Economic Reciprocity and Darwinian Evolution in Theodore Dreiser’s The Financier

For the past sixty years critics have studied the influence of evolutionary thinking in Theodore Dreiser’s work through the lens of “social Darwinism,” in which Herbert Spencer’s idea of “survival of the fittest” and his conservative social theories become the single extension of Darwinian evolution applied to the social realm.¹ Despite constant references to the influence of Darwinism on naturalistic writers such as Dreiser, Charles Darwin’s own ideas have not been explored in a systematic way as an influence on Dreiser’s work, even though it is known that Dreiser read Origin of Species (1859) and Descent of Man (1871) in 1896 (Zanine 24, Moers 141–43). Bert Bender has observed that the importance of Darwin’s work has been taken for granted but “never examined” in discussions of naturalistic writers (x).² Almost 150 years after the publication of Origin of Species and Descent of Man, critics have only begun to reevaluate the influence of Darwinian evolution on naturalistic writers under a more encompassing view that focuses on Darwinism as a scientific and philosophical set of ideas that account for a wide range of important thematic elements in their work.³

The following analysis focuses on The Financier (1912), the first novel of Dreiser’s The Trilogy of Desire, which also includes The Titan (1914) and The Stoic (published posthumously in 1947).⁴ The Financier chronicles the first phase of the tumultuous personal life and business career of Frank A. Cowperwood, a character based on the historical Charles T. Yerkes, a Philadelphia financier during the Gilded Age. In this essay, I concentrate on the direct influence of Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection on Dreiser’s thought and how The Financier challenges previous religious and moral interpretations of the natural world and social events based on evolutionary premises first introduced in Darwin’s Origin of Species and Descent of Man. Dreiser’s early fiction and nonfiction interprets aspects of Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection acting in all species—including humans—which uniquely informed Dreiser’s depiction of his American financier’s economic trajectory. Following Darwin’s reevaluation of certain human traits and behaviors based on evolutionary principles, Dreiser’s novel challenges religious and moral certitudes prevalent in previous business novels. As a result, The Financier describes Cowperwood’s exceptional economic rise by incorporating specific elements found in Darwin’s concept of natural selection such as inherited traits, the physical environment, and random chance.

Moreover, I argue that The Financier engages with specific premises in Darwin’s Origin of Species and Descent of Man that extend beyond social Darwinism with its emphasis on aggression and competition in nature. Darwin, and some of his contemporaries such as Thomas H. Huxley, studied the formation of cooperative behavior among members of certain species, including humans. Reciprocity and mutual help among members of early human groups, according to Darwin and Huxley, were evolutionary adaptations that allowed certain groups to survive and thrive. The Financier describes Cowperwood’s economic success as based on reciprocal and cooperative behaviors by members of the nineteenth century Philadelphia social and economic elite. At the same time, Darwin and Huxley argue that early human social groups were able to maintain a social equilibrium through the enforcement of rules and laws. In fact, Darwin maintains that the evolution of social traits in early human groups gave way to religious beliefs, morality, and a social order that was necessary for the cohesion and survival of those groups. Although critics typically characterize Cowperwood as the embodiment of selfishness and aggression rooted in the natural world, events in The Financier, such as Cowperwood’s trial for embezzlement and his social ruin in Philadelphia, resonate with Darwin’s postulates on the evolution of early human societies, in which the larger social group is able to curtail the excessive influence of certain individuals through the enforcement of social and legal practices. Following Darwin’s insights, The Financier challenges notions of humans as intrinsically exceptional, religious, and moral beings.

A characteristic of most discussions of Dreiser’s evolutionary...