| Doris Lessing is one of the most famous writers in the contemporary world literature. Since the publication of The Golden Notebook in1962, feminists of all countries hailed it with interest for its true description of the living conditions and struggles of the females. Because of its profound and diversified thematic concerns, the novel, which attracted increasing critical attention, has been studied under scores of critical approaches and viewed as a classical literary work that depicts the growth and the liberation of women.The Golden Notebook is composed of one independent story and five notebooks, with no chapters for the whole novel. The notebooks, which portray the image of a "free woman" in four different colors—red, black, yellow, and blue, respectively representing four different aspects of the protagonist Anna’s life:political life, professional life, emotional life, and psychological life. Four different roles in real life perplexes Anna because of the segmentation of four roles in her life, which makes her personality split. Four notebooks are the mental course of Anna’s getting rid of the split personality, while the last golden notebook is an introspection of Anna’s life experience. In the work, Lessing exquisitely creates a woman image with selfawareness and independent consciousness. Following Anna’s life, it reveals her confusion or bewilderment of the living condition.With a theoretical basis of feminism, firstly, this thesis explores the author Doris Lessing’s concept of the "free woman" and the protagonist Anna’s dilemma in profession, politics and emotion. Besides, as women consciousness and their identity problems have always been a central point in women study, this thesis probes into Anna’s spiritual journey in the pursuit of identity. Women have the right to define themselves and dominate their lives. To break away from the plight and exam the source of her disorderly life, Anna, in the verge of mental breakdown, courageously splits herself into different identities which split her personality and make her life intolerably anguished. Through the analysis of her experience from fragmentation to unity, from awakening to maturity, we may more clearly witness the entire proceeding of Anna’s identity-seeking, pursuit of freedom and the formation of personality as a whole person.In order to study Anna Wulf, the thesis makes analysis of the free woman with five parts. The first chapter is a brief introduction to the writer Doris Lessing and the content and the structure of The Golden Notebook. The second chapter indicates the feminist theory and its influence upon Doris Lessing. The third chapter is the interpretation of Anna’s dilemma in professional, political, and emotional parts, demonstrating the lofty ideals and the loss of identity. The fourth part involves three different stages of woman consciousness and Anna’s unyielding quest for identity. This exploration road includes free women’s own reflection on life, the awakening of woman consciousness and the selection of redefinition of way of life. Through the vanquishment of difficulties, Anna seeks her identity for regeneration. The last chapter sums up the whole thesis. In conclusion, feminism can’t help women to gain the real freedom, as the absolute "Free Woman" doesn’t exist in the world What really matters to the female is not an ultimate victory in the gender war, but a sane awareness of her situation and an unyielding quest for freedom and the wholeness of identity. |
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