An Existentialist Study Of The French Lieutenant’S Woman

As is known, John Fowles is one of the most famous writers in the20thBritishliterature and The French Lieutenant’s Woman is regarded as his masterpiece. Itconcerns a love story in which the protagonists get rid of the conventions and finallyget their freedom. Fowles is influenced by Sartre, a great French existentialist whoclaims existence precedes essence. Human is born to be free and chooses freely out ofthe conventions.This thesis tries to analyze The French Lieutenant’s Woman from the perspectiveof existentialism and draw my findings:First of all, this novel tries to express Fowles’ existential views. For example,Fowles wants to show readers a kind of relative freedom, that is, when one pursueshis freedom, he shall not affect others.Secondly, the protagonists in the novel pursue different kinds of freedom. Sarahwants to get absolute freedom while Charles pursues relative freedom.At last but not least, Fowles puts the existential theories into the narrativestructure by means of multiple endings and intrusive narrator.Thus, this thesis presents how the impact of existentialism is embodied in theThe French Lieutenant’s Woman from the thematic concerns, characterization andnarrative structure. This thesis is made up of five chapters:Chapter One concentrates on an introduction to John Fowles, as well as theinterpretation of existentialism. Chapter Two concerns the existential views are embodied in the themes. Chapter Three engages in how the existential views areembodied in the characters.Chapter Four concerns the existential impact on thenarrative structure and Chapter Five is conclusion.