Comment on the character of Sarah Woodruff in The French Lieutenant’s Woman.To what extent is she a victim of circumstances?

The nineteenth century John Fowles’ romantic novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman successfully reproduces the typical Victorian woman and society, skillfully illustrated in situations and dialogues. The novel is stereotyped in Victorian fashion - romance, misunderstanding, intrigue forbidden love, betrayal, carnal desire and a classic "triangle" between two women attracted to the same man. It is touched with typical twentieth-century irony. The characters in the story can be seen as typical Victorians in their attitudes and behaviour, but not the main protagonist Sarah Woodruff. She is known by her un Victorian directness and ability to see through people. And these are some of the differences that turn her into a victim of the prejudices of the Victorian society.

Sarah Woodruff is the protagonist of the novel, called "the French Lieutenant's Woman" or "Tragedy" or the "French lieutenant's whore" because it is believed that she had an affair with a shipwrecked French sailor. She is a figure of intrigue due to rumors that circulate around her. Sarah is portrayed as a mysterious and ambiguous character throughout the novel. Her affair with this French sailor changes her into an outcast dismissed by the society. She is the tragedy and the trouble in the novel. Her strong sexuality turns her into a rival among the women. She falls a pray to to the notions of gender in upper middle-class Victorian society. But her mysterious personality gives rise to a lot of questions like: Is she a sly, manipulative character, is she a product of the French Lieutenant's lust or is she really a victim and if yes, to what extent?

The mysterious or evil woman character of Sarah often and commonly found in a Victorian novel, makes the reader suspect that some assumptions about Sarah’s nature and motives might be false, like the story about the French Lieutenant which turns out to be a lie, passively perpetuated by Sarah. There is always a sense that she is not saying everything and that she might be deceiving the reader about her true nature,which makes her an unreliable narrator. The reader learns of her history and character only through what she says with a face she lets the world see, but later we find that much of what people believe about her is untrue. Only Charles’ understanding and misunderstanding of Sarah forms the readers’ perceptions of her. She is also independent and is willing to lie to preserve her position. So it is difficult for the reader to create her entire image, because it can be seen only through the subjective perspective of the other characters and mainly of this of Charles.The protagonist of a story is the main character who traditionally undergoes some sort of change. Often the one who dares to change the principles and the habits of a society is being dismissed by this society. Here in the novel, the outcast is Sarah, who is rejected by Victorian society. This is the thing from which Charles is attracted the most. And this attraction for Sarah stems mainly from the aura of strangeness that the local rumors have built around her, and this stands as a symbol of the forbidden through which she presents a picture of dark intrigue and mystery. Sarah’s “strangeness” makes her different from her Victorian counterparts in dress, behavior and attitude.

Sarah is established from the beginning as the “poor Tragedy”. She is a certainty of the innocence of her identity of her being unfairly outcast. Tragedy has been linked to the novel as a literary genre being used to train moral nature by sympathy with noble characters. According to Zuzana Vránová in her essay :“this arousal of sympathy does not limit itself to influencing the readers only, but functions within the story as well – Sarah is seen as a person to pity and help.” (Vránová Z.) The appearance of Sarah is provided with a well modeled face, dark eyes that “could not conceal an intelligence, an independence of spirit”, strong eyebrows and a wide mouth, indicating “suppressed sensuality”, tanned complexion and hair with red tints. These tints add Sarah a sort of divine, saint odor, because n medieval paintings, hair of Virgin Mary and the robes of Angels were depicted red. Concerning her sexuality it is the biggest weapon given to her which she does not only use in an unconscious way. That’s why she is considered exceptional in the opposite direction as in the Victorian period the situation was quite different. The Lieutenant’s Woman is described as a definitive study of the sexual repression of the Victorian age. The characters react as they do largely because of the sexual mores of the time through which the reader can see the embodied sexual and sensual elements in the story.

The ambiguity of Sarah’s character is well portrayed throughout the story, but he reader can assume that she is merely a victim to the notions of gender in upper middle-class Victorian society. The different perceptions through which her character is seen question the reader if he/she should pity her or despise her and is she a victim as the others are victims. Fowles quotes in the beginning of Chapter 2 E. Royston Pike Pike’s “Human Documents of the Victorian Golden Age” which comments on the population of women being higher than that of men. The idea that is implied in these statistics is that the role of Victorian women is that of a wife and mother, but not all women can fulfill their role as wives and mothers, because there are more women than men. So the quote becomes ironic in the context of The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Sarah is free of the conventional role society attempts to impose on her and because of this last reputation she is in disgrace with the Victorian-era town.

The thematic of The French Lieutenant’s Woman concerns range from the relationship between life and art and the artist and his creation to the isolation that results from an individual struggling for selfhood. The novel contains 20th century sensibilities and perspectives, despite it is firmly set in the mid-Victorian period, when the poor, innocent and harshly treated woman Sarah Woodruff is spurned by those who are better off socially, if not morally. The novel examines the link between the Victorian society and an outcast, a victim of the epoch, because of its difference. In the process of this examination John Fowles reveal the romantic part of being an exile.