Quotations: This independence of the characters is stressed several times by Fowles, for example in chapter 13:
“to be free myself, I must give (Charles), and Tina, and Sarah, even the abominable Mrs. Poulteney, their freedoms as well…I do not fully control these creatures of my mind…” (p. 98)
Chapter 55 sees the personae of Fowles make another entry into the narrative, as he stares at Charles in the train, contemplating what to do with his character:
"(...) What the devil am I going to do with you? I have already thought of ending Charles' career right here and now; of leaving him for eternity on his way to London. But the conventions of Victorian fiction allow, allowed no place for the open, the inconclusive ending; and I preached earlier of the freedom characters must be given." (p. 389)
Dr. Grogan from the Origin of species:
As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequent recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. “You can, and wish to be, naturally selected."
Charles ponders this, looking out over the moonlit bay, and after a long silence, replies, "Perhaps you are correct, good doctor. I think I see your point. I take it, then, that you are saying that I am hanging on to Ernestina out of convenience, or even fear. She is unquestioning, naive, and loving, the perfect wife for the perfect Victorian gentleman, the epitome of the age which I, just moments ago, was convinced I was a part of. Doctor, I am not that perfect Victorian gentleman."
"And Sarah--," Doctor Grogan begins, after taking a sip of his toddy. "Sarah is the evolved species which Darwin has predicted. She has escaped the Victorian Era." Gazing into the dancing flames of the fire, Charles muses for several moments, and then continues. "So Sarah is not a temptation dangled like a carrot before the unknowing jackass, but a catalyst. She has escaped, and she sees the same potential, the same desire, in me. She is leading me. And all the while I assumed that I was the one helping her. Does this make me in your eyes the transition between the Victorian Age and a more liberal age to follow?".