Father's Manipulation Of The Text: A Feminist Stylistic Interpretation Of Mansfield Park

Mansfield Park is the most controversial one among Austen's six literary works. Some critics appreciate its moral ethics, love and marriage theme, and feminine spirit, while others hold opposite viewpoints and criticize its rigid ethical preaching and characters with little personality. It brings about the outcome of a hundred schools of thought and witnesses its infinite literary values.For years there have been diversified perspectives of its studies at home and abroad, including theme, characters, creating style, post colonialism and feminism. However, not much attention has been paid to its writing style under the influence of father(the typical representative of patriarchy). Therefore, based on the feminist stylistic analysis and close reading, this thesis aims at digging out the mental relationships between Austen and father, and explores his effects on her writing. The study indirectly shows that father's authority is everywhere and females are forced to the marginalized state in his gaze. Specifically, father takes control of language, symbols and narrative in the novel. Furthermore, the writing purpose is to reveal that father not only inspires women to write, but also acts as an obstacle for them to get rid of the patriarchal manipulation. Austen couldn't get away from father's far-reaching influence. Although her writing conforms to father's rules, the manipulated text castrates female writers' living subjectivity and unique writing style.This thesis is mainly composed of three chapters. The first chapter aims to analyze father as the absolute signifier of language respectively from addressing, naming, endearments and speech interpretations according to Mills' s Feminist Stylistics. The second chapter discusses the connotations of some key symbols and establishes the connections between father and symbols. The last chapter analyzes that father manipulates the narrator and point of view to convey meanings and emotions. To sum up, this thesis tries to explain that the writing style of Mansfield Park is controlled by father with the hope to improve readers' self-awareness about male-oriented or father-oriented text and promote further study of female writing.