| The film Mona Lisa Smile describes the story that a young art historian teacher and her female students pursue women's liberation by the gradual awakening of their self-awareness in the Wellesley College. By analyzing the three women's self-awareness in the film Mona Lisa Smile from the self-awareness and Betty Friedan's feminist thought, this thesis aims at arguing that the awakening of female self-awareness is a prerequisite to women's liberation.The three women in the film realize the importance of women's work and education, the crisis of women's attachment to men and the significance of women's independent rights to choose life respectively. They pursue their liberation after they awaken their female self-awareness. Although they have different awareness and pursue different female liberation, they all own female self-awareness. Their self-awareness coincides with the Betty Friedan's feminist thought. In the previous period, Betty Friedan was committed to break up the feminine mystique, to get rid of the fetter of family,and to encourage women to pursue equal education and career. In the later period, she mainly emphasizes the value of family and constructs the harmonious relationship between men and women.The main body of this thesis contains three chapters. The first chapter expounds Catherine's awakening female self-awareness based on Betty Friedan's feminism in the previous stage that advocates female pursuing education and career. The second chapter relying on Betty Friedan's feminist thought about the feminine mystique makes a detailed analysis about the student Betty who changes from a traditionalist into a feminist by the gradual awakening of self-awareness. In the third chapter, based on Betty Friedan's feminist thought in the second stage about valuing the importance of family, the writer will concentrate on the analysis about the student Joan, a mature and intelligent girl who is aware of the importance of family and the harmonious relationship between men and women. |
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