Women’s Freedom Tortured By Existence

A Summer Bird-Cage (1963) is the virginal novel of Margaret Drabble (1939-), thefamous contemporary woman writer in Britain. In the novel, Drabble creates two differentcharacters, Sarah and Louise. Though they are sisters, they vary from one another in life valueand pursuit. Through the description of their discrepancies, Drabble uncovers thecontemporary British women’s predicament. Actually, A Summer Bird-Cage undertakes toreveal the true state of contemporary women, whether the women “in the cage” or “outside ofthe cage”, can not escape from alienation and loneliness.Previous scholars and critics have done some research on the theories of alienation,freedom and love, for example, the well-known American humanistic psychologist andphilosopher in the20thcentury, Erich Fromm has made a profound study on them.Furthermore, several scholars and critics make studies on literary works based on theFromm’s theories. As for A Summer Bird-Cage, there are also a lot of studies on it since itspublication, though more to be followed in the future, just as what the thesis intends to do.Based on these studies and enlightened by Fromm’s theories, the thesis takes A SummerBird-Cage as the object of study, trying to analyze the contemporary women’s predicament inthis novel from the aspects of alienation, freedom and love.In terms of alienation, Drabble shows a panorama of women’s dilemma in thecontemporary society in A Summer Bird-Cage, and she studies the various conflicts broughtabout by the materialized society in the course of industrialization, elaborating that thewestern modern society is suffering from alienation without love. It follows that alienation asa common phenomenon has spread over each corner of the contemporary society.As far as freedom is concerned, through the common predicament of both married andunmarried women in A Summer Bird-Cage, it reveals that freedom is double-edged as well asmarriage. As for freedom, women pursue it, but too much freedom may not contribute to theirpredicament. As for marriage, it is not only a “cage” with bondage, but also a “bay” forwomen to escape from freedom. Freedom or marriage seems like a double-edged sword,torturing women’s existence at times. Thus, facing freedom, are women supposed to go afterit or escape from it? They are at a loss. As for love, it is the theme running through A Summer Bird-Cage. Fromm has made aprofound study on love in contemporary society, and he makes a conclusion that people’salienation and fear of freedom originate from lacking of love. In the novel, both Sarah andLouise don’t have the proper understanding of love. Moreover, they live a life without love.All these result in their predicament. Consequently, it may safely be concluded that,“Love isthe answer to the problem of human existence.”(Fromm1956:7) And Love can be thesatisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.While, as for the dilemma brought about by the modern civilization, Drabble fails topoint out a way-out, and she lacks the courage to overthrow the alienated and male-dominatedsociety. However, the open ending of the novel also hints that Drabble may see a pinpointlight penetrating darkness and a ray of hope beyond despair.The greatness of Margaret Drabble lies in the fact that her works reflect women’s socialpredicament vividly and truly. To a certain degree, Drabble’s A Summer Bird-Cage provideswith an access to the knowable community by depicting the women intellectuals’ life in thecontemporary society. Essentially, love is only regarded as a struggle for the women,particularly when their existence is threatened.