A Feminist Interpretation Of Women Characters In Jane Austen's Persuasion

Jane Austen(1715-1817) is one of the greatest realistic novelists in English literature in the 19^th century.In her short life,she has created six complete novels and left behind three fragments.Apparently,she writes about everyday life,but in fact,some social problems are disclosed in her novels from her individual feminist angle.In her works,Austen not only describes many typical women characters in detail,but also focuses on the improvement of their ability and status.Jane Austen is famous for her six novels,which have been interpreted by many critics.However,so far Persuasion has been often interpreted from its view of marriage and money,while there is little study on the virtues which are embodied in the women images,and these virtues are worthy of appreciations by modern women.After a critical reading of the novel,the author of this thesis finds that Jane Austen shows her feminist viewpoints and the novel's social significance by the detailed description of Anne and other women characters.The thesis consists of introduction,main body and conclusion.The introduction first introduces Jane Austen,her works and her feminist viewpoints,and describes the research and development of feminism.The main body is divided into three Chapters.Chapter One mainly introduces Jane Austen's feminism and its reflection in Persuasion. Chapter Two carries out a detailed study of women images respectively in Persuasion,which reflects correspondingly different feminist viewpoints. Section One is the analysis of Anne Elliot,the ideal perfect woman image; Section Two is to introduce Lady Russell,the model of good-breeding, strong emotion and sense of duty;Section Three is the embodiment of Mrs.Smith,a poor woman with optimistic and forceful mind in adversity; section four is to analyze Mrs.Croft,the modern female image of courage with good business sense.Chapter Three makes a probe into women images in Persuasion in order to dig out the social significance they carry.The conclusion is to summarize the women images and their feministic consciousness from feminist angle again.It shows Jane Austen's individual feminist consciousness and analyzes the social significance in her works by the detailed description of Anne and other women images,who embody modern female's eagerness towards self-improvement and their new desire and quest towards marriage.It is hoped that the study will not only deepen the understanding of Austen's feminist viewpoints,but also help us realize those women characters' intelligence and ability,and their awareness of independent feminist consciousness,hoping the study of Jane Austen and the research of domestic feminist literature.