Madeleine as the Master of Her Own Fate

A Feminist Reading of Madeleine in Herzog

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.220131.077How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Saul Bellow; Herzog; Madeleine; Betty Friedan; liberal feminism

Abstract

Saul Bellow has been criticized for his portrayal of female characters from the perspective of the male angle. This essay is intended to make a detailed analysis of the major female character Madeleine in Herzog from the perspective of liberal feminism and to reveal Bellow’s feminist ideas in his characterization of such a female character, in an attempt to refute the comment that Bellow’s women characters are all silenced and portrayed from the perspective of the male angle. In the novel, Madeleine is shaped into the master of her own fate, who rejects the identity imposed on her as a conventional housewife, and who rebels against the conventional definitions of women as subordinate, obedient and weak. She courageously pursues knowledge and seeks her professional identity outside home. She values mutual respect, mutual support and understanding, true love and the pursuit of her own happiness.

Copyright

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Min HUANG
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/02/01
TI  - Madeleine as the Master of Her Own Fate
BT  - Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Education, Language and Art (ICELA 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 427
EP  - 433
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220131.077
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.220131.077
ID  - HUANG2022
ER  -