An Analysis Of The Heroine’s Subjectivity Construction In Alias Grace From The Perspective Of Bildungsroman

Margaret Atwood,known as the Queen of Canadian Literature,is diligent and prolific,and has created a series of high-quality works,which have won numerous awards.Her ninth novel,Alias Grace,was published in 1996 and received wide attention as soon as it was published.The story of Alias Grace took place in Canada in the 1840 s.At that time,it was in a state of British colonial rule,so it was deeply influenced by Victorian social ideology.It emphasized that men belonged to the public society,while women belonged only to the family,and there was no freedom at all.They were subject to men,which led to great mental and physical pressure on them.The heroine Grace was born in such a social environment.The novel describes the story of her growth process.From her youth to middle age,Grace gradually established her female consciousness in several different living environments,dispelled the male authority represented by Dr.Jordan,and finally completed her subjectivity construction.Based on Bildungsroman,this thesis attempts to explain how Grace,the heroine,gradually realizes the awakening of female consciousness,obtains freedom and new identity,and finally realizes the construction of subjectivity.This thesis will be divided into three parts: introduction,main body and conclusion.In the introductory part,this thesis gives a brief introduction to the author Margaret Atwood,the novel Alias Grace and Bildungsroman theory.Meanwhile,this thesis makes a comprehensive overview of the research status of this novel at home and abroad,and then emphasizes the value of studying this novel from the perspective of Bildungsroman.The main body includes three chapters:The first chapter will analyse the predicament Grace encountered in her growth,and explain it from four aspects: disharmonious family relationship,oppressive sea experience,oppressed maid life and miserable prison memory,thus revealing the difficulties of the bottom women represented by Grace in their growth road.In the Victorian period,women were deeply shackled by the patriarchal society,and were taught to obey men from an early age.Grace also suffered from the oppression of the male society,and lost her freedom and independence,so the construction of subjectivity was extremely hard.The second chapter will analyse the awakening process of Grace’s female consciousness during her growth,which includes three stages.Firstly,this chapter will expound on the heroine’s sense of escape,which is mainly reflected in three aspects:traditional marriage,Ireland and her father.Secondly,it will expound on the role of sisterhood in Grace’s growth.Under the influence of female friend Mary,her self-consciousness had been awakened to a great extent.Finally,it will expound on Grace’s resistance to male authority,the most typical of which is to Dr.Jordan.The third chapter will expound the successful construction of Grace’s subjectivity,which is mainly reflected in two aspects.First,she regained her freedom and new identity of “free person” and “wife”,and produced a sense of identity.Second,she can express her initiative and creativity by sewing the quilt,and pinning her awakening female thoughts on the pattern of the quilt.She cut pieces from her,Mary and Nancy’s skirts and spliced them into quilts,showing that the three of them will be together forever,symbolizing that the strength of women’s unity is strong,and women should unite against existing dangers and male authority.In the conclusion part,this thesis will give a summary and discuss the significance of the realization of equal rights between men and women in contemporary society.Studying the construction of the heroine’s subjectivity from the perspective of Bildungsroman enables readers to further understand the original intention of the author’s creation of this work.Meanwhile,this thesis aims to awaken more women to realize their marginal social status.If women want to get real freedom and independence,they must unite and establish deep friendship,so that they can resist patriarchy and male authority together and strive for discourse.