The Caged Women

In the later half of the 19th century in Britain, women did not have equal rights with men but were suppressed and discriminated in society. Women's unfair status gradually became a social concern and more and more people came to realize the Woman Question. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), one of the greatest British novelists and poets in the 19th century, expressed his understanding of women's existential plight in his creation. Women in his novels are no longer domestic angels but "'real', flesh-and-blood women" struggling in a male-dominated world to "shape their own lives with a vigor and energy and resilience" (Morgan x-xi). The struggling women are usually victimized and have their existence threatened. Eustacia Vye in The Return of the Native dies tragic death and Sue Bridehead in Jude the Obscure becomes mentally dead after experiencing endless suffering. Hardy's tragic dealing with his rebellious heroines seems to suggest that Victorian women, confined by severe man-made rules and conventions, can survive only through harmonizing themselves with the male-dominated world by endurance and submission. To prove this assumption, this thesis is to analyze the tragedies of two of his most rebellious women — Eustacia Vye in The Return of the Native and Sue Bridehead in Jude the Obscure, focusing on their conflicts with their existential situations.Chapter One surveys Hardy's views on man's existence, aiming at providing this thesis a fundamental framework. Hardy's dealing with his characters is greatly influenced by his idea of "harmony".Chapter Two analyzes the tragedy of Eustacia who is in sharp contrast with her...