. Dreiser's work appeared. However, many issues related to the comprehension of the writer's legacy still remain beyond the attention of critics. One of these issues is the religious aspect in the work of Theodore Dreiser. The writer himself often touches on this topic in his works, covering in detail various aspects of human life in the United States at the turn of the XIX-XX century.

At this crucial moment in America's history, changes are taking place not only in economic and political terms, but also in cultural and ideological terms. It was a time of rethinking the basic values of American society, the American way of thinking.

One of the contemporary problems of the American worldview for the writer was the problem of the collapse of the fundamental myth of the USA – the "great American dream". The complex of ideas about the "American dream" was formed at the dawn of the emergence of the American state. It was presented to the general public in its finished form by two of the most famous politicians and philosophers of the Enlightenment in North America – Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).

It was a complex of ideas about the ideal world order, which gave rise to the main characteristics of American self-consciousness. In the collection "Literature of the USA of the XX century" the authors assume the presence of three main components of this myth of the New Time:

1) America is a fertile land that generously shares material abundance with people, a place blessed by God.

2) America is the only place on Earth where a person becomes completely free from all kinds of restrictions and, therefore, can fully express his individuality.

3) Everyone has a chance for a happy life in America, without exception, you just need to make an effort to achieve your dreams. ^{[11, p. 141]}

But by the beginning of the XX century, the contradiction between the ideas of an attractive dream and a harsh reality became more and more apparent. Many realist writers of this period addressed the topic of debunking the "great American dream", for example, F. S. Fitzgerald, D. Steinbeck, D. O'Neill, etc., including Theodore Dreiser. He approached the image of the disintegration of all the categories that formed the basis of the American dream with severe objectivity, characteristic of him.

One of these topics was the crisis of the spiritual life of society, which was often based on religious beliefs, primarily Christian ones. In the article "Turning to the topic of big money", the author directly draws a historical parallel between modern America and the time of the crisis of another giant empire – Ancient Rome: this is the time of "ruthless manifestation of intelligence, which freed itself from old beliefs and illusions, but did not accept new ones." ^{[3, p. 198]}

The relationship with religion was a difficult topic in the life and work of the writer. In his novels, he often addressed this topic, starting with the first major work – the novel "Sister Kerry" (1900). But in it Dreiser only casually touched on the topic of Christianity. In our opinion, it manifested itself in its fullest form in the novel "Oplot", which was published posthumously, in 1946.

In this work, Dreiser portrayed a Quaker family, members of the Protestant sect "Society of Friends". It originated in the XVII century in England. Its ideologist was the craftsman, preacher, theologian George Fox (1624-1691). Subsequently, Quakerism spread to the territory of the new American state, which sheltered a large number of representatives of various religious movements.

Quakerism in the United States has become not only a religious phenomenon, it has largely acquired the features of a worldview, a system of values. Indeed, many features characteristic of members of the "Society of Friends" can be called democratic, progressive, i.e. accepted in the new American society. Quakers were distinguished by humanity, diligence, moderation, friendliness. But over time, even deeply religious Americans, including Quakers, felt the destructive effect of the capitalist system, abandoned their idealistic postulates.

Such a Quaker hero, experiencing a religious and ideological crisis, in the novel "The Bulwark" is one of the main characters – Solon Barnes. He is a model family man, a bank worker, a Quaker. The formation of Solon Barnes as a person took place at a time when the ideas of Quakerism had not yet been questioned, which is why, first of all, Solon became an ideal member of society.

Being poor, Solon kept his spiritual purity quite easily. But by the will of fate, the Barnes family has to move from the rural wilderness to the booming Philadelphia. Instead of a modest farm, there is a big house, the opportunity to buy books, attend the theater. Philadelphia society welcomes education, well-read, this new world for Solon "is not pinned down by strict chastity and severity, and not every pleasure is considered a sin here" ^{[10, p. 666]}.

Solon succumbs to the temptation of the surrounding beautiful life, although he does not forget about Quaker values. He, like many members of the Society of Friends, is desperately trying to connect the Quaker ideals of the past and the modern realities of capitalist society.

New opportunities are the bait for the Barnes, which they are happy to swallow. The steps towards a new world are still negligible, but these are only the first steps that will lead to tragedy. So Solon Barnes first makes a choice in the direction of career development, agreeing to work at the Trade and Construction Bank of Philadelphia, although this contradicted his religious principles.

Solon himself probably feels this contradiction and tries with all his might to stop time, to preserve the foundations of Quakers at least within his own family. But the temptation turns out to be too great, almost no one from the Barnes family managed to resist it.

First of all, the younger generation of the Barnes family – the children of Solon- feels a taste for another, more interesting, but filled with sins life. They are forced to outwardly observe decency, follow a strict routine of life established by the father within the family. Internally, all the young representatives of the family dream of escaping to the outside world, filled, as it seems to them, with joy and pleasure. The house that became a refuge for the elder Barnes becomes a prison for his children. Solon becomes a jailer for them, who cannot, by virtue of his own principles, give them freedom in choosing a life path.

Solon's children are forced to resist the strict religious and moral postulates of their father. Each of Solon's many children finds his own loophole into the outside world. But this does not bring them happiness.

It is the religious Solon who is to blame for the moral deformations that his children have experienced. Dorothea and Orvil, for example, the eldest children of Solon, found a way out in a successful, from a financial point of view, marriage. They left their boring father's house with a light heart and joy to plunge into secular life, worrying more about the opinion of the world than about the fate of their parents, brothers and sisters.

Solon's eldest daughter, Aisobel, finds her vocation in the scientific field, consciously shutting herself off from the outside world, including her family. Science becomes a refuge for her, because, realizing her own physical unattractiveness, she looks forward to the future with longing.

 Cheerful Etta, contrary to the will of her father, runs away from home, finds her true love, as it seems to her, and succumbs to the feeling of love, entering into an illegal relationship outside of marriage. This automatically removes her from the number of well-off children from the point of view of Solon, who deeply experiences the fall of his daughter. It is Etta, in our opinion, that is the antipode of Solon Barnes. Since childhood, she has been distinguished by romanticism, dreaminess, lack of pragmatism. Her thirst for a free life was so great that she stole jewelry from her parents in order to start a new life with the money from the sale. It should be noted that Etta was burdened by her act, but it was the only opportunity for a young girl of that time to get rid of the oppression of family religious traditions and get the long-awaited freedom.

Stuart, the youngest and, perhaps, the weakest, from a psychological point of view, the Barnes child. Solon, seeing how his children are ruining themselves one by one, their soul, tightens the requirements for Stuart. Thus, he wants to protect at least his youngest son from the temptations of the big world, but, without realizing it, this dictatorial control is ruining him. Stuart was a cheerful and freedom-loving young man who was disgusted by his father's strict control. But he was not endowed with courage, Stuart's opposition was of an underlying, secret nature. He dared not openly oppose Solon's will.

Solon Barn sends his youngest son to a Quaker school, where he was supposed to receive a decent education. But even there Stewart finds an opportunity to show his free-thinking. It should be noted that the youngest of the Barnes understands freedom as permissiveness, cowardly indulging base desires.

Even the religious spirit of the school is not an obstacle to moral promiscuity. Here we can talk about a kind of antithesis: in a religious educational institution, the hero finds an opportunity to develop immoral qualities. This probably corresponds to the antithetical model of the world that Theodor Dreiser addressed in his philosophical works ^{[12],[15],[20]}.

Stewart quickly gets acquainted with a circle of young people who will "introduce him to the coveted world of sports and entertainment" ^{[4, p. 570]}. Together, these young people used all the opportunities that opened up to them to lead a freer, immoral lifestyle. Such tricks for the sake of his own desires led the hero to disastrous consequences. Stuart and his friends took the car from the father of one of the students without his knowledge, thus committing theft. This minor offense, from the point of view of young people, was another step towards the tragic ending of Stewart's life. He plunges into the world of debauchery and crime.

The hero leads an increasingly unbridled lifestyle and ends up committing suicide. The main reason for Stuart's suicide is fear: the fear of punishment and the fear of condemnation from the father, the shame that has become a stain on the reputation of the whole family.

Thus, we see the process of destruction of the religious and moral aspect of the life of modern Dreiser Americans. The writer, using the example of one family, showed that the religious worldview, which was the basis of the moral picture of the human world in the past, determined his thoughts, feelings and actions, guided a person in life, is irretrievably lost. With photographic accuracy, the author reveals to us the process of spiritual degradation of society, making this topic one of the main ones in his work ^[16],[18]. The moral guidelines of the past, often based on religion, are irretrievably lost.

Such a situation is not just a crisis era in the life of American society, but also leads to a huge number of personal tragedies. All the children of Solon Barnes are suffering, trying to escape from their home. And the root cause of such an escape, both psychological, internal, and physical, external, is Solon Barnes himself.

It is this character that can be called a symbol of classical religion. Solon, having lost almost his entire family, comes to the only correct moral conclusion only towards the end of his life: true religiosity is not determined by unbreakable dogmas, but is an internal personal core that helps a person not only to have a moral guideline, but also to be spiritually flexible, to be able to forgive.

The times of spiritual and moral heroes, unfortunately, from the author's point of view, have passed ^[20]. Contemporaries can only admire the spiritual exploits of the past, as Dreiser himself admires the strength of the spirit of Solon Barnes. The new age demands a new morality, a new religion, a more flexible attitude towards the world and man.

Thus, it can be concluded that Theodore Dreiser, whose work has become the subject of various studies ^{[15],[16],[17]}, he touched upon many topical issues of our time. Imprinting on the pages of his novels the history of the crisis era of the USA at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, he did not ignore the problems of religious worldview, which he not only highlights in many of his works, but also touches on this aspect in philosophical and journalistic works ^[20]. This theme is especially vividly presented in the novel "Oplot". In it, the author depicted the history of the religious and moral transformation of the heroes.  The younger generation of Americans is no longer able to perceive the religious postulates of the past in the same form. And the forcible imposition of religion often turns into disappointment.  The older generation deserves respect for their steadfastness in loyalty to the old moral guidelines. But the new age requires new models of interaction between man and religion. Rigid adherence to the past often leads to tragedies of both personal and social formats.