The Wakening of Women’s Ego and Subject Consciousness in The Hours

The Wakening of Women’s Ego and Subject Consciousness in The Hours The Wakening of Women’s Ego and Subject Consciousness in The Hours Abstract The Hours written by American writer Michael Cunningham describes a day spent by three women in different places and different times. They struggle in the world trying to break out of the trap set by tradition by going on a journey to search for their ego and subject consciousness. This thesis explores the essence of women?s ego and subject consciousness and explains how the three heroines in The Hours search for it. It analyzes the success they have tasted during the searching process as well as the failures they have encountered. This thesis gives a brief introduction of the background of the author as well as a main outline of the novel. By giving a brief insight into what women?s ego and subject consciousness is and viewing the history of women?s search for it, readers can acquire a basic knowledge of feminism developing history. This thesis also trys to discuss how Virginia, Laura and Clarissa(the three characters in The Hours) quest for their ego and subject consciousness by different means. With their examples, the thesis explores the signs showing the author?s hope for future development of feminism in The Hours and the kind of feminism ideas he promotes. Lastly the conclusion offers a brief summary of all the major aspects and ideas mentioned in the previous chapters. Key words: The Hours; modern feminism; ego; subject consciousness i 中文摘要 美国当代作家迈克尔?坎宁安的小说《时时刻刻》描述了弗吉妮娅?伍尔芙，劳拉?布朗，克拉丽萨?沃甘这三个不同时代，不同地点的女性一天之内的生活。她们在现实的世界中彷徨迷惘，试图冲破束缚自己的传统社会的牢笼，进而找到自我，找到自己的主体意识。 本文运用女性主义视角分析了女性主体意识的本质，展示了《时时刻刻》这部小说中三位女主角在寻求自我过程中的得与失。本文从女性主义着手，通过介绍作者迈克尔?坎宁安和他的作品《时时刻刻》的主要内容及重要成就以及女性自我与主体意识的概念及历史发展情况，阐述了《时时刻刻》这部小说中的女性意识觉醒的主题。通过描述《时时刻刻》中三个女主角弗吉妮娅?伍尔芙，劳拉?布朗，和克拉丽莎?沃甘一天之内的觉醒和抗争经过，探讨了作品中所体现出的女性主义的发展历史，展示了女性主体意识发展与女性抗争探索的历程。此外本文分析了《时时刻刻》中女性自我意识发展与女性抗争历程所取得的进步与存在的缺陷和不足，并简单地分析了原因。文章旨在发掘作者赋予于作品中的女性主义发展希冀，弘扬了女性主体意识，指出了女性寻求自我这一伟大事业的光明前景。 关键字:《时时刻刻》; 现代女性主义; 自我; 主体意识 ii Contents Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………i Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….ii 中文摘要……………………………………………………………………………...iii Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter One Women’s Ego and Subject Consciousness…………………….......3 1.1 Concept and Hstory of Women?s Ego and Subject Consciousness…………..3 1.2 Signs of Women?s Ego and Subject Consciousness in The Hours……...……4 Chapter Two Journey of Searching for Subject Consciousness………………...6 2.1 Virginia Woolf: Pioneer of Modern Feminists……………………………….6 2.2 Laura Brown: Post-war Perplexed Housewife………………………………...8 2.3 Clarissa: Rebellious Free Working Woman…………………………………12 Chapter Three Prospects of Women’s Search for their Ego and Subject Consciousness..............................................................................................................14 3.1 Feminism Ideas Cunningham Promotes……………………………………..14 3.2 Great Prospects of Women?s Search for Ego and Subject Consciousness......15 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………...17 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………........19 Introduction Michael Cunningham(1952- ) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and grew up in Pasadena, California. He received his Bachelor?s degree of Arts in English literature from Stanford University and his Master?s degree of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa. His first novel A Home at the End of the World was published by FSG in 1990 and was widely acclaimed. Flesh and Blood, another novel, followed in 1995. The Hours was his third novel, which helped him become the winner of Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999. Michael Cunningham was greatly influenced by famous British writer Virginia Woolf. He said in an interview(Conversation From the Iowa Writer?s Workshop: Michael Cunningham) that when he finished reading Virginia Woolf?s classic Mrs. Dalloway at the age of fifteen and composed his first story based on Mrs. Dalloway, he knew that he was destined to become a writer. While his debut novel would not come until decades later, he would win the Pulitzer for Fiction with his third novel which is also an homage to the very book that launched both his love of literature and his life?s work. The Hours is an experimental novel influenced by Virginia Woolf?s novel Mrs. Dalloway. As a matter of fact, Woolf originally named her own novel The Hours, but Mrs. Dalloway was the final title adopted. Cunningham?s The Hours provides abundant textual sources to research on the development of females? situation and how they quest for their ego and subject consciousness respectively in London in 1923, Los Angeles in 1949, and New York in the late 1990s. The novel successfully shows readers a process of females? search for ego and subject consciousness from the late Victorian age to the present. Most importantly, the novel ensures and expands Woolf?s work, Mrs. Dalloway, and her own spirit and soul in timelessness. Cunningham?s composing of The Hours is actually a courageous act for it is comparatively harder for a man to touch the topic related to the inner struggles of women. However, he not only accomplished the mission, but also pushed the feminism 1 topic into the field of art. His book was later adapted into a movie in 2002, leading to greater success. When The Hours was published, it received a large number of positive reviews. Gail Caldwell from The Boston Globe said “The Hours is in fact a lovely triumph, Cunningham honors both Mrs. Dalloway and its creator with unerring sensitivity, thanks to his modesty of intention and his sovereignly affecting prose...with his elliptical evocation of Mrs. Dalloway, he has managed to pay great but quiet tribute-reminding us of the gorgeous, ferocious beauty of what endures.” Lisa Cohen from Newsday remarked “Luxurious...The Hours tells three interwoven stories; Woolf?s novel echoes through all of them in interesting and uncanny ways...Cunningham writes with an empathy that approaches woolf?s.” And Seattle Times honors it as both a clever tribute to the life and work of Virginia Woolf, and a brilliant examination of the quietly desperate lives of three women. In The Hours, traces of Cunningham?s concerns for women are quite obvious. Nearly all of the book reviews said highly of The Hours, which leads to some attempts to interpret and appreciate it from different perspectives. However, since The Hours was not published until 1998, studies of it are quite limited. All of the studies I have access to are domestic ones. There are studies concerning different themes in The Hours, such as life and death, oppression and struggle, hope and desperation, and so on. Some scholars have analysed the metafictional devices adopted in The Hours, such as a paper written by Dong Xiao with the title“An Analysis of Metafictional Devices in The Hours”. Scholars such as Lauren Shih-Ming Tang and Yuan Suhua have also tried to make a comparison between The Hours and Mrs. Dalloway using the theory of intertextality. Some also have made researches about The Hours from the perspective of ecofeminism such as the one by Gong Lingfei from Shen Yang Normal University. While my thesis mainly focuses on the process of women?s search for their ego and subject consciousness. It attempts to explore the raising of subject consciousness of the three female characters in the novel: Virginia Woolf, Laura Brown, and Clarissa Vaughan. 2 Chapter One Women’s Ego and Subject Consciousness Women?s ego and subject consciousness is a trend of social thought developing with the development of human being?s civilization. The history of its development can be divided ththmainly into three stages: sowing period (19 century to early 20 century), budding period (the end of the Second World War to 1980s) and thriving period (1990s till the present). I Concept and Development of Women’s Ego and Subject Consciousness Ego and subject consciousness is considered by American philosopher Chauncey Wright (1877) as a mental phenomenon. It means the essence, and self of a person, in contrast to non ego and object. “Subject” is applicable to denote the ego. Sometimes it refers to be the willing, desiring, feeling, and thinking all to the same subject “I”. It involves a command of memory to a certain degree. It is much more complicated than thought, as it is the awareness of one?s purpose of life and one?s freedom of both the physical self and the inner self. It is not something that women are born with. To achieve it, women have to go through a searching process. According to Cunningham (1999), women?s ego and subject consciousness refers to the awareness of one?s individuality from a woman?s perception. Women always encounter obstacles on the way searching for their ego and subject consciousness. The reason lies in the oppression women have been suffering in a world where men are forever the ones in authority in whatever field. Women are constantly pulled back in their searching journey by the traditional concepts deeply rooted in their hearts as well as men in their lives. Feudal society is like a net trapping them so tightly that they rarely made any improvement during searching. With the development of industrialization, the restraint of feudal traditions on women were relatively looser. Since then, women have been fighting back in various means. They organized all kinds of groups, demanding equality with men in every aspect, swearing to put an end to the barriers of segregation and discrimination based on sex. They have been moving incredibly fast in search of their ego and subject consciousness. With the development of 3 modenization, feminist movement becomes more influential. The period between the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century is the beginning of feminist movement. The Second World War saw the suspension of protective labor laws and a renewed interest in working women, which sets up a milestone for the development of feminism(Luan Guangna 2002). From the 1990s, feminism starts to thrive and women?s ego and subject consciousness comes into limelight. II Signs of Women’s Ego and Subject Consciousness in The Hours The signs showing that women have found their ego and subject consciousness is knowing who they are, and knowing what they want to be. This first “knowing” is the sign of the harvest of ego. While knowing who they want to be is not knowing what others want them to be, but what they themselves want to be. This “knowing” shows the harvest of their subject consciousness. “It is scientifically impossible to tell what the biological differences are between men and women-if there are any besides the obvious physical ones-until all the social and political factors applying to men and women are equal”(Sue Roe&Susan Seuers 2001:209). Everything we have to know, have to prove, we can get from the realities of women?s lives. A lot of women sacrifice their ego and subject consciousness just to make others especially their male partners feel comfortable, like Laura, the second heroine in the novel who has been living in dismay for the sake of her family for years before she leaves home in the end. With the passing of the old world, the unfair conditions and requirements of women should be abandoned. In The Hours, the first character, Virginia Woolf, is just an example of those living on the brink of feudal and capitalist society. She tries to abandon the feudal tradition throughout her whole life. Women need to raise their subject consciousness by trying to figure out who they are and who they want to become. To achieve this task the first job is to raise awareness and understanding, to study the whole gamut of women?s lives, starting with the full reality. Women need to awaken themselves in order to defeat male spremacy and give themselves equality, to get people started thinking and acting. However, raising subject consciousness is neither an end in itself 4 nor a stage. It is a means to a greater end. Women have to continue the journey for a lifetime to make their life truly their own. In The Hours, this task is taken by the three women and it still needs to be carried on. In The Hours, Virginia Woolf?s death, Laura?s escape from her family in the end, Clarissa?s freedom from her old-time lover through his death, are respectively their own ways of finding freedom and ego. Through these means, they struggle and fight, trying to figure out who they are and what the meaning of their life is. Even though the methods they take are different, these are signs of their own ways to achieve their ego and subject consciousness. 5 Chapter Two Journey of Searching for Subject Consciousness The three characters, Virginia Woolf, Laura Brown, and Clarissa in The Hours respectively live in England in 1923, Los Angeles in 1949, and New York city in the late 1990s. Their struggles and achievements in the process of searching for ego and subject consciousness represent a journey of consciousness wakening. They respectively represent a period of subject consciousness development. I Virginia Woolf: Pioneer of Modern Feminists The Hours successfully reproduces a historic figure Virginia Woolf. In reality, Virginia Woolf is a pioneer of modern feminists. She adopts the weapon of writing to help herself and other women realize their meaning of life. Elena Ceausescu, a French representative figure in feminism history once advocated that women should adopt the tools of writing to fight for their selves (1970). Elena compared writing to a way of self-saving, through which she herself acquired freedom and the value of her existence. Writing, as an inseparable part of Virginia?s life, is also a major means towards ego and subject consciousness for her. The voices mentioned in The Hours that always haunt Virginia are not only a symptom of her disease, but also the metaphor of writing. In an early draft of Mrs. Dalloway she describes this resonance in a woman?s voice: There is a vibration in the core of the sound so that each word, or note, comes fluttering, alive, yet with some reluctance to inflict its vitality, some grief for the past which holds it back, some impulse nevertheless to glide into the recesses of the heart (Virginia Woolf 2000). And in The Hours, there are also several descriptions of these voices. Now the voices are back, muttering indistinctly just beyond the range of her vision, behind her, here, no, turn and they?ve gone somewhere else. The voices are back and the headache is approaching as surely as rain, the headache that will crush whatever is she and replace her with itself (4). 6 These voices, on one hand, give her the incentive to write, on the other hand, they become the criticism and traditional concept that drive her towards desperation and madness. In the very end, she loses the battle to men?s domination and tradition by ending her own life. She has failed, and then the current wraps itself around her and takes her with such sudden, muscular force, it feels as if a strong man has risen from the bottom, grabbed her legs and held them to his chest. It feels personal(5). These voices distinguish her as a pioneer of modern feminism. “The relationship between Virginia Woolf and feminism, feminism and Virginia Woolf is a symbotic one” (Sue Roe&Susan Seuers 2001:12). “If the feminism of the second half of the twentieth century has found in Woolf one of their most significant forerunners, it is at least in part because her writing and thinking were so interwined with the feminism of the first half of the century” ( Ibid.p. 211). While some scholars said: “What is „constantly in her mind? is not „feminism? but a passionate concern with the nature of womanhood, which takes the form of full development of women as individuals and as free people” (Ibid. p. 170). When she starts to compose her new novel Mrs. Dalloway, the first sentence she utteres is “Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself”(Virginia Woolf 2000). Although this is a simple sentence, it successfully shows the distinctively independent self consciousness and ego Woolf has. This sentence has been acknowledged as the manifesto of her feminist ideas throughout her whole life. Woolf emphasizes women?s independence not only economically, but also spiritually. She once wrote “a woman must have money and a room of her own” in her well known novel A Room of One’s Own. But as a matter of fact, in The Hours, this great woman does not have a room of her own, she shares one with her husband. She is exhausted from dealing with their domestic servants, trapped in the net weaved by her husband, their servants and her doctor, desperate to find herself(Chen Lin, 2007). However, she can not deny that her husband loves her very much. All these people have been trapping her for her own good, helping her get rid of the terrible headache. Her husband moves the family into the quiet town of Richmond even though it makes his own work inconvenient. However, in Woolf?s mind, Richmond is a dead place without any life. She misses London, though she is fully aware of the risk of being tortured by the horrible 7 headache. She thinks she would rather die in this lifeless place. She longs for London but can not be the one to decide what is best for herself as her whole life is arranged by men. When she lingers at the train station, hesitating whether to break the thread of confinement by fleeting back to London. She fails. She goes back home with her worried husband. “She keeps the ticket in her bag. She will never mention to leonard that she?d planned on fleeting, even for a few hours” (172). She even lacks the courage to let people know of her rebellious thought. Her feminism ideas are also shown in the scene of the dying bird. In The Hours, Virginia observes a dying bird which later dies in the hand of her nephew Quentin?s palms. To a certain degree, this female bird makes Woolf see herself. Quentin represents the world of men and tradition. Woolf imagines herself to be that dead bird because she sees their similarities: unable to set themselves free from the male-dominated world. She even wishes it is she who is lying dead there. And in the beginning of the novel, Woolf kills herself by putting large rocks in her pocket while walking into the river. She is forced to be an ordinary woman in the world which is dominated by men. Even though Woolf is not deprived of the right to write, she is not totally accepted. In the eyes of the servants, she is not a woman at all. She is just a crazy creature who likes to lock herself up writing since they believe that a real woman should be bargaining with retailers and complaining about every single trivial of daily life. That is the exact life Virginia does not want for herself. In the world dominated by men, writing is also something women could hardly approach. While Virginia dares the world by making writing her means of searching for ego and subject consciousness. With her unique view of womanhood, she devotes her whole life trying to arise the inner ego and subject consciousness of women. In the end, she fails to emancipate herself, though a lot of people think of “her death” as a sign of freedom, it is more of a compelled escape(Qiu Xiaoqing 2008). II Laura Brown:Post-war Perplexed Housewife The second heroine is Laura Brown who lives in American suburb in 1949. She represents a very special group of women after the Second World War, who are stereotyped 8 as American housewives. “So now she is Laura Brown. Her original name is Laura Zielski. Laura Zielski, the solitary girl, the incessant reader, is gone, and here in her place is Laura Brown” (40). Laura Brown, just like the quote from the book, after marriage she is not herself Laura Zielski any more, in her place now is this woman she herself does not understand. She is one of those women who are called “happy suburban housewives in the US”(Luan Guangna 2002). The Second World War brought a lot of changes to American families as well as the conditions of women. The most extraordinary change of women?s condition is that the war allowed more women into the workplace. From 1941 to 1945, 6.5million women got out to work. Well known American historian William Chafe said that the Second World War was the milestone of women?s working conditions, and it helped women achieve more than what feminists have in the last half century (1992). With more and more women getting into work, they became more aware of their interest and more dedicated to their feminism cause. This is the general status of American women after the Second World War, and this also is the upside of it. However, there also existed the side where women still lived in the shadow of men. Women were still in the subordinate status with lower salary than men working in the same fields, being discriminated in a lot of aspects. There are social events exclusive to men, and the access to education differed in favour of men. From late 1940s to 1950s, American media, especially newspapers, televisions, advertisements all tried their best to portray the image of good and happy housewives in the US, and they promoted these images to be the ideal housewives to the whole world. These traditional female images which had been criticized and fought against in the nineteenth century floated out of the history again in disguise under the label which said “modernism”. The book The Feminine Mystique written by Betty Friedan gives a detailed description of women?s conditions right after the Second World War. According to Betty, most women gave up their jobs after marriage and became “real” housewives. In this sense, they have given up their selves in order to make up a family. Laura is one of these women who gives up a lot of herself for her husband and her children. At that time, the Second World War just ended, and she married one of the war 9 survivors, Dan. People at that time firmly believed that women should make these heroes happy and comfortable. Laura is one of those who are referred to as “post-war happy housewives”(Luan Guangna 2002). However, “happy” is hardly the right word to describe her. In The Hours, Laura is barely happy, and the truth is that she is lost and perplexed. She loves reading before marriage and she still does. When she gets in touch with the book Woolf has written, Mrs. Dalloway, she believes that her life has been changed forever. Right before, she is unaware of her loss of ego and self as she is happy just doing housework, keeping good care of her husband and their son Richard, content to be regarded as a good housewife and mother. The problem is that she is anything but happy now. The moment she reads Virginia Woolf?s Mrs Dalloway, the questions on her mind are: Why, Virginia Woolf, such an intelligent and talented woman would kill herself ? Why a woman who is in possesion of so many beautiful things in her life is not happy but in agony and loss? Then she touches on the sensitive topic of ego and subject consciousness. She begins to wonder if she is really happy, and who she really is and she starts to doubt the image of herself not only in others? eyes but also in herself?s. Before these wakenings, she is becoming less and less herself but a shadow of every housewife living in the suburbs. What?s more, she has no room of her own either. “Already her bedroom(no, their bedroom) feels more dendely inhabited”(37). Here the deliberate mistake indicates that Laura does not have a room of her own, instead she shares all the rooms with her husband and the family. So she does not have a private place to read her books, and this is why she chooses to check in a hotel just to read alone. The room number of the hotel she registers is nineteen, which is related to a short story “Room Nineteen” written by Doris Lessing. There she can forget all her household responsibilities and just be herself. There is a paragraph describing Laura?s inner activity and it also explains the situation of women. She, laura, likes to imagine (it?s one of her most closely held secrets) that she has a touch of brilliance herself, just a hint of it, though she knows most people probably walk around with similar hopeful suspicions curled up like tiny fists inside them, never divulged......Because the war is over, the world has survived, and we are here, all of us, making homes, having and raising children, creating not only books or paintings but a whole world-a world of order and harmony where children are safe (if not happy), where men who have seen horrors beyond imagaining, who have acted bravely and well, come home to lighted windows, to perfume, to plates and napkins (42). 10 It is these duties and responsibilities that bind her in the small room, and any attempt to break out of it would be considered immoral. Laura thinks it natural for her to give, as other women do at that time. No one cares about what she wants and what kind of person she wants to become. When she reads the book Mrs. Dalloway, she suddenly feels lost, and her ego, her subject conciousness suddenly comes out of the surface. The feminist ideas in the book evokes her to think, to start searching for herself. While the sad truth is that she can not find it at home. Just like Virginia Woolf, Laura thinks of death as a way out, but the love and responsibility for her husband, her son and her unborn daughter persuades her out of it. She returns home, finishes everything for her husband?s birthday and gives birth to her daughter. However she never stops the search for her ego, so after giving birth, she leaves home and goes to Canada. She eventually becomes a librarian there and devotes her whole life to reading. While Virginia immerses herself in writing, Laura devotes her life to reading. Reading is also considered by some feminists as a way to fight for themselves. There is once a term invented by some feminists “resisting readers”(Kate Millett 2000). It means that women should take up reading to fight against tradition. Women are not supposed to read for they are considered to be less intelligent than their male counterparts. However, this notion is criticized and resisted by feminists, as a result, they encourage more women to read books because books, to some degree, are regarded exclusive to men just as Virginia Woolf?s short story “Shakespeare?s Sister”describes. Reading is an act of fighting and a way to obtain what is needed in search of self and ego. Here, Laura, immerses herself in reading books to find her subject consciousness. However, she actually abandons her whole family, which greatly affects her son Richard, partly leading to his tragic ending. In this sense, feminism contradictes to its original intention. Feminism ideas should be performed but at the same time families should also be concerned. If every woman abandons her family for the sake of finding her ego and subject consciousness, the whole search will just be a failure. If all men are excluded from feminist development, the result will become tragic. But Laura lives in the 1950s under the whole 11 population?s pressure, with few men engaging in feminist movement, it is neary impossible for her to find herself and subject consciousness within the family. III Clarissa:Rebellious Free Working Woman Clarissa Vaughan, the “Mrs Dalloway” in Richard?s new book which has just got him a prize, is a middle aged editor who lives in New York city in the twentieth century. Clarissa does not follow the tradition of marrying a man and bringing up a family. Instead, she lives with her girlfriend Sally for about eighteen years. She even brings up a daughter named Julia through asexual reproduction. These are the positive aspects of her feminism perception. A quotation from the novel indicates that she is the only woman with a room of her own in this whole book. Clarissa?s copy of The Golden Notebook lay on the chipped white nightstand of the attic bedroom where she still slept alone (98). Besides, The Golden Notebook mentioned here is written by Doris Lessing, a famous female writer and the book is also a classic feminist work. However, under the impression of a new and strong woman, she is still bound by traditions in some way. There is this description of her by Richard that shows her true side. Richard told her, thirty years ago, that under her pirate-girl veneer lay all the makings of a good suburban wife, and she is now revealed to herself as a meager spirit, too conventional, the cause of much suffering (16). Nevertheless, she is still trapped and stuck, not fully aware of her ego and subject conciousness. Although she has her own career, meaning that she is independent economically, she is still unable to fight against some of the old traditions. Her life is still filled with those daily trivial stuff. For example, through the whole book, she is busy throwing a party, which is not even for herself. It is for Richard, the man she loves, who in truth does not want this party at all. Richard is intelligent, and he stands for the spiritual authority of men. When Clarissa is with him, she always feels that everything she does is trival, that she is just a small person. Apart from her sexuality, she is no different from a normal woman, who is busy with her job and her family all the time. For years she offers her love to Richard and takes care of him. Under her strong appearance lies a woman who has all the required conditions of a traditional good wife. 12 With Richard, she is Mrs Dalloway, the wife, the traditional woman. After Richard?s death, Clarissa is set free by the traditions, she has gone on the jouney of leading her own life and realizing her ego. Richard, in a sense, just as he himself puts it, is like the net that traps Clarissa. He thinks he just stays alive for her, but with his presence, she can not live for herself. In the end, he chooses to set her free by jumping out of his window. “And here she is, herself, clarissa, not Mrs. Dalloway any more, there is no one now to call her that. Here she is with another hour before her” (226). After Richard?s death no one ever calls her Mrs Dalloway, and now she is Clarissa Vaughan, who will try to live for herself. She will find her ego and subject consciousness along the way. Clarissa is a new modern woman, who has gone through the rioting 1960s and belongs to a generation growing up in the feminist movement. She is more confident and independent than the former two heroines. The smile she has at the end of the novel shows that she is ready to start her new life. However, her freedom is not achieved by herself. Though she tries , just like the two heroines before, she fails. It is Richard, who sets her free. Here Cunningham shows readers that feminism is not only the cause of women, men should also be involved in this. The success of feminism can only be achieved unless women do not always determine to exclude men from their efforts. In addition, Clarissa?s job is to edit books, showing that she is also a woman who loves books. In this sense, she has the access to knowledge and she has a power over knowledge because editting is a demanding job which normally belongs to men. 13 Chapter Three Prospects of Women’s Search for Ego and Subject Consciousness Women have been searching for their ego and subject consciousness for ages. They are still making great efforts. Cunningham, an American male writer, explores into the depth of women?s mind and promotes the idea of cooperation between men and women in feminist efforts. In The hours he also presents readers with a great prospect of feminism development. I Feminism Ideas Cunningham Promotes in The Hours The Hours is full of points of enlightment. It is the deep exploration of women?s inner world. Virginia Woolf gives the mission of searching for ego and subject consciousness to all the characters she has written in her books. She states that women should have a room of her own, that women should be independent from men, have equal rights with men. This opinion is similar to most of the feminist ideas at her time. However, what makes her idea unique is her quest for woman?s ego and subject consciousness. She insists that women should be independent in their minds, too. This is the greatest improvement of feminism ideas. However, in her time, this is something she can think of but can not put into practice. Cunningham, according to an interview of him, is greatly influenced by the works of Virginia Woolf. To some extent, he appreciates the feminism ideas held by Virginia. Her awareness to start to search for her ego and subject consciousness by upgrading spiritual accomplishment is the pathbreaking notion for modern feminism(2003). Cunningham employs large amount of ink describing the composing process of her novel Mrs. Dalloway in his book. He said that he always puts importance on the inner activity of his characters. He himself is a man of sensation and emotion(2003). He puts Virginia?s death right in the first chapter of The Hours in very beautiful language, expressing his relent and pity. He does not promote death as a way towards freedom. Laura Brown inherits Woolf?s idea of women?s ego and subject consciousness. What is more, she achieves most of it. She finds out who she is and what she wants to be. However, the way in which she achieves it is not perfect. She abandons her husband, her son and her 14 new-born daughter. On one hand, she puts Woolf?s idea into practice, this is the improvement. On the other hand, she also loses a lot during this process, harming the men in her lives, which is the deficiency existing in her feminist act. Cunningham gives Laura?s son Richard and her husband and daughter very sad endings as a sign showing the perishing of Laura?s Jacobinical means of finding ego. He does neither promote abandoning and escaping as a way out of oppression. The improvement in Clarissa?s search for her freedom is recognizable, she is staying with her female life partner, she has gained her independence, and she has a room of her own. However, she only achieves this freedom passively. She has not taken the charge of her life completely. In the end, she ends up in a world with no man to love and to live for. This feminism idea that excludes men out of women?s life is also excessively radical. Cunningham adopts a much more unusual way to promote the feminism ideas he assents. All of these three characters he portrays are bisexuals. They both possess the male characteristics and the female ones. Cunningham promotes that men should be involved in women?s liberation. He does not approve the method of escaping and abandoning, neither the means of excluding or eliminating all men in the process of women searching for ego and subject consciousness. Instead, he promotes that men should also play an important role in this process and women should accept men?s part. There exists a term “feminist men”, indicating the males who take part in feminist movement to help women get equality. It is important to remember that the terms “feminist” and “woman” are not synonyms(Rosalie Scolari: 2010). Women still need men in their efforts to realize their life meaning. What Cunningham promotes and wishes for is a world where men and women are inseparable from each other, where women are not discriminated against and have their inner self and freedom. This world consists of both men and women, and the love between people regardless of their different genders. He looks forward to a world which men and women can both take real part in . II Great Prospects of Women’s Search for Ego and Subject Consciousness 15 In the first place, these three women?s achievements are the first sign of the bright future of women?s search for ego and subject consciousness. Their life covers a century, in which we see so much having been achieved. One hundred years is not a long time for such a great cause of women. It gives readers hope that more will be achieved along the way in the future. The second sign is the last reunion of Laura, Clarissa and Clarissa?s daughter Julia, who is young and energetic representing the new generation of women. The great experience her elder generations have got now comes down to her. Living in a newer society, having got more education, Julia is like a seed just planted, with Laura and Clarissa?s experience as the sunshine and nutriment. Julia is sure to achieve more. She presents hope and light to women?s great cause. Besides, Virginia Woolf?s changing idea to keep Mrs. Dalloway alive at the end of her novel proves that she still believes in life and future, even though she could not stand living any more. In the same sense, Laura?s dropping the plan to kill herself also gives readers hope in life and women?s future. The last sign is Clarissa?s smile in the end. She herself has got her own freedom, and the smile shows that she is ready for the rest of her journey searching for herself. She is ready to take the initiative and create her own future. All of these show that feminism and women?s quest for their ego are going to have a bright future. 16 Conclusion What is woman? What is women?s ego and subject consciousness? Actually women are more sharp in mind than men, because women are better at indulging in ordinary stuff. They have more profound understanding of life and death. Perhaps this lies in the fact of women?s ability to give birth. How should women live in this world,What should they do to get rid of their desperation? Women should realize that they are equal with men and should be fully aware of their individuality and ego. Knowing who they are is the first step to realize their living purpose. However, in marriage, women are like prisioners, having no freedom at all. Women are restricted in the big houses, doing the same old things day in and day out. Gradually, they lose their identity and ego. In the 1920s, though women have aquired the right to vote and the right to work, a lot of them were still shrouded in the traditional concept of gender discrimination. Many of these women lived just like the heroine of Virginia Woolf?s novel Mrs. Dalloway. The surface of their life is covered with beautiful flowers and parties, but the esssence of it is nothingness. In this sense, Virginia Woolf bravely challenges the society?s traditional concept to try to arise women?s ego. But she does not get much response and results. Just as The Hours has it, she ends her life to call for a coming battle. Though Woolf is the pioneer of modern feminism, with the elements of social background and people?s low level of accepting ability, her mind far outgrows her time. In the 1920s, most of the feminists sought after the equality between men and women. While Woolf believed that inner freedom and ego is the most valuable thing women should fight for. And these are exactly what she herself has been searching for all her life. Laura does not end her life like Virginia, which shows some kind of improvement, but she also chooses the means of escaping. She finds her ego and subject consciousness with the sacrifice of her beloved family. Clarissa on one hand gains her independence and is brave to challenge tradition, for example, by living with her lesbian partner Sally. However, her attachment to Richard prevents her from leading her own life. Even though at last she turns 17 free, she is not the one who makes it happen. She is not the one who is in charge of her whole life. The book does not tell us what will happen later in her life, but the smile she has in the end of the novel is the hope Cunningham gives us readers. And it indicates the bright future of modern feminism. Cunningham, a male writer, digs so deep into women?s inner world that his work evokes the readers? especially women readers? resonance. The Hours is a meaningful work that can make women think and wake up. In The Hours Cunningham uses description of inner activity to arise readers? awareness of women?s situation and gives them an incitement to further the search for ego and subject consciousness. The reasons leading to the unfairness between women and men are formed through long history. As a result, it needs time and efforts to get rid of the unfairness in the society. The three characters in The Hours bravely start their search and this is the encouraging force behind this work. 18 Bibliography Ceausescu Elena. 2004. Writing and Sexual Difference[M]. Palgrave Macmillan. Cunningham Michael. 2002. The Hours [M]. New York : Picador USA. Deborah L. Madsen. 2006. Feminist Theory and Literary Practice[M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Friedan Betty. 2001. The Feminine Mystique[M]. W.W.Norton&Company. [M]. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Roe Sue & Seuers Susan. 2001. Virginia Woolf [M]. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. Singh, S. 1991. 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