Who is George Hurstwood in Sister Carrie?

In Theodore Dreiser's 1900 novel Sister Carrie, George Hurstwood is a married man who becomes involved with the protagonist, Carrie Meeber. He eventually runs away with her to the big city, marking a turning point in both of their lives.

While Carrie uses her relationships to eventually achieve success as a Broadway actress, Hurstwood’s trajectory is one of decline. He loses his grip on life, leading to a tragic descent into poverty, beggary, and ultimately suicide. His emotional disintegration is widely considered a triumph of psychological analysis in American literature, serving as a key element of the novel's naturalistic exploration of urban life and human vulnerability.12