Failure Of New Women's Rebellion

This thesis explores the reasons for the failure of new women's rebellion against patriarchy in three levels. Through Emma Jane Austen depicted three new women who were courageous enough to break through all kinds of fetters, to ignore every feudal custom and to challenge male-dominated culture. However, the appearance of new women gave rise to the horror and resentment from patriarchy. In order to eliminate this alien force, the dominated males, together with traditional women, made hard on new women, which made new women have to review their manner. Meanwhile, the contradiction within new women appeared, which resulted in more difficulties for new women's progress. And it destroyed the unity of new women seriously and then sisterhood. Thus, the new women isolated had no strength to rebel against patriarchy. And the only way out was to return to the camp of traditional women. So they discarded subjectivity that represented new women, and pursued femininity that represented traditional women. Finally, new women's rebellion against patriarchy was declared to fail. With such special ending Jane Austen aimed to warn females against the difficulties in the course of women's liberation. Meanwhile, Jane Austen proposed that to realize women's liberation, females must eliminate the hatred among them and avoid discarding each other, and that females should make common efforts to build subjectivity and sisterhood.