Roberta Alden

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Roberta Alden is a character in Theodore Dreiser's naturalist novel An American Tragedy.

In An American Tragedy she is impregnated by her boyfriend, the main character Clyde Griffiths. Clyde later decides to kill Roberta in order to become involved with the elegant and aristocratic character Sondra Finchley. Griffiths takes Roberta on a boat trip but loses the nerve to commit murder. Roberta falls into the water, and because she cannot swim and Clyde does not save her, she dies.

The fictional character Roberta Alden is based on Grace Brown, who was drowned in Moose Lake in New York by her lover Chester Gillette.