The Aberration Of The Butterfly

The Collector, a masterpiece of the English novelist John Fowels, is well welcomed by the English and American critics after its publication. It is hotly discussed from Marxist criticism, psychoanalysis, feminism, eco-feminism and existentialism and so on. But most critics tend to oversimplify the relationship between Clegg and Miranda as the jailor and the prisoner. They only describe Clegg as a distorted collector instead of a further research into the root of this phenomenon. This thesis is mainly focused on the root of this phenomenon through the theory of alienation—the alienation of the hero and the objectification to the heroine. Imprisoned narration is another focus character of the novel.Chapter One gives a brief introduction about John Fowels, and previous research on The Collector. The originality and objective of this novel as well as the theory employed in this thesis are stated in this chapter. Chapter Two introduces the definition of alienation briefly and its application in literary works. Alienation is a common phenomenon in the 20th century works. It is embodied by the dehumanization of people. In Chapter Three, the author analyzes the alienation of Clegg from three aspects and digs out the root of imprisonment. Chapter Four dwells on the objectification of the protagonist and points out the unfair social status. Chapter Five is about the narration that embodied the alienation under imprisonment. Chapter Six is the conclusion.Through the analysis of the alienated protagonists, his behavior and the theme of the novel, this thesis aims to express the alienation about imprisonment.