Two Kinds Of Femininities In Charles Dickens' Novel The Mystery Of Edwin Drood

As a novelist, Dickens is remembered first of all for his character-portrayal. There are various women characters with different femininities in the works of Charles Dickens and research on the female characters in the works of Charles Dickens is a very important literary research field. At home and abroad, in the recent 10 years, research on the female characters, specifically on the femininity of the female characters in the works of Charles Dickens is prosperous. But there is one problem. The research on the femininity of the female characters in The Mystery of Edwin Drood is rare. This paper intends to research two kinds of femininities (One is traditional femininity under patriarchal society, that is, the patriarchal femininity, the other is the femininity having androgynous quality, that is, the androgynous femininity) of the female characters in Drood. As for methodology, mainly, the theory of women's oppression as expounded by Simone De Beauvoir in The Second Sex and Virginia Woolf's thought of androgyny in A Room of One's Own will be used to explore the patriarchal femininity and androgynous femininity respectively.According to Simone De Beauvoir, the world used to be dominated by man all the time and still is. And woman with the patriarchal femininity is submissive, and passive etc. Accordingly, in Drood, Rosa and Mrs. Sapsea were two typical female characters with patriarchal femininity. Rosa's patriarchal femininity of being weak, timid, passive, submissive, dependent on others and so on was mainly reflected in her friendship with the girls in the Nuns'House, especially with Helena, in her attitudes toward Jasper, in the wardship from her father surrogate, the guardian, Mr. Grewgious and in her love toward Mr. Tartar. As for Mrs. Sapsea, her patriarchal femininity of being voiceless, passive, submissive and self-sacrificing and so on was mainly reflected directly in her relationship with Mr. Sapsea before and after marriage, indirectly in Mr. Sapsea's characteristic. In this way, in Chapter Two of this thesis, the first kind, the patriarchal femininity in Drood is explored. According to Virginia Woolf, in each of us two powers preside, one male, or we say masculine power, one female, or we say feminine power. So, women with femininity having the androgynous quality not only have some traditional femininities, such as tenderness and submissiveness and so on, but also have some traditional masculinities, such as toughness, braveness, pro-activeness and so on. Such is the androgynous femininity and Helena is the female character with this femininity in Drood. On one hand, Helena had her traditional femininities, that is, she was ignorant, dependent, obedient, looking up to the wise male in the society and being in the subordinate position. Her such traditional femininity was exposed when she was with Rosa and was also reflected in her relationship with Mr. Crisparkle. On the other hand, she had her masculinity, that is to say, she was brave, tough, pro-active, strong, eloquent, independent, and so on. Her such masculinity was reflected indirectly in others'description of her and directly in her own performance, including her words, look, and other actions. In this way, in Chapter Three of this thesis, the second kind, the androgynous femininity in Drood is exposed. In Chapter Four, the source of the female characters with two kinds of femininities in Drood is traced back to life. The conclusion is that the female characters with the patriarchal femininity, that is, Rosa and Mrs. Sapsea were shaped under the influence of Catherine Hogarth, Dickens'wife, a woman with the patriarchal femininity of being in a subordinate position in her relationship with her husband and of being submissive and passive etc. and Helena was created under the influence of Ellen Ternan, Dickens'lover, a woman with the androgynous femininity of being dependent and subordinate to male and at the same time independent, forceful of character, undomesticated. Then in Chapter Five, the question what view on female reflected in Drood Dickens had, or specifically, which femininity Dickens favored in Drood, the patriarchal femininity or the androgynous femininity, shall be explored. The conclusion is that Dickens favored women with androgynous femininity in Drood. And this view on female further exposes Dickens'relevant feminism thought.