John Fowles: French Lieutenants Woman

John Fowles
John Robert Fowles was born March 31, 1926 in Leigh-on-Sea, a small town located about 40 miles from London in the county of Essex, England. He recalls the English suburban culture of the 1930s as oppressively conformist and his family life as intensely conventional. Of his childhood, Fowles says "I have tried to escape ever since."
Fowles attended Bedford School and the University of Edinburgh. Fowles began compulsory military service and within two years was promoted to lieutenant, and he was at II World War.
Fowles then spent four years at Oxford, where he discovered the writings of the French existentialists. He admired Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, whose writings corresponded with his own ideas about conformity and the will of the individual. He received a degree in French in 1950 and began to consider a career as a writer and he worked as a teacher.
The time spent in Greece was of great importance to Fowles. During his tenure on the island he began to write poetry and to overcome a long-time repression about writing. Between 1952 and 1960 he wrote several novels but offered none to a publisher, considering them all incomplete in some way and too lengthy.
His works:The Collector,The Aristos, Daniel Martin, Poems, Mantissa
The Magus has perhaps generated the most enduring interest, becoming something of a cult novel, particularly in the U.S.
With parallels to Shakespeare's The Tempest and Homer's The Odyssey, The Magus is a traditional quest story made complex by the incorporation of dilemmas involving freedom, hazard and a variety of existential uncertainties. Fowles compared it to a detective story because of the way it teases the reader: "You mislead them ideally to lead them into a greater truth...it's a trap which I hope will hook the reader," he says.
The most commercially successful of Fowles' novels, The French Lieutenant's Woman, appeared in 1969. Since 1968, Fowles has lived on the southern coast of England in the small harbor town of Lyme Regis (the setting for The French Lieutenant's Woman). His interest in the town's local history resulted in his appointment as curator of the Lyme Regis Museum in 1979, a position he filled for a decade.

Today Fowles continues to write--Wormholes, a book of essays, was published in May 1998--and devote his time to literature, conservation, natural history and a variety of other interests.

„French Lieutenants Woman" is a work of historical fiction that clearly represents the Victorian Age in England. The story represents the history and culture of England in the 1860's and contrasts elements of the Victorian Age with the present, with the inner plot representing the past and the outer plot representing the present.
Fowles knows the Victorian era very well, but he doesn’t use only the philosophy and thoughts of Victorian era. When he talks about his protagonists, about his feelings and thinking, he uses a modern psycology as well. This book is like a sociologic study of the era. In one way it is an encyclopaedia of opinions, customs, morality and problems of the people who lived in the Victorian era.
Text oscillates between the author, protagonists and reader. Fowles uses differents narrative methods, talks with the reader, the reader is like the one protagonist of the book.The book shows us a contrast between the one person and the whole society. In the inner plot we find era many elements of the Victorian, such as the way the gentleman Charles asks permission of Ernestine's parents to speak to her privately. Thus in 'The Origin of Species' (1859) he tactfully avoided any discussion of human origins, in the 'Descent of Man' (1871) he made his opinion clear: man is animal." (Longman, p.1945) Dr. Grogan's ivestigation of Freud's theories of psychology were also key to the stories historical context. It places the story in the Victorian era, however since Sigmond Freud was not born until 1856, I doubt he developed the theories mentioned by Dr. Grogan in the 1860's, the decade the story takes place. Mrs. Poultney is the stereotypic Victorian woman and her references to what is godly and seemly are clearly Victorian as well. "The terms 'lady' and 'gentleman' had enormous significance, particularly to those aspiring to those ranks and to those in danger of slipping out of them." ("Victorian Ladies and Gentleman," Longman, p.1886)

French Lieutenants Woman

The romantic story begins in the 1860's with Charles working in the field as a paleontologist. Upon his return to his office, he drops his work and calls, "Grab the horses Sam, were going to Miss Ernetines!" Charles goes to Ernestines and asks her parents if she may speak with her privately. Ernestine is the daughter of Mr. Freeman, a wealthy businessman. She is a bright young girl however naive about the world. In a private atrium Charles asks Ernestine "if she would have this crusty old scientist for her husband." Ernestine accepts and the engagement begins.

One day while Charles and Ernestine are walking on the beach, it is storming. Charles sees a woman on the outcliff overlooking the sea. The waves are swelling and he fears for her safety. He approaches the woman and begs her to retreat to safety. Their eyes meet briefly, a flame is kindled. She is Sara Woodruff, the French Lieutenants Woman. Charles hears about her reputation from the local gossip, but refuses to believe anything bad about her. He asks his friend Dr. Grogan about her. Dr.Grogan ponders some of Freud's theories about psychology and tells Charles that he believes her to have a mental disease known as melancholy. Charles meets with Sara in the woods from time to time and Sara tells Charles he must never speak of their meetings. Sara returns to her boarding house. She lives with a prudish Victorian woman, Mrs. Poultney, who scolds her for such unseemly behavior. Charles and Sara continue to meet and Sara confides in Charles about how she got her reputation. Apparently she gave herself to a man she was not wed to and he left her and went to France. For years she awaited his return, walking the outcliff overlooking the sea. She feared that he would not return for she discovered he was married. 1.end - Charles go to see his uncle sir Thomson, who tells him that he has married, so there is a posibility that Charles would not be the heir of all his fortune. When he goes back to Lyme, he passes across the Exter, the place where Sara is living now. But is raining cats and dogs, so Charles decides to go to Lyme without pass there any time. He decided to marry Ernestine and he gave her a beautiful brooch. And he talked her all about Sarah… Sir Thomson had two sons, so Charles must to do the business of Ernestine‘s father and Mrs. Poultney, when she died , she went to the hell.

2.end –because is raining cats and dogs, Charles dicedes to paas a night in Exter and he visits Sara. They make love and after this night Charles decides to stay with Sara and he sends Sam to give her a letter and a beautiful brooch. And Sam cames back without any answer, because instead of giving her a letter and a brooch, he give the brooch to his girlfriend Mary. Charles leaves to Lyme to break off his engagement to Ernestine. Upon breaking the engagement, Charles has to sign a legal document declining the right to be considered a gentleman. The document becomes the property of Ernestine, and she is free to publish it if she desires. Sara runs off and when Charles came back, he didn‘t find her. Charles decides to travel.

In the begining in the Europe, after he goes to America. And one day he recieves the note that a private dedective has found Sara in London. After many questions Charles forgives Sara, he finds out that he has a daughter with Sara and I assume they lived happily-ever-after.

3.end – Charles only passes around the new home of Sara and h e goes away without any talk. 4.end - Charles talks with Sara about their relationship, their lives and he realise that she is not able to love him, she does not know to love someone, only to owe him. He realise that she offers him only a friendship instead of love. He goes away angry, back to America. Theme
In this novel, Fowles is interested in the literary genre of the
nineteenth-century romantic or gothic novel and succeeds in
reproducing: typical Victorian characters, situations and dialogue,Victorian attitudes towards women, economics, science and philosophy. But his perception of the genre is touched with typical twentieth-century irony. His thematic concerns range from the relationship between life and art and the artist and his creation to the isolation that results from an individual struggling for selfhood. Major Characters
Sarah Woodruff - She is also referred to as "Tragedy" or "The
French Loot’n’nt’s Tenant’s Hore." She is the scarlet woman of
Lyme, the outcast dismissed by society because of her affair with a
French sailor, she is the mysterious pariah of the story. Her character is that of a mysterious or evil woman commonly found in a Victorian novel. She is almost totally rejected by the small society in Lyme, and relies solely on the charity of Miss Poulteney. This position is an interesting one, because it is more or less a choice made by Sarah herself. She is a virgin when Charles meets her, and the story of the lieutenant is not quite correct. Sarah is trying to shape her own identity, and in doing so, she has to reject the rigid conventions of society. She chooses the role of the martyr, suffering for a set of ideas about how things could have been. Even though she is the character mentioned in the title, Charles seems to be a more likely protagonist in the story. Sarah does not develop in any remarkable way, as her conception of her own identity is more or less satisfying. She is able to choose conscously her own role, and chooses knowingly what consequences it may have, in contrast to Charles, who suffers under the unwritten and invisible conventions of society.

Charles Smithson - He is a wealthy Victorian gentlemen and heir to a title, he is a traditional romantic hero. He is interested in Darwin and paleontology and considers himself to be intellectually superior to other Victorian men, as he is one of the few who holds scientifically advanced ideas. He is engaged to Ernestina Freeman but is attracted to the mysterious Miss Woodruff. He is unhappy with the way his life is unfolding, yet he is extremely sensitive and intelligent. He is an insecure man constantly analyzing his life. Charles has two contrasting conceptions of sexuality: One of restraint, and one where visiting whores is acceptable, a typical contradiction of the Victorian age. As is typical in the romantic novel, love is the main theme for Charles’ development in the book. And because of love to Sarah, he makes a move from being a traditional Victorian character to being a more aware individual who is confronted with the decisions of existentialism. His old Victorian worldview of stable truths are shattered and replaced by a heterogeneous conception of the world as Fowles manipulates his character with the thoughts and ideas of the 20th century.
Ernestina Freeman - Charles’ fiancée. She is pretty, coy and
intelligent, but at times she tends to reveal her youth and naivete. She likes to think of herself as a modern woman but her attitudes
are similar to most of the young Victorian women who behaved in
a proper manner. She is the character of conformity. She is trying to live by the posited values made by society, instead of trying to discover her own identity. She is limited in several ways, sexually inhibited and constrained by the social conventions that she lives by. She is the classic Victorian lady: soft, weak-willed on the surface, shy and non-sexual. Mrs. Poulteney - A cruel old woman, she takes great delight in
harassing her domestic staff. She believes herself to be an upholder of
Christian virtues yet in reality, she is a hypocrite who reluctantly
helps people only out of a show of charity. Sarah in employed by
her in the position of a companion. She succeeds in making
Sarah’s life miserable by constantly reminding her that she is an
outcast. Dr. Grogan - An intelligent, friendly man who befriends Charles. The younger man finds him to be a sympathetic listener. Dr. Grogan empathizes with Sarah but finds her behavior too
outrageous to be taken seriously. He is refreshingly unconventional
in his views for a Victorian although he belongs more to an earlier
age that was more liberal in many ways.

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?".