The novel “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” by J. Fowels is included in the Neo Marxist literature (Bogdan Stefanescu, Radu Surdulescu pp.121-141) as it presents social inequalities, studies of psychoanalysis or existentialism due to the sequence of events in which the characters act. As a result, the author aim is to analyze the effects of society on the people’s awareness including how they dominate or distort the human.
In a period where social relations are determined by “production relations” (the vision of Walter Benjamin) (Bogdan Stefanescu, Radu Surdulescu p.121), “the function of ideology is to legitimate the power of the ruling class (Ibidem, p.126), it exists “the vision of the regenerated modernism” (Ibidem, p.135) with a “complexity of a culture” (Ibidem, p.140), Fowels reintegrates the human in the society, focusing on the power of woman, presented sometimes as a hero other times as a “dark” one by offering different options (regarding the ending).
In this sense, in the 20th century it is developed also the feminist perspective, as a form of defeat in the struggle between male and woman power. Even criticized as passive, which is a stereotype, women are strength enough to face any obstacle (Wilfred L. Guerinp, p.228).
Fowels introduces Sarah Woodruff in his novel as “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”, who reveals the strength, the mystery and the dark of a typical Victorian woman. Fowels adopts the feminist approach from the creation of Sarah, a character who manages to annihilate the stereotypes around females and goes further deciding by her own.
Sarah is presented initially as a stranger that attracts men’s view especially, Charles Smithson’s. The story around the two is rather romantic even if it breaks the conventions (Charles is married and Sarah becomes his fancy piece, fact that affects Charles’s relation with his wife, Ernestina Freeman). In this sense the author combines elements of comedy with those of drama and sensationalism.
Charles Smithson describes Sarah Woodruf as villainous due to her demand for his emotional support while other times as heroine. He observes her attitude as well as her figure. “The skin below seemed very brown, almost ruddy, in the light as the girl cared more for health than a fashionable pale(…) A strong nose, heavy eyebrowns (Fowles p.71). Beside her, Fowels declares Charles unable to react, “He stood unable to do anything but stare down, traced by this unexpected encounter and overcome but an equally strange feeling ; not sexual but fraternal, perhaps paternal, a certainty of the innocence of this creature, of her being unfairly outcast and which was in turn a factor of his intuition of her appealing loneliness”. (Idem)
The author, John Fowels designed Sarah with the intention of modeling a symbol of individuality. She refused the help from the others like Ernestina did. Sarah assumes her role of a modern fancy piece and she does not feel any pressure to act due to the norms of Victorian society: “So I am a doubly dishonored woman (…)I did it so that people should point at me, should say, there walks the French Lieutenant’s Whore-oh yes, let the word be said”(Ibidem, p.311).
Therefore, as Sarah is created as a symbol of freedom and feminism due to her the attitude of a modern woman, an “oxymoron” – angel-evil in the same character, the presence of the author himself in the action ready to interfere, it makes the novel rather feminism oriented.
However, because Fowls does not name Sarah – the protagonist in the novel despite the title; there are no other concerns regarding Sarah’s attitude which would approve her identity instead of the author’s himself or of Charles’s, Ernestina acts contrary to what she is supposed to, “The French Lieutenant’s woman” is not entirely feminist.
As Simone de Beauvoir, a critic regarding feminism perceives that women “have gained only what men have been willing to grant; they have taken nothing, they have only received”(Simone de Beauvoir, “The Second Sex” Apud Bogdan Stefanescu, Radu Surdulescu, p.163). Ernestina plays in contrast to the dark intensity of the woman whose name is “Tragedy” – Sarah. She accepts the reality as it is, taking it into serious the events that occur. While reflecting in the mirror, the author startles Ernestina’s volition as well as her line body. “For a few moments she became lost in a highly narcissistic self-contemplation. Her neck and shoulders did her face justice, she was really very pretty, one of the prettiest girl she knew (…) And she hastily opened one of her wardrobes and drew on a peignoir (…) It still had nine hours to run, but she habitually allowed herself this little cheat.” (Fowels, pp.29-30)
Moreover, the author offers three possible endings. In the first one, Charles returns to Ernetina. The second one presents Charles ending his engagement with Ernestina and proposing Sarah through a letter and in the last one Sarah expresses no interest in reviving her relation with Charles, leaving behind their child and so he suspects her of complicity, manipulation and exploitation. This incertitude regarding the ending argues the origin of author’s vision writing: Neo Marxist while the involvement of Fowles himself in the plot proves the feminist approach.
To conclude, the characteristics of Sarah which prove her uniqueness, the involvement of the author himself in the novel and the presence of Charles’s wife, Ernestina who does not respect the feminist vision (initiative, action), the lack of others’assessments concerning Sarah’s freedom instead of the Fowels’s or of Charles’s, the three possible endings make the novel “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” partially feminist as well as neo Marxist.
Bibliography
A handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, Fifth Edition, Wilfred L. Guerin, Earle Labor, Lee Morganm Jeanne C. Reesman, John R. Willingham, New York, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005
A reader – Contemporary Critical Theories, Bogdan Stefanescu, Radu Surdulescu, Bucuresti, 1998