| The Golden Notebook, the masterpiece of Doris Lessing, was awarded the Nobel Prize in2007. The novel has been the focus of scholarly studies as the female characters portrayed are related with the hot topic of feminism, but there are few attempts to explore this issue from the perspective of linguistics. This thesis intends to study the female characters in the novel based on interpersonal meaning since it can reflect the nature of interpersonal communication through language and construct the relationship between interlocutors.With the application of the theory and the adoption of qualitative and quantitative method, this thesis mainly answers the following three questions:What are the personalities of the three main females? What’s the interpersonal relationship among these females? What are the attitudes of the three females towards freedom?The analysis shows that the characters of the three females are different with the application of mood system and modality system. Anna is reasonable, independent and strong-minded; and Molly is confident, superficial and straightforward; while Marion is dependent, men-centered and narrow-minded. Another finding is that their relationship is complicated identified from the choice of mood structures, modal operators and modal adjuncts in their utterances. Anna and Marion enjoy an equal role in interaction while Molly acts as a leader in her friendship with Anna. However, Marion regards the status of free women as a kind of indecent life and even laughs at those so-called free women. Finally, the analysis of attitude system presents that Anna’s attitude towards freedom is from being negative to being positive and she finally realizes that there is no freedom for women. Though Molly is positive about freedom at first, she eventually chooses to rely on men instead of trying her best to accomplish it. As a representative of traditional woman, Marion holds a negative viewpoint and selects another marriage in the end. |
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