Victim Of The Gaze

The French Lieutenant’s Woman is the masterpiece of prestigious British writer John Fowles. It has not only attracted numerous readers, but also aroused constant attention from literary criticism since its publication in1969. In this novel, Fowles vividly portrayed many lifelike characters in Victorian Times. As heroine in the novel, Sarah has already been studied abundantly by many critics both at home and abroad from perspectives of feminism, existentialism, narrative techniques and other theories. But seldom do people take a close look at another important female character Ernestina. This rich girl lost her love in the story, which is rather tragic for women. Read the text carefully and we may discover that Tina’s tragedy has high correlation with her self-alienation. This thesis attempts to study Ernestina’s self-alienation in the framework of Jean-Paul Sartre’s gaze theory.The French philosopher Sartre finds that under the gaze of others, the gazed will consciously make all sorts of gestures to shape an image that meets others’expectation, that is, internalizing the values of others against his/her own will, resulting in self-alienation and self-loss. In the novel, Ernestina was the only child of a wealthy family, an apple in the eyes of her parents. Regarding a suitable match as the only assurance of Tina’s future happiness, her parents tried to give her "the best education" so that she may be trained lady-like and accepted by the upper class. They also arranged social activities to help her pick up a Mr. Right. And Mr. Freeman’s deep-rooted ancestry concept impressed his daughter greatly. He succeeded in shaping Tina into a typical "rich girl" with a neglected price---losing her individuality. After meeting and being engaged to Charles, a man from aristocratic family, Tina made a series of changes to please her fiance in order to keep up their relationship. Tina was inherently independent and courageous, and these traits had been the source of her lasting charm. However, as the gazed of family and Charles, Tina turned to be dependent and obedient to please the gazers she valued. Unfortunately, the more she changed herself, the farther she was driven apart from her love and finally was abandoned. This thesis analyzes the process of Ernestina’s self-alienation under the gaze of others. It concludes that others’ gaze is the main reason for Ernestina’s alienation and she was a victim of the social environment.In addition to the introduction and conclusion, the whole thesis consists of four chapters:The introduction starts with a sketch of the author and the plot of the novel, makes a literature review on The French Lieutenant’s Woman at home and abroad and thus reveals the objective and significance of the thesis.The First Chapter briefly introduces the origin and development of "gaze" theories, mainly Sartre’s gaze theory used in this thesis. In Sartre’s opinion, people constantly experience pressures from outside world, and "gazes from others" is the leading cause for self-betrayal. Thus the world can be divided into gazers and the gazed. Gazers have the power of "look", while the gazed become objects of the gazers. Under the gaze of others, the gazed make every effort to internalize others’ values and transform themselves to the images that the gazers expect. This process leads to self-alienation of the gazed and cause them to lose themselves gradually. This gaze theory can well account for Ernestina’s situation in The French Lieutenant’s WomanChapter Two analyses how Ernestina, as the object of gaze, is viewed by her parents and her fiance Charles.Chapter Three discusses Ernestina’s self-alienation under the gaze. To meet her parents’ expectation, Tina gradually internalized their values. She strained every nerve to imitate speech and behaviors of people from upper class, working hard on preparation for hunting a worthy husband. To maintain her love with Charles, Tina sacrificed her true feeling for Charles’ taste, reading her fiance mind, being agreeable and deferential, ingratiating herself with him by all means. Through self-transformation, Ernestina projected an ideal image of "a perfect wife"---elegant, demure and obedient.Chapter Four analyzes the result of Ernestina’s self-alienation. Charles didn’t marry her because of her change on behaviors and attitude. On the contrary, he found she was no longer the charming and smart girl he fell in love with, but turned to be a dull and pretentious rich lady just like many others, finally Charles dissolved engagement and left Tina.The last part summarizes and reviews the previous arguments discussed in the chapters. It comes to the conclusion that Ernestina alienates herself to please others, especially her Mr. Right. However, it is her alienation that drives her away from her nature, and it in turn leads to Tina’s failure in guarding her marriage. From Tina’s love tragedy, we can get a meaningful revelation:a person should stick to his true nature; blind self-alienation for others’taste may bring about self-loss.