Resumo de The French Lieutenant's Woman

The French Lieutenant's Woman is a great novel. It has reached the post graduate classrooms of almost all the universities. It is taken as a fine example of a metafictional novel. Every chapter begins with selected quotations. The readers find themselves confused whether it deals with facts or fiction.The thirteenth chapter of this novel appears as an essay on how to write a novel. This is a very useful material for students of literature. The novelist asks whether anyone would like to write his own autobiography without sensoring. Therefore, he argues that every story is a lie, in a way. If at all one can find facts, that is found only in history. Hence, he relies heavily on historical documents. But the novel is maily about women, about womanhood, to be precise. By going back to the Victorian period to set his story, Fowles very successfully stripped all kinds of snobberies found prevaling at that time. When the sermons were being poured out from the pulpits about several social and religious duties, mainly to protect chastity and sanctity, London streets were getting filled with prostitutes. The novelist says that every sixtieth house in London was a place of prostitution.The central character is a woman, who once worked as a nurse to a French Lieutenat. When he recovered, he went back to France, promising to come back. Sarah, the victim, is mostly seen on the beach, eagerly looking towards France. Her contacts with the Frenchman becomes a scandal. She is even called the French lieutenant's whore. Her lonely walk on the seashore creates an occasion to meet a scientist, named Charles, who is the alter ego of Charles Darwin. He is also a Hardy (is Sarah the alter ego of Tess?). He is betrothed to a lady, Tina, who represents the typical Victorian female, with all her pretensions. Charles gets attracted to Sarah, the outcast woman. From now on, the story is a struggle between the call of the flesh and the Victorian morality. The readers gradually realizes that the story is actually the story of feminist revolution. The devided Charles fails to be true to his conscience, fearing scandal. Sarah goes away. He thinks she can only land up in a brothel (thus a close view of prostitution is shown). He goes in search of her, but fails to meet her. Finally, they meet and sexually unite only to discover from the blood stain on him that she was a virgin. Again she goes away. Charles embarks on a marathon search. By the end of the novel, he traces her in the house of Rossetti, as an emancipated woman. She then teaches him that love is not a game of conquering the other; it is not possession, but mere sharing. A lot has to be said about the structure of the story. But the abstract has to be brief.

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