A Study Of The Change Of Lady Dedlock's Class Identity In Bleak House

Bleak House plays a crucial role both in Charles Dickens' s literary career and the history of Victorian novels.Many researches,especially the problems of the law reflected in it,have been done about the work.The images of women in this novel are of great importance,but little attention is paid to women.Thus,based on the identity theory of Kart Woodward,this thesis will take the class identity of Lady Dedlock as the core of the study.This thesis consists of six chapters.First of all,main researches about this novel,the purpose and significance and theoretical foundation are presented in the introduction.Then,the body part explores four questions of the study.They are how Lady Dedlock obtains her class identity by veiling her secret,how she maintains her class identity as a Lady,how she gives up her class identity as a lady after her secret is unveiled and why Lady Dedlock fails to maintain her class identity.These four questions are explored in the following four chapters.Lady Dedlock obtains her class identity as a lady in the upper class by veiling her secret of of being the lover of Captain Hawdon and the mother of Esther Summerson and meeting the need of the aristocracy.She maintains her class identity as a lady by keeping a distance with others and fighting against Mr.Tulkinghorn the pryer.After her secret is unveiled,she abandons her class identity and chooses to end her life to shake off the lawyer's control,getting rid of the world she hates and revolting against that unfair world by means of sacrifice.Lady Dedlock fails to maintain her class identity for her personal dilemma and social oppression.The last chapter makes a conclusion of the whole thesis.The change of Lady Dedlock's class identity in Bleak House reflects not only her personal problems but also social reality.Charles Dickens creates a woman as a representative to reveal social problems.Through this novel,Dickens shows the class mobility of British society at that time and the difficult living conditions of women in the patriarchal society by describing the change of the class identity of Lady Dedlock.The problems of women and the law are equally worthy of attention.