Self-Salvation:Thematic Study On The French Lieutenant’s Woman From The Perspective Of Figure-ground Theory

John Fowles(1926-2005)is the most innovative British literary critic since the1960 s.The sensation of his works showed in The French Lieutenant’s Woman,which is the circumstances of the proletariate and women,especially lower-class women,in Victorian era England,and woman’s miserable life state of the proletariat.They are bound by the social treaty,the kidnapping of traditional moral values,and they are labeled.However,the majority of people choose the self-paralysis status quo,while Sarah resolutely chooses a different way.Regardless of others opinions,covering herself with a guilty coat,played a self-salvation.And Charles is also the victim of the traditional dogma he wants to change himself but he is confused.It was only when he met Sarah that he set out to redeem himself.This thesis is composed of three sections.The first section is the introduction,which briefly introduces the main points of domestic and foreign research perspectives of John Fowles,The French Lieutenant’s Woman,and the domestic and foreign research summary of the theme of The French Lieutenant’s Woman,as well as the research issues and the theoretical basis of the figure-ground.The second section is the main part,which consist of three chapters.The first chapter sketch the ground characters of the repressed Victorians,which are represent repressed humanity,corrupt morality and hypocritical behavior.The second chapter analyzes the confused state of figure characters under the influence of social background.The third chapter analyzes Sarah’s self-salvation through the realization of freedom and Charles’ self-redemption through the realization of freedom.The last part is the conclusion,clarified the main content of this thesis;and summed up the self-salvation theme of The French Lieutenant’s Woman,which is in times of trouble,people should not be content with the status quo,trying to find the real meaning of your life instead of paralyzed yourself.After the process of self-redemption is will come rebirth.It is the same case for Jump out of the context of the novel,as for theauthor,John Fowles so does he.In Victorian Times,scholars reckoned that the creation of traditional novels has reached a plateau.It is difficult to have a new form of novel creation.However,John Fowles still broke the pattern of the traditional novels,created a lot of new patterns in the novel,opened up a new road for the creation of the novel.Therefore,this novel can be seen as is the recreation of the novel mode and the author’s redemption of past self.