Comment on the Character of Sarah Woodruff in the French Lieutenant s Woman . to What Extend S She a Victim of Circumstances? Essay - 1221 Words French Lieutenant s Woman Essay ...Analysis of Voice and Character of The French Lieutenant’s woman Shima Nourmohammadi Shino964@liu.student.se Voice Analysis. The novel begins with voice of Thomas Hardy’s ″The Riddle″ which is quoted by the author. This quotation is an apt description for The French Lieutenant’s woman which portrays a singular figure, alone against a desolate... 1497 Words | 5 Pages The French Lieutenant s Woman- John Fowles Essay ...they read. In The French Lieutenant’s Woman, John Fowles revolutionizes the traditional art of story telling by breaking away from certain aspects of the novel to introduce a whole other world of fiction. The narrator plays a significant role, by providing insight into Victorian society, acting as a character in the story and creating relationships with the characters, all of which breaks away from the conventional role of...

1460 Words | 5 Pages Essay about The Victorian Era and the French Lieutenant s Woman ...The Victorian Era and The French Lieutenant's Woman The French Lieutenant's Woman is a 1981 film of historical fiction, contrasting present day relationships, morality and industry with that of the Victorian era in the 1850s. It is an adaptation of a novel by John Fowles, the script was written by Harold Pinter. The setting is in England, Lyme and London specifically, where Charles, a Darwinian... 842 Words | 3 Pages An Overview on the French Lieutenant s Woman Research Paper ...An overview on ”The French Lieutenant’s Woman” 1. Introduction The novel "The French Lieutenants Woman" from 1967 by John Fowles shares a number of properties with the idea of a traditional time machine. At the first look it seems to be a precise rendering of the Victorian world of the 1860s that immerses the reader in what would seem like a credible, immaculate historical reproduction. However, it is...

4997 Words | 14 Pages Essay on The French Lieutenant s Woman ...passage from the Victorian to the Post-modern society -Charles in The French Lieutenant’s Woman- “Every emancipation is a restoration of the human world and of human relationships to man himself”(MARX, Zur Judenfrage 1844). This is a citation from Marx which opens John Fowels’ novel “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”, one of his most world-wide read and appreciated novels. John Fowels constructs his novel by... 2398 Words | 6 Pages French Lieutenant s Woman Essay and Techniques Postmodernism ...ideologies of previous movements in the arts. The postmodern movement has made way for new ways of thinking and a new theoretical base when criticising art, literature, sexuality and history. John Fowles’ 1969 historical bricolage, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, utilises the ideas of postmodern theorists such as Foucault, Barthes and Sartre amongst others to form a postmodern double-coded discourse which examines values inherent in the Victorian...

1319 Words | 4 Pages Essay about The French Lieutenant s Woman, by John Fowles Book Analysis ...The French Lieutenant’s Woman “Perhaps I am writing a transposed autobiography; perhaps I now live in one of the houses I have brought into the fiction; perhaps Charles is myself in disguise. Perhaps it is only a game. Modern women like Sarah exist, and I have never understood them.” (p. 85, lines 11-15). This quotation is the epitome of what John Fowles’ multi-layered novel The French... 923 Words | 3 Pages Oscar Wilde s Presentation of Woman in a Woman of No Importance in Comparison to John Fowle s Veiws of Women in the French Lieutenant s Woman Essay ...Oscar Wilde's presentation of women in 'A Woman of No Importance' in comparison to John Fowles' views of women in 'The French Lieutenant's Woman', in light of the view that Oscar Wilde has a more sympathetic view of woman in his time. In this essay I will be comparing Oscar Wilde's play 'A Woman of No Importance' to John Fowles' novel 'The French Lieutenant's...

1662 Words | 5 Pages Character List Character List Bookmark this page Manage My Reading List Sarah Woodruff She is an educated but impoverished young woman. She is called "the French Lieutenant's Woman" or "Tragedy" or the "French lieutenant's whore" because it is believed that she had an affair with a shipwrecked French sailor. It is also believed that she is half-mad with grief and that she stares out to sea, vainly hoping for the day he will return to her. Because of her reputation she can no longer gain any employment until Mrs. Poulteney hires her as a paid companion. Sarah is a mysterious figure. No one knows much about her, and later we find that much of what people believe about her is untrue. Charles Smithson He is a wealthy gentleman and is heir to a minor title. His hobby is collecting fossils and he considers himself to be something of a naturalist. He is an admirer of the controversial Darwin and he is rather pleased with himself that he is one of a minority in the 1860s to hold scientifically advanced ideas, such as the theories espoused by Darwin and others. He is both sensitive and intelligent, but he is unsure of himself.

He is bored and dissatisfied with the course his life is taking. His fiancée is Ernestina Freeman, but that relationship is changed when he meets Sarah Woodruff. Ernestina Freeman Ernestina is Charles' fiancée. She is attractive and clever but also very young and naive. Although she considers herself to be a modern young woman, her attitudes are similar, for the most part, to those of most proper young ladies. She is vacationing in Lyme when the story opens, staying with Aunt Tranter. Aunt Tranter Ernestina's aunt is a kindly woman whose temperament contrasts greatly with that of the sharp-tongued Mrs. Poulteney. Aunt Tranter's honesty and lack of hypocrisy seem to present a welcome bright spot in the small town governed by the malicious gossip of less charitable souls. Mrs. Poulteney The vicar convinces the wealthy widow to take in Sarah Woodruff and give her employment. Mrs. Poulteney's main motive in doing so is to show how charitable she is, and it does not stem from any real feelings of compassion for Sarah. Mrs.

Poulteney is a stereotype, a conglomerate of all the malicious old villainesses who have appeared in numerous Victorian novels. Dr. Grogan He is a friendly man whom Charles finds to be a sympathetic listener. Although he feels sorry for Sarah Woodruff, unlike Charles, he cannot take her seriously. He tries to convince Charles that she really is ill. Dr. Grogan, like Aunt Tranter, represents a type of Victorian character who seems more understanding and less hampered by convention than most people. Part of the reason for this is that both of the older people actually belong to the generation before Victoria's, an era somewhat less repressive in certain respects. Captain and Mrs. Talbot Sarah was the governess for the Talbot's children when she met the French lieutenant. Even after she told them of her experience with him, they did not condemn her for it. Lieutenant Varguennes Caught in a shipwreck, his leg was injured, and Varguennes was nursed at the home of the Talbots, mostly by Sarah. Although he flirted with Sarah, and wished to seduce her, he was married, as she later found out. Mrs. Fairley She is Mrs.

Poulteney's housekeeper and is as unkind as her mistress. She delights in spying on Sarah and reporting her activities to Mrs. Poulteney. Millie Mrs. Poulteney's young maid who is befriended by Sarah. Mary Aunt Tranter's maid whose life is considerably more pleasant than Millie's. She eventually marries Charles' man-servant, Sam Farrow. Sam Farrow While Sam is often the object of Charles' teasing, he is not merely a humorous figure as was Dickens' Sam Weller. He takes himself seriously and is an ambitious member of the working class. He is determined to wed Mary and make a good life for the two of them. Sir Robert Charles Smithson's uncle. It is his title that Charles hopes to inherit, although that prospect is altered when Sir Robert marries Mrs. Tomkins, an attractive widow. Lieutenant de la Roncière and Marie de Morell These are two individuals in a case history given to Charles by Dr. Grogan for him to read.

The doctor hopes that reading about how the neurotic young woman convinced the French courts that she had been assaulted and her family sent poison-pen letters by the officer would convince Charles that Sarah possibly had similar intentions regarding him. While Charles conceded that the story might be true, he did not believe it applied to Sarah. Mr. Freeman He was a haberdasher who became very successful. One sign of his success was that he, a member of the middle class, could have his daughter marry one of the nobility. Gabriel and Christina Rosseti They were the founders of a school of art called the Pre-Raphaelite school. In their day they were considered as radical as Mr. Freeman was conservative. However, by the time Sarah came to stay with them, their work, while still shocking to some, was coming to be more accepted. John Fowles He is the bearded man who enters the novel several times as an observer and sometimes as a sort of theatrical director. He comments on the actions of his characters and discusses the relationship between the art of the novel and life.

The French Lieutenant’s Woman Characters | GradeSaver Buy Study Guide Sarah Woodruff Sarah is a woman of about twenty-five years old, an ambitious farmer's daughter with a reasonable education which has left her stranded between two classes: the lower class, into which she was born, and the middle class, to which her education pushes her but cannot bring her entirely, since she lacks both breeding and money. The first thing we learn about Sarah - and it is almost all we learn in the opening chapters - is that she has a bad reputation because she has had premarital sex with a marooned French sailor. The other thing we learn about her, from Charles' first impression in Chapter 2, is that she is deeply sad; indeed, Sarah suffers from "melancholia," as the doctor diagnoses her in Chapter 9 (53). We might assume that these two things are related, but in fact, Sarah has always felt lonely and depressed, and she chose her bad reputation - in fact, she lied about having sex with the French lieutenant in order to be ostracized from a society that she never felt at home in. Her primary characteristic, when we get to know her better, is her extreme insightfulness and perspicacity.

This insight has its downsides: for example, Sarah finds it hard to choose a man to marry, since she can see through all their pretenses. The narrator speculates that had she been born hundreds of years before, "she would have been either a saint or an emperor's mistress," and he makes this bold claim with the reasoning that Sarah combines both "understanding and emotion" in a "fused rare power" (52). Sarah's sensitivity is partly why Charles is attracted to her, but it also means that she can see through him, and she eventually leaves him because there is a "formality" and a "falsehood" to the way he interacts with her that prevents there from being true love and intimacy between them (351). Ernestina is anxious and jealous about all of Charles' past lovers, but she is especially worried that he might have liaised with a "modern girl" - and it is to a modern girl that she eventually loses him (64). Sarah is a modern woman - this idea is introduced to us in the infamous Chapter 13. This mainly manifests itself in her desire for freedom at any cost, and a striking independence compared to the coddled Ernestina and her peers.

Because she is a modern woman trapped in the Victorian era, Sarah is a little anachronistic. The narrator emphasizes this in some of his description of her - for example, he says that she has a "computer in her heart" that allows her to read people very accurately (87). By the end of the novel, she has been able to fully realize her modernity by throwing off society's restraints and living a bohemian lifestyle in Dante Gabriel Rossetti's house. Is she the protagonist of the book? The title corroborates this claim - despite her transitory and shadowy presence in the first few chapters, the narrator wants us to think that Sarah Woodruff is indeed the protagonist of the novel. The narrator himself refers to her as "the protagonist" in Chapter 54, where she is shown to have more complex desires and to be a more difficult character for the narrator than Charles, whose wants are clear (317). However, we spend a lot less time in Sarah's mind than in Charles', and the novel ends with Charles' new view about life, and leaves Sarah largely unexplained.

It's hard for her to be the protagonist when we are constantly reminded that she is an enigma to us, to Charles, and even to the narrator, as he claims in Chapter 54. Charles Smithson At thirty-two years old, Charles is the son of a baronet and sole heir to both his father's diminished fortune and his uncle's considerable one (17). He is a member of the upper class by blood and by money, and he has no need to work for his living; he can afford to keep a manservant around him always, and he has endless amounts of free time to spend however he likes. His hobby of choice is dabbling in academia, specifically paleontology. Growing up, Charles spent more time reading books than most young men, and in his uncle's eyes, Charles' interest in libraries is "sinister" - it seems bizarre to him that someone should choose books over hunting guns. When we meet him, Charles is an engaged man of 32, settling down and preparing to start his own family, but we learn early in the novel that he has had a wild youth.

After a series of wild adventures during his college years, during which he lost his virginity in questionable circumstances and impulsively tried to take Holy Orders to repent of his sin, Charles spent six months in Paris. During this time, he continued to lead a sordid lifestyle and eventually lost all his faith in God (18). During his twenties, Charles, now a "healthy agnostic," moved into a small apartment in Kensington and spent a lot of time traveling abroad (18). His main occupation during this time was "toying with ideas," and he eventually settling upon paleontology as his academic subject of choice (18-19). Charles prefers to think of himself as a "scientific young man" (16), but he is "a born amateur," and is not cut out for serious scientific inquiry (42).

The narrator refers to him as an "ungifted scientist" (45), and also comments that Charles' "distinguishing trait" is "[l]aziness." (19) On the other hand, he is a "quite competent ornithologist and botanist" who takes some of his scientific pursuits seriously: he certainly dresses up for the role of fossil-collector in Chapter 8 (44). Charles is very well educated, and this "educational privilege" supplements a naturally inquiring and fairly intelligent mind (39). This tendency to "ask life too many questions" sometimes manifests itself in a rather melancholy and overly reflective disposition (16). But at heart, Charles is like a child who has never grown up: he has a schoolboy’s sense of humor, and can be quite childlike when he is around people with whom he is comfortable, like his servant, Sam. Charles likes to show off by making "labored puns and innuendoes," and he has to put on a "formal outdoor mask" when he goes out into the world - to meet other scientists, or to spend time with Ernestina (39). Self-doubt plagues Charles, despite his many blessings.

He has travelled, he has become engaged, and he has practiced science - and yet he has accomplished very little, as he realizes in Chapter 7 (38). In terms of love, he is even more of an amateur than he is in science: Ernestina worries about his past affairs, but he has "never really been in love," and his heart is "a place without history" (64). Charles likes to think that he is "not like the vast majority of his peers and contemporaries," but it is ironic that he never succeeds at being as modern as Sarah does, despite the desire to be forward-thinking and not conventional (107). By the end of the novel, however, Charles' personality has developed significantly. He comes to the important realization that there isn't a 'quick fix' that will make him happy, and that marrying Sarah or answering life's "riddle" won't suddenly help him to be fulfilled (366). Instead, he must endure life as best he can - this is a very adult epiphany, and it marks a serious change to his outlook on the world.

Ernestina Freeman Ernestina is a member of the nouveau riche class: she has no title, and her ancestors were not part of the aristocracy, but her father has plenty of money, and her family can afford to live in style and marry her off to the grandson of a baronet. Her parents are incredibly solicitous and overprotective of her, sending her to Lyme Regis for part of the year to cure her supposed consumption. Ernestina resents these trips, because she finds the seaside town very boring compared to the London parties that she is used to. She is "irresistible" to Charles partly because of her pale beauty, but mostly because of her slight deviation from the masses of her pampered, simpering friends - she is a little more willful and coquettish than they are (27). She also is described of having "more [will] than the age allowed for" - that is, she is more stubborn and determined than the majority of her peers, who are blandly obedient to their parents and the dictates of society (28).

Charles and Ernestina do not have very much in common, deep down, but they like each other because they share "a sense of self-irony" and a "superiority of intelligence" (29, 68). In fact, this is one of the only traits that stop Ernestina from being merely "a horrid spoiled child," according to the narrator (29). Nevertheless, she is quite child-like and petulant at times - quite the opposite of Sarah Woodruff, with her calm voice and her deep capacity for suffering. Ernestina's dreams and worries are for the most part mundane, and this is a product of her sheltered life. She believes that she loves Charles, but she expends a lot of worry on speculating about his past loves; she cannot bear the thought that he should have loved "a tragic French countess" or someone like that before her (64). She worries that because she is not from aristocratic stock, like Charles is, that he will think less of her (68). Her goal in life is to get married and have children, but she is terrified by "the payment" that she will have to pay to achieve this: the act of sex (29).

In this way she is supposed to represent the typical feminine Victorian view, and this fear of sex puts her in stark contrast to Sarah Woodruff, who epitomizes quite another class of female: 'the fallen woman'. Ernestina is a 'flatter' character than the others in this novel, because she represents - almost but not quite - a type of girl that was common in her time period. She is very much a product of her environment; Charles asks himself, when he is shocked by her apparent shallowness, "How could the only child of two rich parents be anything else?" (107.) In this novel, Ernestina represents convention where Sarah represents modernity; perhaps we can see Sarah's victory over Charles' heart as an allegory for the changing times, and the emergence of the independent 'modern woman' to replace the delicate Victorian lady. Toward the end of the novel, when Charles breaks off his engagement to her, Ernestina actually shows herself to be surprisingly self-aware. She knows her worse qualities: as she says, "I know I am innocent. I know I am spoiled. I am not a Helen of Troy or a Cleopatra" (296).

Ernestina also shows a deeply sensitive and compassionate side when she notes that Charles has low self-esteem, and that she intended her "bridal present" to him to be some "[f]aith in himself" because he deserves to realize how "generous" and wise he is (297). In the space of a few pages, Ernestina becomes a much more three-dimensional and sympathetic character, and we understand that she is merely young, with the potential to become a good person. Her love for Charles is deeper than we might have thought before, and we realize that we may have misjudged her and treated her unfairly - she is of course very young, and a product of a very sheltered upbringing. Mrs. Poulteney Mrs. Poulteney is the woman who has hired Sarah Woodruff as a companion, on the recommendation of the local vicar. She owns a large house in the town of Lyme Regis, and hates Dirt and Immorality, dealing strictly with the employees who let either of these things enter the house.

Her morality is very cliché and not very sincere: her two mantras are "Civilization is Soap" and "Respectability is what does not give me offense" (31). She gives quite a bit of money to the local church - this, combined with her having taken in Sarah, has given her a reputation for charity. Mrs. Poulteney does not practice charity for charity's sake: she is terrified of Hell, and hopes to do enough good deeds to ensure a place for herself in heaven. The narrator blasts her as "an epitome of all the most crassly arrogant traits of the ascendant British Empire" (23). In Chapter 44, the narrator teases us with a vision of Mrs. Poulteney's afterlife, describing how she is first taken to Heaven, and then thrown down into Hell, where she belongs. Although he later admits that this is just Charles' reverie, we certainly get the sense that he is condemning Mrs. Poulteney for her false charity. Sam Farrow Sam Farrow is Charles' Cockney manservant, whom we first meet in Chapter 7.

He and Charles are quite close - they "kn[o]w each other rather better than the partners in many a supposedly more intimate menage," and the dynamic between them is one of light banter and teasing (37). In Charles' eyes, Sam is someone around whom he can be himself, making ridiculous puns and acting the Don Quixote to Sam's "Sancho Panza" (40). Sam is contrasted with Sam Weller from Dickens' Pickwick Papers. The two share names and jobs but, unlike the cheerful Sam Weller, Sam Farrow "suffer[s]" his role as a servant, and really aspires to higher things. He "fancies himself a Don Juan" and would like very much to seduce Mary, Mrs. Tranter's maid (67). He demonstrates an interest in horses because such an interest, he thinks, is a "sign of his social progress," and he spends "most of his wages on keeping in fashion" (39). Sam falls in love with Mary, and we learn that he has a tender side to him that appreciates her innocence, and doesn't want to hurt her.

He ends up hurting Charles badly for the sake of his marriage to Mary and his future ambitions, but it is also by Sam's action of sending an anonymous tip to Charles' solicitor that Charles and Sarah are brought back together. When we see Sam and Mary after they are married, they seem to be a perfect couple - the domestic married life suits them very well, and we are happy for them, because they are such sympathetic characters. Mrs. Talbot Mrs. Talbot is a positive and sympathetic minor character in The French Lieutenant's Woman. She is a young wife and mother for whom Sarah works for some time as a governess before the novel's action begins, and in whose house Sarah meets the infamous French lieutenant. Mrs. Talbot is described as "extremely kindhearted" but "not very perspicacious," in other words, she has very good intentions but is not the most intelligent or intuitive person - in this way, she acts as a foil for Sarah, who is incredibly good at reading people (47). Although Sarah leaves Mrs. Talbot's house more or less in disgrace, Mrs. Talbot is always very kind to her, and even offered her the position again after the Frenchman abandoned Sarah.

She is very worried about Sarah's well being; in Chapter 9 we see her lying awake, terrified that Sarah will end up penniless, chased, and starved, like the destitute heroines of the romantic novels that she reads. It is Mrs. Talbot who encourages Sarah to take up a place in Mrs. Poulteney's household. Aunt Tranter Ernestina's aunt lives in Lyme Regis, giving Ernestina's parents an excuse to send their daughter to the seaside for a consumptive cure (although Ernestina is perfectly healthy). She is a kind lady, whom "[n]obody could dislike" because she is so innocent, caring, and profoundly optimistic (27). She plays the "flat-footed nurse" to Ernestina's Juliet; Ernestina resents being sent away from London society to Aunt Tranter's old-fashioned house, and she displays this resentment through undeserved anger toward her aunt. Aunt Tranter is very protective of and loyal toward Ernestina, and although she initially likes Charles, she curses him more strongly than anyone else when he jilts Ernestina. Mary Mary works in Mrs. Tranter's household as a maid.

Good-natured and good-humored, she is very well liked by Mrs. Tranter and by the rest of the staff. When Ernestina comes to stay, however, Mary is no longer the favorite in the house (at least not in the eyes of Mrs. Tranter, Ernestina's aunt), and so she resents Ernestina's presence. She also envies Ernestina her fashionable dresses from London, and her handsome fiancé - Mary thinks Charles is too good for Ernestina. Mary is sexually appealing - we first hear of her via Sam, who certainly finds her attractive - and seems to embrace her sexuality in a different way to Ernestina, who desperately shuts out all thoughts of sexual contact, and also to Sarah Woodruff, who is a martyr-like figure. Mary enjoys flirting with the local boys, and their efforts to solicit kisses are "not...very successfully resisted" (65). Where Ernestina is delicate and Sarah is sallow, Mary is vibrant and rosy - which makes her, in the eyes of the narrator, "by far the prettiest" of the three girls (64). She is also very innocent, and her relationship with Sam Farrow is beautifully tender.

It seems by the end of the novel that justice is done when Mary and Sam are climbing the social ladder, and living in a nice house with two beautiful children. Mary is delighted that she is richer than her parents, and that she can afford her own maid - we are happy for her and for Sam. Dr. Grogan An Irishman and a confirmed "old bachelor," Dr. Grogan is well liked in Lyme Regis. He flirts with Aunt Tranter and tends to Mrs. Poulteney's ills, and is equally skillful at keeping his heart from getting entangled in a love affair and dealing with his patients' different temperaments. He attends the surprise party at the White Lion for Aunt Tranter in Chapter 19. It is Dr. Grogan who first suggests to Charles that Sarah might be trying to hurt herself to inspire pity in the young man, whom she finds attractive. Most of Charles' doubts about Sarah stem from Dr. Grogan, whom he often tries to argue against but is also often persuaded by. When Charles jilts Ernestina, Dr.

Grogan is the stern voice of reason, condemning him for having made Ernestina suffer, and encoring Charles to try and become a better person so he can atone for his sins. Millie Millie is a maid in Mrs. Poulteney's service, whom Sarah saves from being fired. Millie is a ploughman's daughter with ten siblings who all live in bitter poverty. Sarah takes her under her wing while she is living at Mrs. Poulteney's house, and they share a bed. Mrs. Martha Endicott Mrs. Endicott is the owner of a hotel in Exeter where Sarah goes to stay in Chapter 36 once she leaves Lyme Regis. Mrs. Endicott is "rapacious" and overcharges for her rooms, but conveniently doesn't inquire into her guests' private business, which makes her hotel a good place to hide. Mr. Freeman Ernestina's father is a wealthy businessman who has managed to move his family into the upper class of London, despite the fact that he has no connection to nobility, and his only claim to status is wealth. Mr. Freeman is skeptical of Charles' status as a gentleman; he values wealth over aristocratic blood.

He is very protective of his daughter, and when Charles jilts Ernestina, Ernestina has to restrain her father from completely demolishing Charles' name and taking him to court. Sarah (the prostitute) Sarah is a prostitute whom Charles hires in Chapters 39-40 while he is in London. She bears a vague physical resemblance to Sarah Woodruff, which is why Charles is drawn to her. She has a daughter but no husband, and is selling sex to make ends meet for her and her child. The narrator The author intrudes frequently into the storyline when he makes comments about the act of writing the novel, but he appears just twice in person - firstly in Chapter 55, and then again in Chapter 61. Fowles pokes fun at himself, calling himself "a very minor figure," and using hyperbole to reassure us that he is as "minimal...as a gamma-ray particle" (361). The rest of the description in Chapter 61 is not positive, and paints Fowles as merely a "successful impresario" or a flashy magician (362).

The author has the power to manipulate the time of the narrative, and to decide - to some degree - on the actions of the characters. Mr. Montague Montague is Charles' young solicitor, who accompanies him to the meeting in Chapter 56 with Ernestina's father's solicitors. He is sympathetic toward Charles, but believes that he must accept the punishment for what he has done. Montague encourages Charles to go abroad, and Charles takes him up on this advice at the end of Chapter 56. Dante Gabriel Rossetti Rossetti is a famous artist from the Pre-Raphaelite movement. He notices Sarah on the street when she is pregnant with Lalage, and asks if he can paint her. At the end of the novel, Sarah is living in his house and acting as his assistant; she is incredibly grateful to him for offering her a wonderful new life. Lalage Lalage is the baby daughter of Charles and Sarah, the product of their first sexual encounter in the Endicott Family Hotel. Sarah conceals the existence of this daughter from Charles until he comes to visit her at her new residence in Rossetti's house.

The French Lieutenant's Woman: Character Profiles | Novelguide The French Lieutenant's Woman: Character Profiles Total Votes: 321 Aunt Tranter (also referred to as Mrs Tranter) Aunt Tranter is the kindly aunt of Ernestina and employer of Mary, and lives in Lyme Regis. Charles Smithson Charles is one of the central characters and is a Victorian gentleman (from the higher echelons of English society). The novel begins with him apparently happily engaged to Ernestina, but his growing attraction for Sarah puts this forthcoming marriage into doubt. Dr. Grogan Dr. Grogan advises Charles to distance himself from Sarah and implies she may be suffering from hysteria. He is extremely judgemental of Charles when he later breaks off his engagement to Ernestina. Ernestina Freeman She is the only child of rich upper middle-class parents and is betrothed to Charles at the beginning of the novel. She is characterized as conventional and somewhat spoiled. French Lieutenant’s Woman (See the entry for Sarah Woodruff) Mary Mary is Aunt Tranter’s maid and she goes on to form a relationship with Sam (who is Charles’s manservant). Mr. Freeman This is the father of Ernestina and is extremely wealthy.

He is, however, regarded as ‘trade’ – rather than a gentleman – as his father was a draper and he has carried on with the family business. Mrs. Bella Tomkins Mrs Tomkins becomes the wife of Charles’s uncle. This late marriage and the threat of the couple having children mean that Charles’s prospects are diminished. If they have children, Charles is no longer his uncle’s sole heir. Mrs. Poulteney The narrator informs the readers that she could have been in the Gestapo if she had been born in a different time and place. She is Sarah’s employer in Lyme Regis and represents the worst failings of Victorian society: she is hypocritical, opinionated but ignorant, and cruel to those in her power. Mrs. Talbot Mrs. Talbot employed Sarah as a governess and is a minor character. Sarah cared for the injured Varguennes (the French lieutenant) at the Talbot home. Sam Farrow Sam is the manservant of Charles until he resigns. He goes on to work for Mr Freeman (Ernestina’s father) in his large store on Oxford Street. He also marries Mary and they have two children together.

Sarah Woodruff This is the eponymous heroine who remains an ambiguous character throughout the novel. The readers’ perceptions of Sarah arise largely from Charles’s understanding and misunderstanding of her. As convention often clouds his perceptions, Sarah’s thoughts are allowed to remain unknowable. She is also independent and is willing to lie to preserve her position. She is an outcast in Lyme Regis society and this is seen to be both through the small-mindedness of its residents and Sarah’s desire to stand apart from others. Sir Robert Smithson This is the uncle of Charles. Varguennes The Lit Quest: The French Lieutenant's Woman Wednesday, December 7, 2011 The French Lieutenant's Woman I've been wanting to share this next one with you for some time now, and it's the perfect follow-up to my post about Metanarrative. It's been a while since I read The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles, but I still remember how much I loved it upon my first reading. I've now reexamined the story and am eager to add it to my list of Classics. The main character of the story is Charles Smithson, a Victorian gentleman who begins the story with a suitable fiance.

The title character is Sarah Woodruff, a social outcast due to her past relationship with a lieutenant who abandoned her and tarnished her reputation. As fate would have it, Charles is captivated by this mysterious woman and eventually enters into an affair with her. In many ways, the characters and setting of the story fit into a typical Victorian design. Based in England in 1867, it is reminiscent of Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, and other authors of that era. However, Fowles is clearly satirizing Victorian literature and fashioning a Postmodern work of brilliance in this Victorian mold. The primary method of satire is Fowles' unique and amusing narration. The narrator constantly breaks in and out of the story in metanarrative , dispelling the fantasy. Eventually, he confesses that he is actually writing the story in 1967, yet he claims to have no authority over his characters. In a truly unique move, Fowles actually places himself temporarily in the story. Near the end, he describes a man who is sitting on the train across from the main character and studying him quizzically.

He reveals that he, the narrator, is the mysterious man on the train and as he looks at Charles, he says, "What the devil am I going to do with you?" Then, he proceeds to weigh the possible outcomes of the story. Memorably, he eventually settles the matter by offering three alternative endings, which he suggests are all equally valid. I thoroughly enjoyed this narrative style. I love the ways he poked fun at Victorian literature, and I often chuckled at the narrator's subjective comments that balk from a tradition of "narrator as god." He also filled the text with countless literary allusions, which I, as a fellow lit lover, absolutely loved. Every chapter begins with at least one quote from a famous piece of literature, and at times he directly explains its connection to the story. His characters are equally well read and frequently refer to various works of their time, such as Madame Bovary and Persuasion. Another important aspect of this story is the ambiguity, which plays a critical role in the novel. Fowles pushes readers to consider that things cannot always be separated into distinct categories. It is not always a matter of right or wrong, good or bad, yes or no.

Sarah is the best example of this in the novel. Through gossip in the town, we hear many explanations and opinions about her relationship with the French lieutenant, but none of them are ever confirmed. Moreover, the shame she bears from this relationship is presented at times as her source of victimization, and at other times, it's her source of power. But perhaps the greatest ambiguity of all these possible motives is that they do not necessarily contradict each other. It is conceivable that they may all be true, or at least partially true. Moreover, there is an implicit suggestion that one explanation does not exist, that there is not one “true” reason for Sarah’s actions. This essentially borders the Postmodern theory of "truth" and "untruth," in which there are multiple dimensions we perceive rather than one set guideline. Publishing this in 1969, Fowles was ahead of his time. I believe that his work was monumental in the transition from Modern to Postmodern literature, and his brilliance is even more striking in consideration of the innovation it brought. The French Lieutenant's Woman is about so much more than its plot. In fact, the plot is the least memorable aspect of the story for me.

Instead, Fowles challenged the boundaries of what a story can be and ushered in a new era of writing. This novel is lightly entertaining and deeply philosophical at the same time, which is not an easy thing to accomplish. I highly recommend it to all! Posted by Love Poem by Donald Hall | The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor When you fall in love, you jockey your horse You tease the black bear. Reading the Monitor, you scan the obituaries looking for your name. "Love Poem" by Donald Hall, from White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Selected Poems 1946-2006. © Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. Reprinted with permission. ( buy now ) It's the week of Valentine's Day, a week in which we've been talking about love stories  in literature and in real life. Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West met in December of 1922 at a dinner party. Over the next 19 years  until Virginia's suicide  they were friends and lovers, and they exchanged many hundreds of letters.

On this day in 1935, Virginia wrote a letter to Vita: Friday 52 Tavistock Sqre. I'm longing for an adventure, dearest Creature. But would like to stipulate for at least 48 1/2 minutes alone with you. Not to say or do anything in particular. Mere affection  to the memory of the porpoise in the pink window. I've been so buried under with dust and rubbish. But now here's the spring ... My mind is filled with dreams of romantic meetings. D'you remember once sitting at Kew in a purple storm? ... So let me know, and love me better and better, and put another rung on the ladder and let me climb up. After she met Virginia, Vita wrote in a letter: "I simply adore Virginia Woolf. At first you think she is plain, then a sort of spiritual beauty imposes itself on you, and you find a fascination in watching her. ... I have quite lost my heart." Virginia captured everything she loved about Vita by making her the basis for the title character in Orlando (1928), her novel about an Elizabethan nobleman who suddenly becomes a woman at the age of thirty.

John Fowles' novel The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969) is the story of Sarah Woodruff, a Victorian governess in a town on the southwest coast of England. Sarah is mysterious, a loner; she spends her time off from work standing on the sea wall, staring out at the ocean. The town loves to gossip about her  they say that a French sailor had taken advantage of her and that she is a fallen woman. But Sarah captures the attention of Charles Smithson, an amateur paleontologist with a boring fiancée named Ernestina, who falls for Sarah and her story. The French Lieutenant's Woman has been called a postmodern love story, because the author sometimes shows up in the narrative, and there is more than one possible ending. Another great love story is The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald, ( books by this author ) . Jay Gatsby builds himself a life of luxury and entertainment, with every detail perfect, for one end only: to impress the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan, whom he met when he was a young officer and she was an unmarried Southern belle. She has since married Tom Buchanan.

Gatsby arranges to meet Daisy again through her cousin, Nick Carraway, who is Gatsby's neighbor and who narrates the story. Gatsby and Daisy are reunited, and they have an affair. Tom is furious. He confronts Gatsby and exposes him as a fraud. Jay Gatsby is actually Jimmy Gatz, a self-made man who comes from a small town in North Dakota. After the confrontation, Daisy and Gatsby drive back home together, and the car hits Tom's lover Myrtle and kills her. Tom is enraged, and he tells Myrtle's husband that Gatsby killed her. Nick realizes that it wasn't Gatsby who hit Myrtle  that Daisy was actually driving  but Gatsby takes the blame, even though Daisy has abandoned him and gone back to Tom. The next day Gatsby is in the pool at his mansion, pining for Daisy, and Myrtle's husband comes to Gatsby's house, walks up to the pool, and shoots him. Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® « » “Writers end up writing stories—or rather, stories' shadows—and they're grateful if they can, but it is not enough.

Nothing the writer can do is ever enough” —Joy Williams “I want to live other lives. I've never quite believed that one chance is all I get. Writing is my way of making other chances.” —Anne Tyler “Writing is a performance, like singing an aria or dancing a jig” —Stephen Greenblatt “All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald “Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up.” —John Edgar Wideman “In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.” —Denise Levertov “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” —E.L. Doctorow “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” —E.L. Doctorow “Let's face it, writing is hell.” —William Styron “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” —Thomas Mann “Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials.” —Paul Rudnick “Writing is a failure.

Writing is not only useless, it's spoiled paper.” —Padget Powell “Writing is very hard work and knowing what you're doing the whole time.” —Shelby Foote “I think all writing is a disease. You can't stop it.” —William Carlos Williams “Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck.” —Iris Murdoch “The less conscious one is of being ‘a writer,’ the better the writing.” —Pico Iyer “Writing is…that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.” —Pico Iyer “Writing is my dharma.” —Raja Rao “Writing is a combination of intangible creative fantasy and appallingly hard work.” —Anthony Powell “I think writing is, by definition, an optimistic act.” —Michael Cunningham sponsor

Question: Who was title character Sarah Woodruff?
Answer: The French Lieutenant’s