House Angels’ Transformation From Contentment To Revolt

The feminist literary criticism comes in the wake of the second peak of feministmovement in late1960s and early1970s. It is the politic and cultural extension to theliterary arena, which not only reevaluates and redefines the female images in malecreations, but also attaches greater importance to traditional female literature so as toprobe into male oppression of women and also to affirm the gradually growing femaleawareness in female works. The thesis aims to discuss the images of angels in thehouse in Pamela, Pride and Prejudice, and “To Room Nineteen” from the angle offeminist criticism, to analyze the historical reasons set behind and then to explore thejourney women should embark on in the future to come. Samuel Richardson, JaneAusten and Doris Lessing live in varying eras with a span of time lasting for over twohundred years and consequently the house angels they depict differ with each other.However, along the line of the evolution of house angels, we could deduce thatwomen never shake off the confinement and suppression of the androcentrism.Pamela created by Richardson completely subjects to her master and later husbandwith contentment except for protecting her chastity. Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice,although endowed with the fighting spirit, eventually regresses to be a house angelowing to Austen’s own contradictory notions, which are currently seen, betweenrevolt against the male mainstream and compliance with the conventions. As regardsSusan, she ultimately reaches her inner self, only to find her unfitted to the societyany longer and has to take suicide as her end-result. Through comparing these threeworks, there is no denying that there is still a long way to go before women can existin full splendor in spite of the social and ideological development. Through the femaleimages they have shaped, women writers reveal that further exploration is urgentlyneeded for the reconstruction of women’s literary images and their social status.Moreover, free women shall be able to choose independently and pursue their ownself-value instead of being enslaved to male or the phallocentric society.