Analysis Of Marginalized Females In Love, Again

Doris Lessing (1919-), a distinguished British woman writer, won the "2007 Nobel Prize in Literature" when she was eighty-eight years old. During her writing career Lessing has created numerous novels, short stories, essays, dramas, autobiographies, etc., which have covered most of the important issues in the 20^th century, such as racial problem, amphoteric relationship, environmental pollution, youth violence and ageing problem. Lessing has made a great contribution to world literature.The novel love, again, published in 1996, was written by Lessing at the age of 76. This time Lessing shows her particular attention towards marginalized existence—aged woman, colored woman, and problem youth. Her unique female consciousness runs through the whole book. Through the vivid depiction of the psychological activities of some marginalized females, Lessing presents the readers the unfair treatment of women as well as their courageous resistance against the patriarchal society.In a male-dominated society, the main characters in the novel are situated on the margin of marginalized position. From the angle of feminism, this thesis mainly explores the inner world of the double-marginalized females, describes their insufferable anguish, analyzes the social problems they are confronted with and points out that the source of the unfair treatment lies in the traditional ineradicable patriarchy.The thesis is composed of three chapters.Chapter One deals with the aged woman Sarah's unspeakable anguish. The protagonist Sarah, a sixty-five-year-old woman, unexpectedly falls in love with different men twice; however, she has to give up her final love because of the age distance and social prejudice. Through her love experiences, this chapter mainly analyzes the aged woman's painful struggling psychological activities in love, especially in Eros, indicates the perplexity and unfair treatment of aged women in Eros, and points out the harm to women's physical and mental health.Chapter Two discusses the colored woman Julie's plight and her resistance against oppression. Julie comes from a French colony, successively loved and abandoned by two French officers on account of their different family status. Her identity as a complete person is denied and so is the colonial culture that she represents. Colored females' right of enjoying love is bereft and the equal status as a human being is subverted. Despite their constant resistance, they are still situated in the lowest bottom of society and still confronted with many problems.Chapter Three states the influence of mothers upon daughters and indicates the significance of building harmonious mother-daughter relationship. By analyzing the conflict between problem youth Joyce, widowed wife Sarah as well as the little girl and their mothers, it points out family education's great influence upon daughter's physical and mental development. Mother's role as an accomplice of patriarchy greatly affects daughter's personality and twists her mind, hence the appearance of problem youth and other social issues. Therefore, to build a harmonious mother-daughter relationship has a particular important significance in constructing female identity.All the analysis justifies an obvious view that in such a male-centered patriarchal society females, especially the disadvantaged groups of them, are still being discriminated and confronted with many problems. It is the traditional social norms and morals that severely hinder females' physical and mental health. Therefore, a free and equal society requires more concern and love for those marginalized females.