The Indeterminacy Of Marginal Women’s Fate Reflected In Their Carnivalesque Rebellion Against Patriarchy: A Study On Sarah Waters’ Victorian Trilogy

Sarah Waters’ Victorian trilogy(Tipping the Velvet,Affinity,and Fingersmith)contains distinct carnival scenes and carnival discourse,which are closely related to the lesbian characters’ struggles against social norms in Victorian society.Therefore,this thesis applies Mikhail Bakhtin’s carnival theory to study the trilogy and finds that the lesbians resort to gatherings in the carnival squares,grotesque bodies,ironic laughing,and tricks playing to rebel against the patriarchal hegemony regardless of the setbacks they meet,and that the carnival discourse in the form of great dialogues and micro dialogues further reveals the indeterminacy of these lesbians’ fate along their rebellious journeys.Chapter one firstly gives a brief introduction to Sarah Waters’ achievements and her Victorian trilogy and reviews the previous research on the trilogy.It then points out the research significance,expounds Bakhtin’s carnival theory,and clarifies the structure of the whole thesis.Chapter two explores the carnival scenes including carnival squares,carnival laughter,grotesque figures,and the tricks that the marginalized women use to topple the hierarchy and break the confinement.Crowning and decrowning along their rebellious journeys reveal the various obstacles they encounter.Wandering on the carnival places like Leicester Square and Victoria Park where hierarchy is dispersed,Nancy in Tipping the Velvet sees more possibilities of gender and gradually recognizes the values of her lesbian identity.In Affinity,Margret’s laughter is full of mockery and self-mockery,which challenges the authority of the upper class;the servant Ruth,by playing as a grotesque male spirit,successfully breaks the gender stereotype and disturbs the class order.In Fingersmith,the female protagonists cheat,lie,and disguise to fight for their due rights and transgress the class barrier regardless of the ups and downs.Through different forms of rebellion with carnival spirit,women characters,especially lesbians in Waters’ trilogy endeavor to deconstruct the authority of the patriarchal society.However,the crowning and decrowning these women encounter imply that their fate is undetermined.Chapeter three focuses on the discursive carnivalization,namely the polyphonic narration,which consists of great dialogues and micro dialogues,and analyzes the lesbians’ confrontation over women’s predicaments and their inner worlds which are full of hesitation,conflicts,struggles,and betrayal.The great dialogues between the lesbians in the trilogy reveal that these marginalized women cannot simply be regarded as a unified whole.Each of them is an independent individual that has her own consciousness and engages in equal dialogues about lesbian issues or women’s predicament.Moreover,the micro dialogues in the trilogy including stylization in Nancy’s monologues and hidden polemics in Margret’s and Maud’s double-voiced monologues fully reveal their inner conflicts.Both kinds of dialogue are ongoing in nature and imply that their lives are full of uncertainties and possibilities.Chaptr four summarizes the key points in the previous analysis.The lesbian characters in Sarah Waters’ trilogy fight for their due rights,endeavor to free themselves from social norms concerning gender and class,and drag the authority off the crown.They are empowered with independent voices and consciousness,challenging the patriarchal authority and exposing the indeterminacy of their fates in their rebellious journeys at the same time.Thus,a multi-voiced Victorian world is vividly presented.