Waller’s Patriarchal Ideas In The Bridges Of Madison County

The Bridges of Madison County,the first novel by Robert James Waller,was published in 1992.The publication of the novel made Waller famous almost overnight,ranking him among the most popular American contemporary writers.The novel contains a sensitive subject of extramarital love and simplicity of writing style,which has received different critical responses in literary circles.The success of the novel enables it to occupy an important position in contemporary American literature.Its attraction continues to thrive because it reflects many life philosophies — humanity,ethics and rationality in spite of its simplicity of writing style.Most female readers take fancy to it and find passionate and eternal love out of the immoral extramarital affairs.That is why The Bridges of Madison County hits the big success.Critics have never ceased to make comments on the novel from various angles.Most of the critical papers study it from feminism,ecofeminism,postmodern feminism and psychoanalysis,concerning about the survival predicament of modern women in essence.Some critics study the theme,the plot,the characterization and the rhetorical devices,discussing author’s intention and writing skills in the novel.Some others make analysis of the hero and heroine,trying to make clear their social status as well as emotional trend,which reveals the influence of social morality,marriage ethics and family responsibility on individual’s choices.The majority of critics concentrate on the sensitive subject of extramarital love when studying the novel.Part of critics have a positive attitude toward the final choice of Francesca and Kincaid,considering it a rational choice for Francesca to give up the once-in-a-lifetime love and return to family which conforms to social ethics while the other part have negative perceptions of the extramarital affairs which violates the marriage ethics,believing it harmful to modern women in marriage.Although various literary criticisms have been applied in studying the novel,there is still a blank of concentrating on the author’s implied patriarchal ideas embodied in the novel as he cannot eliminate the influence by patriarchy and the masculine value shaped by that patriarchal society dominates him when he created this novel.Some critics regard Waller as the spokesman of feminism and he concerns much about women’s living situation,but this thesis argues that he embodies many patriarchal ideas in this novel which can be seen from many details and clues.Firstly,this thesis will study the characterization of the hero in the novel,aiming to find out the clues of Waller’s masculine values embodied on this character.Waller highlights Kincaid’s male charisma and portrays him as a perfect man which presents author’s pride and superiority as a man.Secondly,Waller characterizes Francesca as an oppressed traditional housewife and puts her under a passive position in the whole love affairs,which reveals his disagreement with and pessimism toward the role transition of women.Lastly,through analyzing another key person in the novel,Richard(Francesca’s husband),Waller’s double moral standards toward extramarital affairs and the treatment of the ending,the last part tries to further reveal Waller’s patriarchal ideas.Therefore,through detailed analysis of The Bridges of Madison County,this thesis proves that Waller’s patriarchal ideas are dominant in the novel.Although feminism began to rise up at that time and the author had paid much attention to it,the traditional patriarchal value has rooted in his mind as he expressed the praise for men and oppression to women consciously or unconsciously in the novel.With the help of textual analysis,this paper intends to reveal Waller’s patriarchal ideas showed in this novel,presenting a different angle from most of the critics.