Women In Saul Bellow’s Novel Herzog

The thesis is a research on the female characters in Herzog. By analysis of the novel in detail, this dissertation points out two types of predominant attitudes toward women presented in Herzog:misogyny under patriarchy and feminism. Bellow’s Jewish origin makes an effect on his portrayal of women images to a great extent, so Bellow fails to depict vivid women characters which inversely are presented from the view of the male protagonist and finally fall into silenced "the others" in the novel. However, after experiencing the first and second wave of the feminist movements, Bellow creates some "New Women" in Herzog. Fundamentally, the coexistence of totally opposite ideas---patriarchal ideology and feminism in Herzog reveals the integration of the patriarchal ideology in the traditional Jewish culture and the chauvinism in the Christian culture and the conflict between Feminism emerged in the 1960s and the traditional Jewish American culture, especially the patriarchal ideology in the traditional American culture.This dissertation is composed of four chapters.Chapter One provides a brief introduction of Saul Bellow’s cultural background and literary achievements, presents a detailed literature review at home and abroad, clarifies the significance of the study, and introduces the theoretical bases for this study including misogyny complex, Friedan feminism and "New Woman".The second chapter explores in detail the negative attitude towards women in Herzog, seeing them either as "Angels" or as "Sirens". Different types of women characters are portrayed in the novel, and different attitudes are exerted toward them by the protagonist. In this novel, readers learn about female characters mainly from the narration of the hero, so our knowledge about the women is deeply affected by the twisted vision of Herzog who is a Jewish intellectual greatly influenced by patriarchy. Through the analysis of women’s dominant status, we can clearly see the misogyny complex under patriarchal ideology presented in the novel.The third chapter focuses on feminism in the novel which holds positive attitude towards "New Women" in Herzog. During the 20th century women awake to pursue their self-value, seek economic and spiritual independence and equality as males. In Herzog, Madeleine and Ramona are commented by the protagonist to some extent in a positive light. Meanwhile, the chapter analyses the positive images of Madeleine and Ramona in the eyes’ of other characters, by which Friedan feminism’ sympathy with Jewish traditional women and praise for "New women" can be shown in the novel.In the last chapter, we draw the conclusion that these two ambivalent attitudes towards female images highlighted in the novel are influenced by both the Jewish American intellectual’s Jewish background and Christian cultural intrusion. The conspiracy of the patriarchal ideology in the traditional Jewish culture and the chauvinism in the Christian culture is the root of the misogyny complex, and the conflict and contradiction between the traditional Jewish American culture and feminism in America in the 1960s explains the coexistence of two diametrically opposite concepts of women.