An Existentialist Feminism Interpretation Of The Heroine Louisa In Hard Times

Charles Dickens is the most outstanding critical realistic writer in Britain in the nineteenth century,who is adept at reflecting the real social life.Hard Times is an important work in which Dickens directly depicts the contradiction between the labor and capital.This work exhibits us the miserable sufferings of the proletariat and women in the utilitarian society.It also exposes the social life of that time through the intricate relationships and contradictions between the several typical character images of that environment.As one of Dickens' important works in his later writing career,Hard Times has aroused the extensive attention of both foreign and domestic scholars.The foreign scholars mainly discuss the theme and structure,the character images,the utilitarian society as well as the humanitarianism that Dickens advocates in Hard Times.As for the domestic scholars,their research of Hard Times is relatively less,and they mainly analyze the writing skills,the narrative characteristics and the male images in Hard Times.However,this thesis will employ a new angle to interpret Hard Times that is to make a detailed interpretation of the heroine Louisa's unfortunate marriage and miserable life from the existentialist feminist angle.It will analyze her oppressed position and self-growth process so as to conclude that if women want to be equal with men,they must be brave and self-reliant.This thesis is divided into five parts in total.The introduction gives a brief account of Charles Dickens and the main content of Hard Times.It also explicates the research status of Dickens' works in both foreign and domestic countries.Chapter one is the theoretical foundation.It expounds the theoretical source and connotation of existentialist feminism.The connotation includes three aspects: female survival situation,female “the other” position and self-consciousness as well as female transcendence of self.The other three chapters will elaborate Hard Times in detail from the above three aspects of theoretical connotation.Chapter two mainly analyzes Louisa's survival situation from two aspects: her social predicaments and her interior predicaments,so as to expose the outer oppression confronted by women as well as the female interior trauma.Chapter three further expounds Louisa's transformation from “the other” to the self.It mainly exhibits in the following three aspects: Louisa's “the other” position,Louisa's ideological change and Louisa's rebellion in action.Chapter four mainly elaborates Louisa's transcendence of self.It is divided into two aspects: the first is her choice to pursue spiritual and physical freedom;the second is the responsibility-taking of herself.Based upon this,she should also take the responsibility of others and help others get out of their predicaments.This is not only an embodiment of female complete extrication from the patriarchal society,but also an embodiment of self-transcendence.The conclusion gives an overall summary of the thesis.In Hard Times,Dickens employs the Victorian society as the creative archetype and creates many female images oppressed by the utilitarian society.But the heroine Louisa doesn't yield to the social reality and sets up a positive image for all the women because she dares to pursue self and successfully realize her self-value,so as to reflect Dickens' beautiful expectation that woman could realize their self-consciousness and shake off the patriarchal restrictions.