An Analysis of the Multiple Endings in The French Lieutenant's Woman

摘 要：《法國中尉的女人》是約翰·福爾斯（John Fowles）于1969年所寫。與傳統小說不同，《法國中尉的女人》內含多重結局。每個結局都描述了查爾斯追求薩拉的不同結果。但是，這三個結局都有一個共同點：它們都象征著存在主義理論中自由選擇的重要性。

關鍵詞：多重結局;自由選擇;存在主義

Abstract：The French Lieutenant’s Woman is a fiction novel written by John Fowles in 1969. Different from traditional novels，The French Lieutenant’s Woman offers multiple endings instead of single ending. Each describes a possible ending for Charles’s pursuit of Sarah. All the three endings，however，have one thing in common：they all symbolize the importance of free choice in existentialism theory.

Key words：multiple endings;free choice;existentialism

The French Lieutenant’s Woman depicts an entangled relationship between an amateur naturalist Charles Smithson and an abandoned woman Sarah Woodruff. Even though it seems impossible to link the two characters together，readers can find a way to unravel the complex questions as penetrating to the woman’s story. The appealing plots and sapid languages fascinate vast readers and critics.

1.The background of novel—Victorian age

The time Fowles lives is one hundred years after the Victorian era，but the story of takes place in Victorian era. Insofar as Fowles extracts the ubiquitous commotions to construct the ironic plight where people lives in. In the novel，Fowles emphasizes the background several times and even summarize the traits of Victorian age in chapter 35：“ An age where woman was sacred;and where you could buy a thirteen-year-old girl for a few pounds. ”（276）The Victorian is such a prolix age. It is the age that generates persons like Sarah，Charles，Mrs. Poulteney as well as Mr. Freeman.

2.An Analysis of the significance Multiple Endings

Fowles offers three different endings：The first ends with Charles married to Ernestina，the second with a successful reestablishment of a relationship with Sarah，and the third with Charles cast back into the world without a partner. In the first ending，the main plot in this part is ostensible a happy ending. But there are very few reader like this ending because it is inappropriate with the setting of the previous plots. Compared with the second ending，the third one embodies the theme freedom in a more advanced way，in the third ending，Charles detaches with all the factors which handicaps him in pursuing independent personality——marriage，family，heritage and Sarah.

Critic Michelle Phillips Buchberger discusses these endings as a demonstration of “Fowles’s rejection of a narrow mimesis” of reality;rather Fowles presents this multiplicity of endings to highlight the role of the author in plot choices.（Buchberger 147）Those three endings is not only an experimental of narrative form but the method to make the novel reach an integrity of full-scale. Moreover，All the three endings embody the significance of free choice in existentialism.

According to existentialism，free choice is the operative method to tackle the disorientation sense in the absurd world. In general，Sarah and Charles live in Victorian age in which the world is chaotic and absurd in many aspects，even though the environment they live is unsatisfactory，Sarah and Charles are fraught with passion and hope as they fighting against the plight. The experience they confront is accord with the doctrine of existentialism and make them determine the free choice in their life.

3.Conclusion

It is not comprehensible to say that the novel with its multiple endings is a mere experiment with the narrative form. It is the controversial content that determines the form of the narrative. The factor of entanglement in Charles and Sarah’s personality makes it possible to have such multiple endings and make the novel so splendid and intriguing. In conclusion，all the three ending embody the key concept in existentialism：free choice is the operative method to tackle the disorientation sense in the absurd world.

Works Cited

[1]Buchberger，Michelle Phillips. "John Fowles's Novels of the 1950s and 1960s." The Yearbook of English Studies. 42（2012）：132–150.

[2]Fowles，John. The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Boston：Little Brown，1969.

[3]Kaufmann，Walter. Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre. New York：Meridian Books，1956.

作者簡介：

許騫文（1994- ）、女、吉林大學英語專業2017級碩士研究生、研究方向：英美文學。