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The thesis tends to first make an introduction to the theory of feminist literary criticism, then combine the feminism literary criticism with the novel. More importantly, the paper would analyze the heroine Sarah from the perspective of feminist literary criticism by analyzing her multi-identities, interpreting her as a new pioneering woman as well as analyzing her rebellion to traditional woman’s images, so as to explore the constantly enhancement of Sarah’s self-consciousness and her eternal pursuit of equality and freedom. The thesis is pided into five sections. Chapter one presents a brief introduction to John Fowles and his work, and its influence on contemporary readers and critics. Chapter two is the overall narration of the current research state of the fiction. Some literary critics and scholars did analysis and interpretation about this novel from different aspects, which are ecological reading, pursuit of freedom behind mystery, and so on. Chapter three is a detailed introduction to the theory of feminist literary criticism. Chapter four is a systematic analysis of the heroine Sarah from the perspective of feminism literary criticism. And the conclusion shows the pursuit of freedom is Sarah’s choice to maintain her independence. In this novel，the heroine Sarah is a pretty mysterious and uncommon woman whose belief is rather rebellious, while the paper tends to employ feminism theory to illustrate why Sarah is an unusual woman, and why she gets freedom finally.
Ⅱ.Theoretical Background
Since The French lieutenant’s woman was published, it has received a lot of criticism from home and abroad. Generally speaking, there are three major criticisms as followed 2.1 Analysis of Sarah’s Pursuit of Freedom in The French Lieutenant’s Woman
Some literary critics interpreted this fiction about the heroine’s pursuit of freedom, so this section would make a detailed introduction to it. The image of Sarah is different from any traditional woman whom we are familiar with. The reason why she is rather unusual is that she has a very natural personality of longing for freedom. Sarah is very lucky to have a father who knows the benefit of receiving education. From the moment she went to school, she is destined to be different. All the beautiful and wonderful things that exist in this world are not so far away from her; and the young girl who would look ahead her future knows that her life should not be like those women in her neighborhood. 〝She is a woman with a strong will and she will never change her true self in order to please others. And due to that , she seems rather isolated in the town (Ambrose Joseph 23)〞.
In fact, every choice that she has made is closed related to her strong passion for freedom, for example, her romantic experience with Charles, and her work as a model for the artist Rossetti and, her refusal to marriage, All of which have one root, that is her longing for freedom. Freedom, to Sarah isn’t merely a strange word, it has many meanings. Freedom means that she doesn’t have to put fetters and bindings on herself which is a routine in Victorian age; it means that she cannot pretend to be someone who she is not, and she doesn’t have to consider that marriage is her only chance to be happy. Freedom means that she can do a lot of things she likes. To Sarah, freedom is a wonderful thing, and definitely a better choice than marriage to Charles for Charles will never stand the same ground with her . From the very beginning of the story, Sarah is an independent woman for she will never lay her hope on others. 〝Sarah will not accept Charles’s offer of marriage, not only because Charles could not guide her in her life, more importantly, she is a woman with strong female self-consciousness〞(John Ruskin and Zheng Kelu 166). It is not possible for her to allow someone else to design her life for her. She will never give up her choice of her own life style. Last but not least, she will never cease her pursuit of freedom, the most precious thing in her life.