An Analysis Of Sisterhood In Margaret Drabble’s Works Jerusalem The Golden And The Seven Sisters

Margaret Drabble (1939-) is considered as one of the most prominent and prolific women writers in contemporary English literature and has achieved great respect as a writer and critic. This thesis chooses Drabble’s two novels, Jerusalem the Golden (1967) and The Seven Sisters (2002) to probe on sisterhood of modern intellectual women. The questions underpinning my research are:why do modern intellectual women seek sisterhood and what are the significances of sisterhood in Margaret Drabble’s writing?Drabble is acclaimed as a "woman’s writer" and "cautious feminist" who concerns sisterhood, one branch of feminism, and her two novels Jerusalem the Golden and The Seven Sisters present sisterhood of modern intellectual women including the young and middle-aged ones. So far, the Drabble scholarship has not touched upon the issue of sisterhood in these two works with systematic research. Therefore, a tentative study of it is carried out in my thesis.This thesis will analyze three reasons that heroines seek sisterhood. Influenced by the view of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex and the thought and writing styles of Victorian novelists, she focuses on these three reasons in her works:the absence of ideal male characters, the depression of patriarchal society and the educational background of female characters. By close reading, I analyze the concrete manifestations of sisterhood in Jerusalem the Golden and The Seven Sisters and summarize three modes of it:intimate classmates who are like sisters, mother and daughter who are like sisters and lonely old ladies who are like sisters. No matter young ladies or middle-aged ones, they can find the value of sisterhood. Based on the above analysis, I discuss the significances of sisterhood in Margaret Drabble’s writing from three perspectives:the author herself, feminism, and society. The finding of this thesis indicates that Margaret Drabble successfully presents us the important sisterhood in these two works. By establishing sisterhood with others, heroines could achieve happiness, realize their own value, understand the meaning of life and gain self-confidence in their future.This research has contributed to the under-researched area of Margaret Drabble, Jerusalem the Golden and The Seven Sisters by providing a thorough and deep analysis of sisterhood. As far as I can tell, this is the first thesis to discuss sisterhood of Jerusalem of Golden and The Seven Sisters systematically in the critic circle. It can be regarded as the useful complementary to the research on Margaret Drabble and her novels.