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Development of Major Female Characters in the Novels of A Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky Magisterská diplomová práce Klára Němcová Klára 2012 Klára Němcová 20 12 12 Hřbet Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Klára Němcová Development of Major Female Characters in the Novels of A. S. Byatt and Margaret Drabble Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: prof. Mgr. Milada Franková, CSc., M.A. 2012 1 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………… 2 I would like to thank my supervisor, prof. Mgr. Milada Franková, CSc., M.A., for her kindness, valuable advice, patience and support. 3 Table of Contents Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….. 5 1. THEORETICAL APPROACH ……………………………………………… 6 1.1. Role of character in literary work ……………………………………. 6 1.2. Introduction to feminism ……………………………………………... 12 1.2.1. Feminism in the novels: Are Byatt and Drabble feminist writers? ……………………………………...................................... 18 2. AUTHORS AND THEIR WORKS ………………………………………….. 21 2.1. Antonia Susan Byatt – life and work ………………………………..... 21 2.2. The Virgin in the Garden / Still Life – plot summary ............................ 23 2.3. Margaret Drabble – life and work …………………………………..... 26 2.4. The Radiant Way / A Natural Curiosity – plot summary ...................... 29 3. DEVELOPMENT OF FEMALE CHARACTERS.......................................... 32 3.1. A. S. Byatt: The Virgin in the Garden and Still Life .............................. 32 3.2. Margaret Drabble: The Radiant Way and A Natural Curiosity ............. 43 3.3. Comparison of female characters in all novels...................................... 61 3.4. Comparison of Byatt and Drabble's portrayal of female characters ...................................................................................................... 67 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 72 Works cited ............................................................................................................... 74 Summary .................................................................................................................. 78 Resumé ..................................................................................................................... 79 Appendix .................................................................................................................. 80 4 Introduction This thesis analyzes the major female characters in the novels of two contemporary British women writers and sisters at the same time – A. S. Byatt and Margaret Drabble. It focuses on the development of the major female characters in the novels The Virgin in the Garden (1978) and Still Life (1985) by Byatt and The Radiant Way (1987) and A Natural Curiosity (1989) by Drabble. Its aim is to examine how much the female characters develop throughout the novels and to what extent this development is limited by the social environment, family background and relationships with men. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part is conceived as a theoretical part and it deals with the general role of a character within a literary work. It explains the term “character” itself and analyzes its importance for a literary work. The first part of the thesis also touches upon the topic of feminism as it examines whether Byatt and Drabble are feminist writers or if there are at least some feminist features in their novels. The second part of the thesis is devoted to the authors and their literary career. It offers a brief introduction to their lives and work and it also contains plot summaries of the novels. Finally, the last part conceived as a practical part analyzes the major female characters in the four novels mentioned above. This part deals with the maturation of the characters during the course of the stories. It also attempts to find out what are the similarities and differences between Byatt and Drabble‟s portrayal of female characters in general. 5 1. THEORETICAL APPROACH 1.1. Role of Character in Literary Work As Chris Baldick states in his Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms, the term „character‟ stands for “a personage in a narrative or dramatic work” (Baldick 33). A. F. Scott in the Current Literary Terms – A Concise Dictionary adds a piece of information that the term „character‟ derives from a Greek word kharaktér (Scott 48). Thus characters are all the „people‟ who appear in a novel or any other literary work. The character creates an illusion of behaving like a real person; the reader can either identify with the character and feel sympathy towards him or despise his behaviour and actions, on the other hand. Nevertheless, what the character looks like and how he or she behaves is fully up to the author. As E. M. Forster claims in his Aspects of the Novel: “The novelist, unlike many of his colleagues, makes up a number of word- masses roughly describing himself, gives them names and sex, assigns them plausible gestures, and causes them to speak by the use of inverted commas, and perhaps to behave consistently. These word-masses are his characters” (Forster 54-5). I have to agree with Forster at this point as it is self-evident that the characters must be created by somebody. The author gives lives to all his characters and in some cases he also uses his own experience and thus may make the characters partially or fully autobiographical. Wellek and Warren make a comparison between the fictitious character and a real person and they claim: “A character in a novel differs from a historical figure or a figure in real life. He is made only of the sentences describing him or put into his mouth by the author. He has no past, no future, and sometimes no continuity of life” (Wellek and Warren 25). Thus they share the same point of view with Forster as they all claim the importance of the author in the process of creating fictitious characters. 6 How much would be revealed from the lives of the characters and how much would stay a secret depends on the author as well. Because it is the author who thoroughly invents and selects all the information that readers receive. At this point Forster says: “People in a novel can be understood completely by the reader, if the novelist wishes; their inner as well as their outer life can be exposed. […] The novelist is allowed to remember and understand everything, if it suits him. He knows all the hidden life” (Forster 57-8). Sometimes the author provides readers with a detailed description of the physical appearance of his characters so that they can imagine or visualize them but it is impossible for the reader to imagine the character in the same way the author did. Who can provide us with a certain kind of „help‟ in this situation is the film industry. As lots of films based on famous novels were and are being shot, the „problem‟ with the visualization of the characters is partially solved; the characters are portrayed by the actors. So for example, people who have seen the film The Great Gatsby in 1974 would probably visualize Jay Gatsby as Robert Redford. Some novels remain bestsellers in the course of decades which certainly makes new film adaptations possible. The tastes of the viewers as well as the technical possibilities of film industry have been continuously changing; the same story, thus, appears in a variety of different depictions. Naturally, several actors change in playing the part of the same hero. One of the most repeatedly filmed novels is Ian Fleming‟s story of James Bond. The part of this famous hero was played by six actors in the course of fifty years – Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. How should we, then, identify with so many performers of the same character if moreover each of these actors has rather a different physical appearance? The identification in this case is quite difficult; more or less it depends on the viewer 7 himself which one of these actors would meet his own James Bond vision. Moreover, the older generation of film goers would probably prefer Connery as opposed to young people whose ideas of Bond would correspond with Craig‟s portrayal of the hero. Thus, it can be claimed that the identification with the film protagonist as well as his visualization depend on the personality of the viewer and also on the current time period and trends in fashion, technical field, etc. Concerning the development of the characters throughout the story, E. M. Forster divides the characters into the so called „flat‟ and „round‟ characters. His definition of the flat characters is as follows: “Flat characters were called „humours‟ in the seventeenth century, and are sometimes called types, and sometimes caricatures. In their purest form, they are constructed round a single idea or quality. […] They are easily remembered by the reader afterwards. They remain in his mind as unalterable for the reason that they were not changed by circumstances” (Forster 73-4). Flat characters are usually minor static characters that do not go through any important changes or development during the story. However, they are important for the whole story even though they play just a marginal role. Forster sees them mainly in the comic roles claiming that “it is only round people who are fit to perform tragically for any length of time and can move us to any feelings
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