A Feminist Interpretation Of Male-Female Relationship In The Thorn Birds

The Thorn Birds, the most renowned novel of the contemporary Australian writer Colleen McCullough, is a family saga about three generations of an emigrant family—the Clearys, from 1915 to 1965. Although the former research has focused more on the feminist perspective, not much has been done in analyzing the male-female relationship as a whole as well as men's sufferings from the patriarchy. This thesis aims to analyze the relationships between men and women in the novel on the basis of feminist theories.The thesis consists of five parts, with three chapters coming between the introduction and the conclusion.In the introduction, in addition to a few words about the author and the novel The Thorn Birds, a review is made about the research of the novel both at home and abroad. This part also includes a brief introduction to feminist theory, based on which this study is made.Chapter One makes an analysis of women's oppression from and rebellion against patriarchy. It explores three female images in the Clearys. Fiona is the first generation. Her daughter Meggie is the leading role and Meggie's daughter Justine's story brings closure to the novel. The three vivid female images have striking personalities and fight against the patriarchy through different ways in order to have autonomy of their own lives.Chapter Two focuses on the men images, Ralph, Luke and the men of the Cleary family. They contribute to the women characters' tragedies, but accordingly suffer the bitter taste of the tragedies.Chapter Three discusses the relationship between males and females. To be more specific, the patriarchal marriage of Fiona and Paddy as well as a compromising relationship between Meggie and Ralph are discussed. In addition, it is great to notice that what happens between Justine and Rainer displays a brand new construction of bisexual relationship, which indicates that there would be a new approach to the relationship between men and women.The thesis ends with a conclusion that the author indicates there would be a new approach to the male-female relationship through three female images' stories, with establishing a new type of relationship of equality and mutual respect as its foundation.