The narrator has a very strong presence in the novel, both to guide the linear time line as well as to provide commentary to various things throughout the book. Switching back from the diegetic world of Victorian England to his more modern time of the 1960’s, he draws conclusions from the information that is presented. The narrator provides insight to characters’ thoughts and backgrounds as well as provides historical background for the time period. He then contrasts Victorian time with his modern day. The narrator though can be seen to be somewhat unreliable, especially because of the switching of the time period of which we are reading. The unreliability of maintaining the linear narrative contributes to the presence of the characters by
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She is first a physical sight, initiating the male gaze perspective on her, but eventually you are brought closer and closer to understanding her. She is referred to as “poor tragedy” (Fowles 8) or more crudely the “French Lieutenant's woman” (Fowles 9). One of the first glimpses you get into the life of Sarah is a narrative passage, something that couldn’t be brought into the film. The passage makes it easy for readers to relate to Sarah as a character, explaining her personality, as well as her past. The passage explains Sarah’s intelligence as one of a psychological essence. She was easily able to understand people, “in the fullest sense of that word” (Fowles 52). Her deep understanding of people was “the first curse of her life; the second was her education” (page 52). She didn’t get along very well with other students because “they looked down on her; and she looked up through them. Thus it had come about that she had read far more fiction, and far more poetry, those two sanctuaries of the lonely, than most of her kind” (Page 53). As you learn about her background, you learn that “her father had forced her out of her own class, but could not raise her to the next” (pg 53) due to her higher class education yet low social standing. This long winded description helps the readers to understand Sarah’s predicament, of being intellectually raised to a standard of which she couldn’t happily survive in the lowered class she was forced to be in. This inability to find a proper place to belong to class wise was contributed to Sarah’s depression as well as her freedom from the norms of her society, as was her difficulty at socializing because of her ability to see others “as they were and not as they tried to seem.” (page 58). In the film, her past was barely touched
She is first a physical sight, initiating the male gaze perspective on her, but eventually you are brought closer and closer to understanding her. She is referred to as “poor tragedy” (Fowles 8) or more crudely the “French Lieutenant's woman” (Fowles 9). One of the first glimpses you get into the life of Sarah is a narrative passage, something that couldn’t be brought into the film. The passage makes it easy for readers to relate to Sarah as a character, explaining her personality, as well as her past. The passage explains Sarah’s intelligence as one of a psychological essence. She was easily able to understand people, “in the fullest sense of that word” (Fowles 52). Her deep understanding of people was “the first curse of her life; the second was her education” (page 52). She didn’t get along very well with other students because “they looked down on her; and she looked up through them. Thus it had come about that she had read far more fiction, and far more poetry, those two sanctuaries of the lonely, than most of her kind” (Page 53). As you learn about her background, you learn that “her father had forced her out of her own class, but could not raise her to the next” (pg 53) due to her higher class education yet low social standing. This long winded description helps the readers to understand Sarah’s predicament, of being intellectually raised to a standard of which she couldn’t happily survive in the lowered class she was forced to be in. This inability to find a proper place to belong to class wise was contributed to Sarah’s depression as well as her freedom from the norms of her society, as was her difficulty at socializing because of her ability to see others “as they were and not as they tried to seem.” (page 58). In the film, her past was barely touched