论文总字数：41045字

摘 要

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Colleen McCullough 1

1.2 The Thorn Birds 1

1.3 The development of feminism in Australia 3

2. Literature Review 5

3. On the Development of Feminine Consciousness in The Thorn Birds 7

3.1 Fiona: The awakening of feminine consciousness 7

3.1.1 The oppressed woman 7

3.1.2 The blurry feminine consciousness 8

3.2 Meggie: The growth of feminine consciousness 9

3.2.1 The doomed love 9

3.2.2 The oppression in marriage 10

3.2.3 The fights and growth 12

3.3 Justine: The liberation of feminine consciousness 13

3.3.1 A naturally rebellious woman 13

3.3.2 The realization of harmony between two genders 14

3.4 The limitations and advancements of three females 15

4. Conclusion 17

References 19

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who has helped me finish the thesis from the bottom of my heart.

First, I want to give my gratitude to my supervisor, Associate Prof. Wang Li, who has offered me constant guidance whether from the beginning of the topic selection or in the process of writing. Her professional knowledge and rigorous academic attitude have huge impact on me.

Next, my gratitude should be given to the teachers in the School of Foreign Languages and Literature in Nanjing Tech University. They have shared their academic knowledge and profound thinking with us, which creates a great academic atmosphere for me, so that my paper could be more rigorous.

Then, I feel like giving my appreciation to my friends’ help when I was confronted with barriers in both thesis and life. I enjoy communicating with them and without their help, I couldn't successfully solve all kinds of difficulties in life.

Finally, I want to thank my family deeply for how thoughtful and generous they have been, and also for their unconditional support.

Abstract

Colleen McCullough is a distinguished contemporary Australian writer. In 1937, She was born in Wellington, New South Wales. The Thorn Birds, the magnum opus of McCullough, which came out in 1977. It is a grand saga novel which narrating the life experiences and love stories of three generations in Cleary family. Ever since its first publication, it has caused a huge stir all over the world, and is seen as the “Gone with the Wind of Australia”.

Feminine consciousness, a term that is widely used by feminist critics. It basically refers to women’s awareness as independent female individuals. It is an awareness that goes against the patriarchal system. Feminine consciousness appeals to fight against the oppression from male authority, and get rid of their plight as male’s subordinations as well as find their own value. From this perspective, this paper tries to further demonstrate The Thorn Birds.

The growth of the three female characters--Fiona, Meggie and Justin, is seen as the epitome of Australian women’s liberation in this paper. The fact will be shown that, from awakening to growth and then to liberation, females have experienced an extremely tough journey in which they suffer a lot. While with great sacrifice, they have eventually realized the mission of women’s growth, and thus acquired an equal, harmonious relationship with males. The feminist movements in Australia will be talked during the process of elaboration.

Few of former researches have analyzed three females as a whole to study women’s growth, although they have touched upon feminine consciousness perspective. A picture scroll of Australian females’ liberation can be seen from different life experiences and fates of the three females in the novel. Hence, it is of great significance to explore the process of the liberation of feminine consciousness. Besides, it is of great significance to talk about the ultimate social and cultural causes of females’ tragedies.

Key words: The Thorn Birds; feminism; feminine consciousness

中文摘要

柯琳·麦卡洛是澳大利亚当代杰出作家。1937年，她出生在新南威尔士州的惠灵顿。1977年出版的《荆棘鸟》是麦卡洛的代表作。这是一部讲述克利里家族三代人的生活经历和爱情故事的长篇小说。自从第一次出版以来，它在全世界引起了巨大的轰动，被誉为“澳大利亚的《飘》”。

女性意识是一个被女权主义评论家广泛使用的术语。它是指女性作为独立个体的意识。这是一种与父权制度相违背的意识。女性意识倡导反抗男性权威的压迫，摆脱作为男性附庸的困境，找到自己的价值。本文试图从这个角度进一步论述《荆棘鸟》。

本文将菲奥娜、梅吉和贾斯汀这三位女性的成长视为澳大利亚女性解放的缩影。本文将揭示,女性意识从觉醒到成长再到解放,女性经历了一个非常艰难的过程,在此期间他们遭受了很多痛苦。她们牺牲巨大,但最终实现了女性成长的使命,从而获得一个与男性平等、和谐的关系。在本文论述过程中，将涉及澳大利亚的女权运动。

尽管之前已有学者从女性意识角度论述《荆棘鸟》，但很少有人将三位女性作为一个整体研究她们的成长。从小说中三个女性不同的人生经历和命运，可以看到一幅澳大利亚女性解放的画卷。因此，探讨女性意识的解放过程具有研究价值。此外，女性悲剧的社会文化根源也值得探讨。

关键词：《荆棘鸟》；女性主义；女性意识

Introduction

1.1 Colleen McCullough

Colleen McCullough was born at Wellington in Australia in 1937. Her mother was a New Zealander, and her father was an Irish Immigrant to Australia. As a child, McCullough spent most of her time in Sydney. Before that, she lived with her family in the Outback where is rough and desert for some time.

Mentioning her writing style, McCullough said at an interview with a reporter from Publishers Weekly that she didn’t like writing about boy meeting girl, boy losing girl, boy getting girl and something like that. What she really interested in was to write books with distinct themes. It can be found that the plots are intricate and the description of the character is fascinating in a number of her novels. Owing to that, lots of people showed their admiration for McCullough’s vivid characterizations. They indicated that McCullough made her figures come alive. “She gives the figures intelligence and complexity and dimension. Even the minor figures are not dull”, as Eliot (1977) once pointed out. She was reputed as an excellent, natural story-teller.

1.2 The Thorn Birds

It was in early 1920s when Meggie, the heroine of the novel, is just four years old that the story starts. Meggie lives together with her father, mother and three elder brothers in New Zealand. This is a large but needy family. The father, Paddy, is a poor immigrant from Ireland. The mother, Fiona, comes from a noble family. She is compelled to marry Paddy when her elegant but married lover rejected divorce. The family lives a tough life till they get a letter from Paddy’s elder sister--Mary in Australia.

Mary reaches Australia in her twenties. With her beauty and intelligence, Mary marries Michael Carson, a rich man. After her husband’s death, Mary runs family business and becomes one of the richest women in Australia. Cause she has no child, she invites her brother and his family to come to work for her in Drogheda.

Paddy goes to Drogheda with the whole family the moment he receives the invitation. Here, Meggie meets Ralph, a competent and ambitious priest. Meggie and her family become friends to Ralph soon. With his care, Meggie grows up to be a terrific young lady. Little by little, Meggie grows tender of Ralph, the good-looking and thoughtful priest. Ralph loves Meggie, too. Nevertheless, he is so ambitious a man that he is not willing to admit his love to Meggie. Seeing that he is eager to rise in the Catholic hierarchy, he dares not face his love for Meggie.

There is another woman who loves Ralph. That’s Meggie’s aunt Mary, an old woman in her seventies. Mary donates most of her money to the church in care of Father Ralph in her will, after understanding Ralph does not love her at all. Certainly, Ralph could have rejected the money that belongs to Mary’s brother Paddy. However, seeing that the church will promote him, he accepts the money and leaves Drogheda. As he gets promoted rapidly, broken-hearted Meggie wants to start her new life and marries Luke, a shearer who looks immensely like Ralph. Luke and Meggie move to Queensland where Meggie gets her job as a maid for the Mullers while Luke works as a cane cutter. Meggie finally realizes that marrying Luke is a total mistake after giving birth to their daughter Justine. She decides to leave for her home Drogheda. Before her leave, the Mullers, her kind employers, send her to a peaceful island for a vacation, where Ralph reaches to join her and they spend the happiest time in their lives.

After their meeting, Ralph goes back to church while Meggie returns to Drogheda. There Ralph’s son Dane was born, and becomes a priest before passing away in an accident. In Drogheda, Meggie’s two children grow up. Justine is a rebellious girl, she tries to be an actress and live an untrammeled life in England, while Dane ironically is interested in becoming a priest. Unfortunately, Dane dies in a drowning accident. Justine becomes the only child of the third generation in the Cleary family after Dane died. It takes her a few years to recover from Dane’s death with Fiona and Meggie’s help. And finally she leaves for England where she marries Rainer, the man who has loved Justine for many years, and lives a happy life there.

1.3 The development of feminism in Australia

Feminism has been one of the most prevailing thoughts around the world for several decades. Many aspects include philosophy, politics, and literature have been greatly influenced by it. The Thorn Birds shows us how Australian females fight for their freedom and equality as independent individuals, and is set in the mainland of Australia. Hence, before the analysis of The Thorn Birds starts, it is essential to elaborate the development of feminism in Australia.

It was not until the late 19^th century that Australian feminism began, and from then on Australia was into a new era of nationalism. Not only started Australians to struggle for the nation’s independence, but also build up their own national identity during this period. The actions of the famous Maritime Strike in 1890 caused the “Australian Awakening”, (Stuart, 2006:125) which finally awakened Australian females. The first wave of Australian feminism then formed. According to Stuart, “the movement sought to advance women and reform society by purifying domestic and public life of masculine excess. It thus sought a range of measures…to protect women from predatory men.” (Stuart, 2006:133) This campaign also included a vote campaign, which made Australia the second country in the globe to give females the right of vote.

It was in the 1960s that the second wave of Australian feminism happened. The legal and social barriers that made females the alleged “second sex”, have been vitally undermined in the second-wave feminism. For purpose of eliminating sex discrimination, the second-wave feminism fights for females’ equal rights as males in politics and social areas. The accomplishment is prominent in the 1970s, when “The principle of equal wages for women doing work of equal value to men was enshrined in the statutes”, and when “University tuition remained free”, and there is “a large upsurge in the numbers of mature age students, especially women”. (Webby, 2003:14-15)

The third wave of feminism of Australia took place in the late 20^th century. Australian females still did not have complete access to the public area during this period, although underwent many years of the fights for females’ equal rights. Women from all domains have experienced an invisible barrier which prevents them from advancing beyond a certain point on the professional or political ladder. The major positions of power in education, business and politics are still controlled by men.

Literature Review

The Thorn Birds is such a big success that brings McCullough world-wide reputation. Ever since the first edition of the novel came off the press in 1977, it has engaged a mass of readers by vivid figures and absorbing plots. With its rapid prevalence, the novel has already been researched from multiple aspects and acquired multitudinous critical evaluations. The theme of love and fate, feminism, and symbolism are mostly covered by these researches.

The characteristic female figures of The Thorn Birds have been the emphasis of foreign studies. Herrmann (1989) uses feminist approach to explore Meggie’s feminist consciousness. Through the elaboration of Meggie’s pursuit of love and happiness, he claims that Meggie’s growth reveals the awakening of feminine consciousness. Wearne (1992) stresses that female figures in the novel are portrayed as obedient people and they are compelled to put up with suppressions of males through discussing about the re-establishment of sex relationships in Cleary family. Grant (1993) also focuses on Meggie’s feminist characteristic. Despite Meggie’s revolt against male-dominated society is brave, her futile fighting ineluctably results in her wretched fate by the end of the story. Therefore, Grant expects that the social and family circumstances she stays in restrain Meggie’s feminine consciousness and her revolt is doomed to be a failure. DeMarr (1996:86) expects the novel “demonstrates the cruel effects of women’s exclusion from men’s world and of the harm done by relegating women to subordinate roles and to suffering”.

Lu (2006) primarily provides an all-sided discussion on female figures of Cleary family. The key point of her elaboration is focused on three women’s pursuit of love and their fight against fate. Through comparing the positions of female figures in family and society, she reveals that it is rather tough for females to set up their self-consciousness in the environment controlled by male authorities. She expects the novel displays author’s attitude towards love and gender by the exploration on female figures’ growth in the novel. Around those two words, awareness and rebellion, Fang (2007) also analyses feminism in the novel. Her exploration starts with the historical background of feminist movement, and she demonstrates the process of female figures’ fight against male oppression in Cleary family from four aspects: female role, female position, female love consciousness and female independent personality. At length, she puts forward that only when women realize economic and self-personality independence can they obtain real equal standing and dominate their own fate.

From the feminine consciousness perspective, this paper tries to further demonstrate The Thorn Birds. Few of former researches have analyzed those female figures as a whole to study women’s growth in history, although they have touched upon this view. Besides, it is of great significance to talk about the ultimate social and cultural causes of females’ tragedies. The growth of the three female figures—Fiona, Meggie and Justin in The Thorn Birds is seen as the epitome of Australian women’s liberation. The fact will be shown in this paper that, from awakening to growth and then to liberation, females have experienced an extremely tough journey in which they suffer a lot. While with great sacrifice, they have eventually realized the mission of women’s growth, and thus acquired an equal, harmonious relationship with males. The feminist movements and some social activities in Australia will be talked during the process of elaboration.

On the Development of Feminine Consciousness in The Thorn Birds

3.1 Fiona: The awakening of feminine consciousness

Fiona is the female of first generation in the Cleary family. She is a woman from noble family, yet eventually marries Paddy Cleary who is a poor sheep shearer. Her life experience can be seen as a paradox of obedience and awakening from the feminist viewpoint.

3.1.1 The oppressed woman

Fiona has no freedom to choose her life, just like the other females at her time. She has never been treated as an independent individual by her father. Ever since the day when she was born, Fiona’s life has been determined by her father: “a trip to the old country, a debut at court, the right husband.” (McCullough, 2005:127) It is the routine of each female at her time, especially females from the noble families. Fiona is just like a puppet dictated by the male power in the family. She does not have independent standing or source of finance. Consequently, she completely lacks of the ability to fight. Fiona’s plight clearly reflects females’ inferiority both in family and society.

Fiona’s tragedy starts the moment she has a crush on Pakeha who has already married. However, the patriarchal system, which oppresses human nature of females, is the real source of her tragedy. Pakeha cannot get a divorce at that time, for he is “one of the first people of his race to attain political greatness”. (McCullough, 2005:476) He has to make a decision between Fiona and his people. Just because Pakeha is ambitious to be noble, Fiona becomes a victim of love. In her pursuit of love, one thing disgraces her family. That is, Fiona is pregnant with Pakeha’s child without marrying him, which undoubtedly breaks the taboos upon women. The patriarchal cult of true womanhood is prevailing in the 19^th century when Fiona lives. Females are demanded to have the virtues of piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity. It was widely believed that virginity is the greatest treasure of a woman. If a woman does not stay pure before marriage, she will be taken as a “fallen woman”.

Her father’s attitude is very brutal after she gets pregnant. The only thing her father consider is to get her away, instead of taking care of his only daughter. When her purity does not exist, she is straightway discarded by her family. Fiona has no right to struggle in that the father has the complete ownership over his daughter. Thus, Fiona has to marry Paddy, a man who is completely under her class. Beauvoir expects that marriage is the destiny traditionally offered to women by patriarchal society. (Beauvoir, 1987) There is no doubt that Fiona’s marriage with Paddy is a sort of patriarchal oppression. This mirage becomes her destiny ever since Fiona lost her virginity. Fiona gets a huge penalty because of falling love with Pakeha, which directly makes for the agony of her life.

3.1.2 The blurry feminine consciousness

Feminine consciousness, a term that is widely used by feminist critics. It basically refers to women’s awareness as independent female individuals. It is an awareness that goes against the patriarchal system. Feminine consciousness appeals to fight against the oppression from male authority, and get rid of their plight as male’s subordinations as well as find their own value.

Fiona was born in a noble and patriarchal family in which women have no right to love freely. Their only choice is to obey the father and marry the proper man. Nevertheless, Fiona does break the rule of the patriarchal family. She has a crush on Pakeha, which is a love affair that goes against the patriarchal tradition. She pursues the love bravely, and the fruit of this love is the birth of her first son Frank. For Fiona, true love matters more than any of the “virtues” of the society. This action clearly shows that deep in Fiona’s heart, she hopes to be an independent woman that can control her own fate. From this standpoint, we can see Fiona’s feminine consciousness is awakening.

Nevertheless, Fiona’s feminine consciousness is way vague and limited. The limitations of her feminine consciousness are reflected in her surrender to fate and her confession of her “fault” in her old age apart from her obedience and silence after marriage.

Her limitations can be found from the conversation between Fiona and her daughter Meggie at her old age. Fiona says, “I loved him to the point of madness. And I thought I’d never love anyone else; I wallowed in that delusion so long I left it too late, too late! … I have a lot to answer for, Meggie, believe me.” (McCullough, 2005:475) It is the first time in years that silent Fiona wants to talk. After she has exhausted all her vigor and energy in loving Pakeha, she regards the love as a “delusion” in which she has wallowed so long. It is the confession of Fiona. Fiona puts the blame down to herself when it comes to her miserable experience, and she does not realize that the patriarchy is the murderer of her tragic fate. It never blooms because she leaves no room for it to grow and eventually surrenders to the patriarchal society, though her sprouted feminine consciousness can be found in the illustrations.

3.2 Meggie: The growth of feminine consciousness

Meggie, the heroine of The Thorn Birds, has undergone lots of miseries ever since she was a child. At the beginning, Meggie sits down under her miserable life. Nevertheless, with time elapsing, Meggie gradually realizes that she also has the right to pursue her own happiness as a woman. Meggie’s life is full of hardships, for which she has sacrificed a lot, just as the “thorn bird”.

3.2.1 The doomed love

In a world where females cannot love freely, it is love which often leads to females’ tragic life. Meggie is just a common woman who has a need for love. The first huge thing that Meggie underwent in her life is falling love with Father Ralph, the most important man in her life.

The Roman Catholic Church advocates the ideology of celibacy. None of Catholic priests can get married in their life. For Ralph, it is a huge conflict between the pledge of a priest and his love towards Meggie. In Ralph’s life, he is always trying quite hard to suppress his love. Under this circumstance, celibacy hinders the development of human nature. It not only causes Ralph’s struggles in heart, but also hurts Meggie terribly. Instead of getting any spiritual liberation, Ralph’s miseries become stronger because of his pledge of celibacy.

Facing with tragic life, Meggie is not active enough. As a traditional woman, she is not conscious that she is an independent individual. She does nothing but accept silently about Ralph’s leaving. Though very sad, Meggie says nothing to complain. Teased by fate, neither has she the ability to fight nor has she the right to make her own choice. So far, Meggie’s feminine consciousness has not been awakened yet. She has not realized that she also has the right and freedom to pursue her own happiness as an autonomous individual.

3.2.2 The oppression in marriage

Meggie meets Luke who is a stockman in Drogheda after Ralph leaves. Perhaps because Luke looks alike Ralph that Meggie notices him. Meggie eventually decides to marry Luke so as to get rid of her love towards Ralph. After getting married, she leaves Drogheda with Luke.

Nevertheless, Meggie does not gain her own happiness in marriage, just like other women in her time. Contrarily, marriage brings her quite a few sufferings. Like most of her ancestors, she still cannot have an equal status with males in marriage though time changes a lot.

Luke is a conceited and immensely hardworking man with a strong desire for money. He immediately starts paying court to Meggie so as to marry a wealthy girl. In Luke’s eyes, Meggie is just a tool to get money. From the beginning, the relationship between Meggie and Luke is totally unequal.

As what Luke hopes, Meggie’s property becomes his asset after marriage: “I believe that when a man and woman marry, all the woman’s property should become the man’s…I know you’ve got a bit of money, and I’m telling you now that when we marry you’re to sign it over to me…” (McCullough, 2005:308) On hearing Luke’s words, Meggie’s attitude is quite clear: “It had never occurred to Meggie that she would retain her money; she had simply assumed when she married it would become Luke’s, not hers. Quite a few Australian women were reared to think themselves the chattels of their men, and this was especially true of Meggie…The man owned the money, the house, his wife and his children. Meggie had never doubted his right to do so.” (McCullough, 2005:308)

Moreover, Luke is unwilling to take the responsibility as a husband. After getting married, Luke directly finds a job for Meggie so as not to give her the money to live instead of giving her a home. Consequently, Meggie goes to work as a housemaid at Mueller’s place after marriage. And all her salaries will be put into Luke’s bank account. Clearly, Luke completely controls her life after marriage.

When Meggie works in Mueller’s place, Luke goes out to cut sugar for money, working and living delightfully with his mate Arne. He barely comes back to see his wife at Mueller’s place. Meggie is always disappointed every time she is longing to meet Luke. For Meggie, the lonely life is a psychological abuse. Luke’s attitudes badly hurt Meggie and results in Meggie’s unhappiness in marriage.

Meggie is just a woman who is neglected. Luke never takes the responsibility as a husband to look after Meggie. He scarcely comes back to see Meggie after sending her to Mueller’s place, even when Meggie gives birth to their daughter Justine. For Luke, his mate Arne seems much more important. Virtually, Luke and his mate Arne “had gone into full partnership and drifted up and down the thousand-mile coast following the sugar harvest, living, it seemed, only to work”. (McCullough, 2005:338) The relationship between Luke and Arne reflects obviously the features of mateship, and it sure hurts Meggie. Neither can Meggie have a normal life, nor can she have her own family together with her husband because of the mateship between Luke and Arne.

When Meggie sees through Luke’s essence, she decides to totally change her life. Meggie’s feminine consciousness is thoroughly awakened after several years’ hardship. She is getting more active and braver in the rest of her life.

3.2.3 The fights and growth

Beauvoir once pointed that one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman…it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature…which is described as feminine (Beauvoir, 1987) Meggie is a woman who embodies the “perfect” female character, but she is not “perfect” in nature. Meggie has read many books which vastly helps her to grow up when works in Mueller’s place. The unhappy marriage with Luke also makes her know her plight more deeply. Meggie starts to think independently as well as query the unfair fate oppressed upon her bravely.

During the vacation on Matlock Island, Meggie meets Ralph again. This meeting is very important for Meggie’s transition in that Meggie totally gets Ralph’s love this time. Herrmann once indicated that “In the series of love scenes, Meggie was always in the dominate situation and Ralph was the object of her love desire”. (Herrmann, 1968:4) In other words, Meggie has changed her passive role and has become a dominator in the relationship between Ralph and her.

Then Meggie makes a brave decision: “I’d leave Luke…I’m going back to Drogheda, and I’m never going to leave it again.” (McCullough, 2005:405) Meggie determinedly ends the unhappy marriage with Luke, disregarding all those secular bonds. Meggie starts her new life in Drogheda and soon gives birth to Ralph’s son Dane. It can be concluded that Meggie’s feminine consciousness has awakened from those behaviors. As an independent female, she eventually starts to control her own life.

Compared with Fiona, Meggie’s behaviors have some progressive significances. In the latter part of her life, Meggie can get rid of her sufferings all by herself. At the same time, she acquires happiness from her brave decision. From Meggie’s transformation, we can say that with feminist movement developing, Australian females are becoming braver and more independent.

3.3 Justine: The liberation of feminine consciousness

Justine who is the third generation of the Cleary family grows up in a new era. New accomplishments of Australian feminist movement have been realized in this era. Affected by the feminist thoughts, Justine is quite different from the former females.

3.3.1 A naturally rebellious woman

Justine lives in an age when the second wave of Australian feminist movement appeared. This movement tries to eliminate sex discrimination from Australian society. At her time, some social transformations are gradually taking place in the Australian society, yet the patriarchal tradition is still deeply rooted. The patriarchal system has not been broken by females in that period yet. Justine is an exception. There are some rebellious features in her personality since she was born.

“Justine, the third generation of these women, is from the beginning very much her own person.” (Marr, 1996:68) When she is a little girl, she “didn’t want to be hugged, kissed or made to laugh”, (McCullough, 2005:421) and everyone is firmly excluded by her. She can always think and do things independently. Besides, Justine is trying to master her own life. At seventeen years old, she decides to go to Sydney to work an actress. Her mother Meggie is vastly shocked by the decision, but Justine does not care about other people’s idea. Justine wants to release and show her personality through becoming an actress: “Well, where else can I scream and yell and howl but on a stage? I’m not allowed to do any of those here, or at school, or anywhere! I like screaming and yelling and howling, dammit!” (McCullough, 2005:515)

Justine’s attitudes towards the traditional ideologies about women are very brave and rebellious. Holding that females can have their own careers like males, she often argues against women’s traditional living ways. “What a bore! I’d end up talking on the telephone and playing bridge; at least that’s what the mothers of most of my school friends do”. “I don’t want to starve to death in a garret and be famous after I’m dead. I want to enjoy a bit of fame while I’m alive, and be very comfortable financially.” (McCullough, 2005:515) Justine has already known that it is important for females to be independent both at home and in society. She is trying to break the bonds, which have restrained females within the domestic sphere for many centuries. Justine is not a domestic woman at all. She says she “can’t see the point of frills in the kitchen”. (McCullough, 2005:520) Domesticity is a significant virtue of females in patriarchal traditions, yet Justine fights against it bravely.

3.3.2 The realization of harmony between two genders

Rainer, the most important man in Justine’s life. Rainer falls in love with Justine the moment they meet. Justine’s special personality deeply appeals to him and let him go after her. Rainer’s love is ground on his acquaintance with Justine. He knows that Justine is “a little monster” and is “bloody but unbowed”. (McCullough, 2005:572) He understands clearly what kind of woman Justine belongs to. Rainer is a wealthy man with a high social standing. In his time, a man like him has the right to choose his own wife, whether she agrees or not. Yet Rainer does not do that at all. He knows Justine and totally respects her. Hence, although he loves her deeply, Rainer only treats Justine as a close friend. Their friendship lasts for many years. Just as De Marr indicates, “Patiently, he does not rush her or force her to make choices she is unwilling or unable to make.” (DeMarr, 1996:76) From the beginning, Rainer and Justine are completely equal in this relationship.

Justine, an independent female in the new era, is unwilling to be restricted by any man. Her desire for freedom prevents her from getting into the marriage although Justine is longing for love. Therefore, she treats her love towards Rainer very discreetly all the time. Justine does never consider to marry Rainer after seven years of their acquaintance. Just as Anne Mueller once indicates, “I think she’s terrified of committing herself to the kind of love marriage would entail, and I must say I admire Rainer. He seems to understand her well. Oh, I don’t say he’s in love with her for sure, but if he is, at least he’s got the sense to wait until she’s ready to take the plunge.” (McCullough, 2005:583) The equality of Justine and Rainer is clearly seen here.

Eventually she is moved by his sincerity and those two get married. Justine is the only one who lastly gets real happiness among the females of the three generations in Cleary family. Justine’s unique personality is a firm basis for her growth and independence. Rainer’s sincere love and respect have vastly helped her to be an independent woman. It is the harmonious cooperation between genders that leads to Justine’s real happiness.

The final goal of feminism is to realize the harmony between genders. It accepts gender differences and aims to pursue the equal rights between males and females. Both Rainer and Justine are conscious of the significance of equality and harmony between genders. They can live happily together as a result of loving and respecting each other. As a modern female in the new era, Justine has fulfilled the mission of females’ liberation. This liberation displays a progress of all females throughout the world, as well as the advancement of the entire society.

3.4 The limitations and advancements of three females

As a female, Fiona is longing for true love. However, she has no chance to dominate her own life in the era when she lives, and is forced to become Paddy’s wife. She puts the blame down to herself when it comes to her miserable experience, and she does not realize that the patriarchy is the murderer of her tragic fate. She has no idea how to show her dissatisfaction with fate. As a result, she chooses to keep silent over everything around her. For one thing, her depressive love and her indifference towards her family are weapons that against the patriarchal society. For another thing, her silence and deficient love towards her children extremely hurt her family, and eventually makes for her miserable life.

Meggie’s life is filled with sufferings. She fights for true love as well as pursues a happy marriage consciously. She never ever regrets for her decision, although she fails to have an ideal marriage. She takes the path to true selfhood, that is, a path of independence and of self-worth. From the feminist’s view, it's of great significance for Meggie to valorously fight against God and the chains of the patriarchal society since women are usually seen as blind and weak. This represents the huge development of Meggie’s feminine consciousness in the patriarchal society.

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