Refusing to Be a Victim: Women''s Oppression And Resistance in John Fowles''s <The Collector>

• Main Authors: Yu-Hui Hu, 胡玉慧
• Other Authors: none
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/38523755865747209339

碩士 === 靜宜大學 === 英國語文學系研究所 === 92 === Reputable for his stylistic and experimental writing techniques, John Fowles also shows his concern about women’s struggle for freedom and authenticity under the condemnable patriarchy. In his first published novel The Collector, Fowles deals with such a theme of women’s confinement and oppression by men. Thus, this thesis aims to examine how the female protagonist, Miranda Grey, is dominated and persecuted by the male protagonist, Fredrick Clegg, as well as Miranda’s resistance to this monopolization by articulating her own story in the form of diary to attain self-realization in The Collector. To analyze this novel from a feminist viewpoint, I mainly use the ecofeminist concepts of dualism and Sandra M. Gilbert’s and Susan Gubar’s theory of women writing as my theoretic framework. In Introduction, since Fowles once said that the story line for the novel is partly developed from Béls Bartók’s opera entitled Duke Bluebeard’s Castle which is a variant of Charles Perrault’s fairy tale “Bluebeard,” I briefly discuss these two texts in order to delve into some significant meanings related to my argument. Chapter One analyzes the ways in which Miranda is dominated, objectified and idealized by Fredrick according to his interests, butterfly-collection, photography and pornography. Chapter Two concentrates on how Miranda achieves self-development and challenges male/Fredrick’s discourse by writing a diary. The concluding chapter reiterates the significance of women’s self-articulation, and also, explicates Fowles’s attempt to challenge the traditional dualistic paradigm of thinking by his blurry characterization of the two characters.