Theodor Fontane and Francois Mauriac: A portrait of female characters in conflict

Abstract

This dissertation compares selected novels of Theodor Fontane with those of Francois Mauriac, demonstrating the strong thematic parallels and certain stylistic affinities in the presentation of both authors\u27 female characters and the society in which they function. In one group of works female characters appear as victims, economically and socially dependent upon a rigid patriarchal society, itself on the verge of decline. In the other category, women, like their bourgeois social class, become possessive dominators or potential dominators, who in turn oppress other characters. The first half of this study focuses on the portrayal of female victims in the novels Effi Briest and Therese Desqueyroux, examining the prevailing social order and the victimization of the heroines. The authors\u27 stylistic commonalities as thematic supports are then studied. An investigation of attitudes of the male authors toward their female personae concludes this section. The second half of this work concentrates on the authors\u27 depiction of woman as oppressor in Jenny Treibel and Genitrix. A discussion of minor female characters as potential dominators follows. Here too the novelists\u27 stylistic techniques are compared and contrasted. In spite of obvious differences in tone and narrative stance, both authors transpose the reality upon which they base their prose with the use of poetic language and imagery. These presentations reveal the injustices and insufficiencies of a degenerating social system, existent in both Fontane\u27s and Mauriac\u27s fictive worlds, and raise the question of the role of woman in society. Despite their sympathetic view of women, both men nevertheless demonstrate an ambivalence toward their female characters and inadvertently reinforce the sexist ideologies of their times