A Feminist Approach To The Hours

Michael Cunningham is one of the most brilliant contemporary American writer. The Hours, published in 1998, has gained a resounding success and awarded Pulitzer prize and PEN/Faulkner Award. Later the film adaption of The Hours draws a broad attention and high praise. Thus, many scholars attempt to interpret The Hours and its’ film adaption from Gender theory, inter-subjectivity theory, Androgyny theory, the inherence and development of Mrs. Dalloway and so on. With the development of feminist movement and the boom of feminism, many feminist critics reanalyze The Hours from feminist perspective while they all focusing on the interpretation of female subject consciousness, female living state and the tragedy of female fate.This paper tries to avoid the conventional perspective of analyzing, uses the key terms-patriarchy, the other and gender and reinterpret The Hours to analyze three females’ lost images from the feminist criticism respectively. It aims at pointing out Virginia, Laura and Clarissa three females as the other and the second sex fight against their tragedy fate under the patriarchy society. Although they have achieved freedom and liberation to a certain extant, their struggles are not destructive and thorough for their halfway feminist awakening. Thus, the coexistence of revolting and compromising which should be responsible for their lost images during their ways of resistance and pursuit.On the basis of predecessors’researches, this paper aims at interpreting three females’lost images in The Hours. The study has found that females regarded as the subordinate position(the other and the second sex) under the patriarchy. Thus, the reasons of their ways of fighting coexists the revolt and compromise in not only the rootedness patriarchy system but also their own limitations. This paper has the positive meanings for the feminist movement and female liberation, which offers a new possibility that women’s alliance overthrow the patriarchy down-rightly, arises the reflection of female issues and continues fighting for female’s real liberation.