A Study On Female Characters In Jerusalem The Golden From The Perspective Of Existentialist Feminism

Margaret Drabble,a famous contemporary British female writer,is known as her female novels.Her autobiographical work Jerusalem the Golden published in 1967 and won the Tait Black Memorial prize.It truly reflects the living conditions of British women and their pursuit of ideal life.Although scholars at home and at abroad have done a lot of researches on this novel,few scholars have deeply analyzed the female characters from the perspective of Existentialist Feminism.This is the main contribution and value of this thesis.On the basis of Beauvoir’s Existentialist Feminism,this thesis tries to study Clara Maugham and her mother Mrs.Maugham in this book from three basic concepts which are called immanent predicaments as the Other,free choice and transcendence.Firstly,this thesis points out the immanent predicaments of Clara Maugham and her mother as the Other.They can not realize themselves in the predicaments endowed by society,family and self.Secondly,it explores the different free choices made by two women after facing immanent predicaments.Clara chooses to escape from hometown,to make friends,to pursue knowledge and work as well as to be herself.Mrs.Maugham chooses to be pathetic victim of patriarchal society,to betray her maternal love and to distort herself.Meanwhile,it compares the difference of choices between Clara Maugham and her mother.Through transcendent free choices Clara Maugham achieves self-liberation while Mrs.Maugham’s choices lead to her self-destruction.In the end,a conclusion can be drawn that Margaret Drabble encourages females to break their immanent predicaments,to make free choices and to achieve their transcendence through her work.In addition,this thesis has some practical significance for the survival of modern women.Facing the predicaments of social and family,women should walk a way of self-liberation and become the subject of freedom and independence.