Female’s Dilemmas And Decision-making In The Modern Era

Doris Lessing(1919-2013) is known as one of Britain’s most important women writers after Virginia Woolf. Her masterpiece The Golden Notebook has, since its publication, become the focus of critics. It pinpoints the survival dilemma and the female awareness in the modern society.This thesis attempts to explore the modern women’s survival dilemmas, their ways to deal with the dilemmas and their decision-making in The Golden Notebook. This thesis analyzes the marginalized existence, the Other and the mutual recognized ideal relationship between man and woman from the perspective of feminism. On the one hand it reveals the dilemma of modern women in politics, career, and marriage; on the other hand it reveals how women step out of the dilemma and make free choice.This thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter examines two aspects of the dilemma confronted by women, represented by the main character Anna whose marginal existence, namely, Marion “otherness”. They embody the confusion and helplessness women encountered in seeking self-worth and self-subjectivity, which reveals the status quo of the modern woman. This chapter further analyzes the causes. The second chapter explores the life experiences of two different female characters and their different ways out. Whether it is a housewife’s negative resistance or a free woman’s passive resistance, it is meant to exhibit a female exertion to make their voices heard and to explore ways to pursue freedom. The third chapter further probes into the modern woman’s free choice out of the aforementioned dilemmas. Some women choose to go back home to get rid of loneliness and helplessness, whereas some continue to seek their true selves. No matter how hard their struggles are, these women in the modern era keep the courage to survive, struggle, and seek true freedom.