An Approach To Love,Again From The Perspective Of Existentialism

As a female Nobel Prize winner on literature, Doris Lessing is one of the mostfamous British female writers in the twentieth century. Although there are variouskinds of themes demonstrated in her different works such as feminism, Marxism, andpost colonialism, the similarity in most of her works is Lessing’s close attention tohuman existence in the twentieth century, when there were great disorders both inethics and spirit. And this focus of Lessing’s works shares affinities with what iselucidated by existentialism which concentrates on humans’ living states under theinfluence of the absurd world.This thesis attempts to interpret love, again, Lessing’s important work in herlater years, from the existentialist point of view, by analyzing how the absurd worldaffects the existence of the two protagonists, Sarah and Julie, who live in differenttimes, and how the two women Julie and Sarah achieve their spiritual freedom andrealize the significance of their existence through free choices.The thesis is composed of the Introduction, the body and the Conclusion, and thebody is divided into four chapters.The introduction is about Lessing and her work love, again and also makes areview of the previous studies on the novel by scholars both at home and abroad.Chapter One gives an overview of the important philosophical trend ofexistentialism in the twentieth century, and introduces some views of theexistentialists, especially those of Sartre and Camus.Chapter Two makes an analysis of how the absurd world affects the existence ofthe two protagonists, Sarah and Julie. Sarah, the successful professional woman, hasachieved a lot in her career. But considering her severely repressed emotional world,she still cannot be regarded as a truly free woman. She has frozen her emotionalworld for many years, and dare not think about love any more. When falling in lovein her senior age, she faces an emotional dilemma at the same time. The social restraints for old women conflict against with her strong desire for love. Her hungerfor love cannot be satisfied by society. She feels trapped and suffers a lot in theabsurd world. As for the other protagonist, Julie, she is alienated ruthlessly by societyand lives alone in the forest. No matter how excellent she is, she and the value of herworks cannot be accepted by society until many years after her death. Thus, there isalways a big gap between man and the brute world.Chapter Three studies how facticity works in Sarah and Julie’s pursuit offreedom. In Sartre’s view, facticity not only includes a large part of things mancannot choose, such as his race and gender, but also includes his past. It is thebackground against which one’s freedom exists and is limited. Being a daughter,Sarah’s inferior status in her family shackles her a lot when she yearns for hermother’s care in her childhood. Because of these previous experiences, Sarah closesthe door of her emotional world and makes herself repressed, although Sarah who islack of love is more eager for love actually. For Julie, this illegitimate quadroon, herhumble origin and her intelligence also have great influence on her freedom. They arenot only the limitation of her freedom but also the stimulation which can firm herconviction of pursing freedom by transcending the limitation.Chapter Four discusses the free choices of Sarah and Julie and thecorresponding responsibilities that go along with them. With the acceptance of theabsurd nature of the world, Julie makes free choices in the absurd situation andachieves her spiritual freedom. Sarah also achieves her freedom by getting herself outof her frustration by loving and involving herself in career and shoulderingresponsibilities to make her life valuable.The conclusion summaries the major themes explored in this thesis. It gets sucha conclusion that no matter how disadvantaged the conditions are, as long aspersevering in questing for freedom and undertaking the correspondingresponsibilities, man can achieve a significant life.