Identity Dilemmas In The French Lieutenant’s Woman

The French Lieutenant’s Woman(1969),marks the start of Neo-Victorian fiction and has the crucial importance and academic values for the research of the Victorian culture.Under the background of Britain in 1867,the author Fowles described how the two protagonists Charles and Sarah were trapped into the identity dilemmas as the result of the conflict between the old conventional notion and new historical tendency,and how they finally reconstructed their new identity.As the embodiment of the Victorian era,the novel reflects the identity dilemmas experienced by everyone of the Victorians as historical changes.Therefor this study is conducive to the understanding both of the growth of two characters and the Victorians’ living conditions.Considering the multiple identities of the two characters,the thesis attempts to interpret and analyze the identity dilemmas from three aspects including gender identity,class identity and ethical identity.Based on the analysis,it finds that the identity dilemmas experienced by Charles and Sarah are the result of the conflict between the conventional values and new concepts towards the times.It can be expected that the identity dilemmas will be inevitably generated by the cognition of the gender and class identity,the relation with the kinship and the attitude to the religion.Nevertheless,with the persistence of seeking the true self and the growing awareness of the social reality,the protagonists will get out of the dilemma and reconstruct their new identity.John Fowles,the author of novel,is gazing the society in the 19th century,Victorian era,from the late of the 20th century.Through describing how the contemporary people experience identity dilemmas by the conflict between old convention and new thoughts,Fowles exposes the Victorian culture against humanity,the impact from the reformation of social hierarchy,the hypocrisy of family relationship and the crisis of belief.