The Road To Homeland-a Study Of Mansfield Park From Bildungsroman Perspective

Jane Austen is an excellent English realistic novelist of nineteenth century.She is famous for the elegant design,compact plots and distinct theme of her works.Often regarded as the first writer who focuses on female growth with the female point of view in English literature,Jane Austen contributes a lot to the British female Bildungsroman and its development by creating the female Bildungsroman style,whose theme is the formation and development of the female adolescent’s love and marriage value.As an important work of Austen’s later period,Mansfield Park attracts the attention of many scholars and readers.From the Bildungsroman perspective,taking the protagonist Fanny’s “road to homeland” as the main line with close reading,the thesis analyses Fanny’s growing process from an intruder of Mansfield Park to its spiritual embodiment.Besides the introduction and conclusion,the thesis consists of three chapters.Chapter One analyzes Fanny’s predicaments in seeking domestic affection.She is isolated by the members of her foster family.To be accepted by her foster family,she has to refrain her self-consciousness,obey the rules and show her submission.Chapter Two probes into the process of Fanny’s initiation under guidance of her initiation guides and setbacks.Fanny’s physique,moral,affection and other aspects develop under the guidance of her initiation guides,Sir Thomas and Edmund.With the help of her observation,profound contemplation and unambiguous memory,Fanny’s self-consciousness enhances in the contradictions with others and within her self-conflicts.Chapter Three deals with “epiphany”.Through the epiphany evoked by the elopement of Henry Crawford and Mrs.Rushworth,Fanny’s self-consciousness strengthens.Fanny’s marriage with Edmund brings her the status as a perpetual inhabitant at Mansfield Park and marks the accomplishment of her initiation.Through the argumentation of the three chapters,the thesis arrives at the conclusion that Mansfield Park is a typical female Bildungsroman,and the author’s ideal about a perfect family and values of love and marriage expressed through the description of the growth of Fanny and the change of Mansfield Park is worth our using for reference in our daily social and domestic life today.The thesis is a supplement to the correlational studies and an attempt to analyze the initiation theme of the novel through the protagonist’s “road to homeland”.It is in the hope that the thesis will be helpful to the future intensive study on the initiation theme of the novel.