Self-growth And Moral Redemption In Mrs. Gaskell’s Ruth

The thesis attempts to analyze the issue of Victorian female growth in Elizabeth Gaskell?s most controversial novel Ruth from the perspective of Bildungsroman.By putting the female issue in the Victorian social context and adopting the theme of “self-growth” and “moral redemption” as the main clues,the thesis aims to reveal the hard journey of transformation and growth of the marginalized Victorian women,and stress the importance of moral redemption in the individual growth in order to reinterpret Mrs.Gaskell?s female moral values: opposing the extreme feminist hero model and advocating to build a female moral view that based on rational care.The thesis includes five parts.The introduction section mainly sheds light on Bildungsroman and the novel Ruth,the literature review both at home and abroad,the research purpose and significance of the paper.Chapter One analyzes the characteristics of the Victorian society and the three moral predicaments confronted by Ruth from the perspective of social morality,religious morality a nd female morality,thus resulting in her sins.Chapter Two explores the hard journey of Ruth?s awakening,including the initiation guides and companions,her external and internal growth as well as her strive for self-redemption.Chapter Three summarizes Ruth?s final completion of self-growth and moral redemption in her own ways and reveals that there are differences between Ruth and the protagonists in other traditional Bildungsroman.Ruth?s tragic death at the end of the novel serves as the mark of her final completion of growth and moral redemption.The Conclusion part reaches to the point that Gaskell tries to awake the public concerns for the fallen women issues and express her good wishes to construct her own ideal female moral values through the exploration of the close connection between Ruth?s self-growth and her moral redemption.The heroine Ruth shares the same name with the woman in the Old Testament Ruth.This is the very mechanism of Mrs.Gaskell who regards her character Ruth as the archetype to face the previous sin with courage and positively seek for moral redemption under the patriarchal oppression;therefore,Ruth?s growth is closely linked with the religious traditions.However,her journey of rebirth is not relying on the power of God solely;it is also the result of her subjective initiative in the meantime.Ruth has the subjective awareness to change her “fallen woman” destiny,so her awakening of redemption consciousness is indispensable for her self-growth and meanwhile,her completion of moral redemption offers possibilities for her realization of self-growth.