On Kitty’s Growth in The Painted Veil from the Perspective of Feminism

Abstract

The Painted Veil, serving as one of the most famous classics of the well-known English writer, Willian Somerset Mangham, mainly aims to talk about the heroine’s awakening of self-consciousness under the society at that age. Using his own special writing style, the writer portrayed a vivid and realistic heroine---Kitty, who finally became world famous and made a significant growth in a spiritual level. In this novel, Kitty’s social and family conditions were influenced by her birthplace, marriage and specular experience. After a broken marriage and miserable love affair relationship with John, Kitty grew a lot and saw the value of life profoundly, and she longed for a freedom away from the constraint of women physically and spiritually. Under the respective of feminism, this thesis is designed to take an analysis of Kitty, the root cause of Kitty’s former position as a female, and Kitty’s hard work in the process of breaking away from the status of traditional female. This thesis includes five parts. The first part leads a generalization of the author as well as the Painted Veil. The second part is designed to generalize the development of feminism and its connotation. The third part aims to analyze the cause of Kitty’s former position, as well as the process of Kitty’s growth influenced by feminism. The fourth part explores the calling of Kitty under her cognitive growth in the influence of feminism. The fifth part is the conclusion.