Living In A World Without Choices: A Study Of Sophie’s Tragic Fate In Sophie’s Choice

In William Styron’s Novel Sophie’s Choice, the awkward predicament of femalesin a patriarchal world is reflected on Sophie, and the women she represents. Then theresearch of Sophie’s fate is a vital part in the process of studying Styron’s works.This thesis is consisted of five parts. The introduction briefly introduces WilliamStyron and his writing characteristics, the main contents of Sophie’s Choice, thecorrelative theories of Feminism and the previous studies on this novel both abroad andat home. The second part talks about the influence Sophie gets from her parents as adaughter and the role which plays in her latter tragic life. The third part mainlyexpounds Sophie’s unfair status in gender relations, by analyzing Sophie’s relationshipwith the two most important men in her life—her Jewish lover Nathan and the youngwriter Stingo. In the fourth part, the hardships and spiritual sufferings Sophie stands forher identity as a mother have been fully discussed. The fifth part is the conclusion.Daughter, lover and mother, these three identities many women have intertwineSophie’s life-long tragedy as a woman. As a female, Sophie’s unfortunate fate hasalready been doomed, and the cruelty of war just pushes her to fall deeper and deeperinto the abyss of tragedy. What’s more, not only Sophie, almost all the female charactersin the novel have to struggle hard in this or that kind of difficult survival situations.Wars could be completed or run away from, but the cage of the patriarchal society couldnever be got rid of. Female characters’ status as the “others” in Styron’s writing not onlycovers this holocaust novel which already contains heavy topics a layer of sorrow, butalso indicates Styron’s special concern and worry about women’s miserable livingcondition.