?Make Sure The Reader Knows It?s A Pretence? How Successfully Does Fowles Follow His Own Advice Essay, Research Paper

??????????????? The French Lieutenant?s Woman is full of enigmas, many of which remain unanswered

by the author. One of the most fascinating of these is that of how seriously Fowles

wants the reader to take his book. This is to say, how much does he want the

reader to believe in the events and characters presented in the framework of

the story. It is difficult to be entirely sure, as Fowles changes his method of

storytelling constantly. One of the principal devices he employs is his dual

?authorship?. One narrator seems to be a Victorian novelist, and the other

seems to be Fowles himself writing in Lyme Regis in 1967. Each of these voices

is very different and is used by the author to put forward contrasting themes

and ideas. Occasionally the two narrators overlap and we are left even more

confused as to who is speaking and if we are meant to believe in the story.

Ultimately, Fowles succeeds in making sure the reader knows "it’s a

pretence". ?The important question

remains, however, ?as to why on earth

would he want to create this uncertainty in the first place? ??????????? The

Victorian narrator presents himself as a straightforward storyteller in the

Victorian tradition. This reflects one of the main points behind Fowles?s book;

that one can choose to read it in various ways: as a story; as a social commentary;

as a critical essay on Victorian values and way of life; as a pastiche of the

Victorian novel which pays tribute to, whilst at the same time satirising the

genre; as a critique of the Victorian novel or as a comparison between the

Victorian and modern age. The book is all of these things and one can choose to

take all of them into account when reading it, or disregard all but one. In providing us with the

straightforward storyteller, Fowles caters for those who simply want follow the

story. This is the reason for the Victorian narrator?s wish to convince us that

all he says is true. He wants, just like any real Victorian author, such as

Thackeray, to make his readers accept his morals and views and to lose

themselves in the fabric of events which make up the story. He does this in a

number of ways, the most obvious being comments such as, ?Meanwhile, Charles

can get up to London on his own?. In including this kind of thing, the narrator

does much to persuade us that all he writes of is genuine and actually

happened. However, the

Victorian voice can be taken another way. While one could understand it to be a

storyteller, it is also a very clever pastiche of the Victorian way of writing.

Fowles includes many nuances which add to the authenticity of this pastiche

such as his constant intrusions into the flow of the story to explain certain

references or explain the situation. A good example of this would be when he

explains the dubious behaviour of rural women in the Nineteenth Century in chapter

35, or when he talks about the widespread prostitution in London in the

Victorian era. This last example opens up yet another of the book?s roles: the

one of the social commentary. The chapters

that contain these pieces of information could almost be taken in themselves as

essays on the Victorian age. The way in which these commentaries are presented

makes them seem very like essays, with ?footnotes discussing such things as the first time ?sheaths (of

sausage skin)? were on sale.? Indeed Fowles

himself draws our attention to this idea in his first major intrusion into the

story in chapter 13: "Or perhaps I am trying to pass off a concealed book

of essays onto you?. Within these discussions there lie deeper and more

incisive points about the Victorian age. For example, Chapter 35 could be read

as an essay on Victorian hypocrisy. In doing this, the narrator has at the same

time backed up the realism of the story but he has also detracted from it. He has

provided us with accurate information which helps us to understand the context

of his narrative, but he has also distracted our attention away from the story.

All this shows that, whilst Fowles is keen to keep the illusion of the story up

in the form of the Victorian narrator, he also makes sure that the illusion can

be broken if the reader so wishes. It all depends on how the book is read. Some

may ?prefer to skip ?the references to Victorian life entirely and

to follow the story. Thus the Harper Collins audio tape of The French

Lieutenant?s Woman entirely misses out all of Fowles?s intrusions and

concentrates solely on the story told us by the Victorian narrator. ??????????? Yet

more of this conflict between reality and fiction lies in the fact that the

second narrator, that is Fowles himself, does all he can to dispel the reality

of the story his Victorian alter ego has created. The best example of this

appears in Chapter 13. Up until now we have been reading a cleverly written,

but more or less straightforward story. Thus we are surprised and shocked by

the sudden change of tack when Fowles suddenly intrudes into the narrative. ?I

do not know. The story I am telling is all imagination?. This tells us in very

plain language that the whole book is ?a pretence?. Thus Fowles makes sure that

the reader understands this fact. ??????????? Fowles

continues to intrude as a Twentieth Century author throughout the novel, though

not in such an obvious way as in chapter 13. An example lies in Chapter 25, ?I

am overdoing the exclamation marks?. In doing this he, not only constantly

breaks the illusion, but he also provides us with a twentieth century viewpoint

in the story. This provides an antithesis to the Victorian viewpoint that is

put forward by the first narrator and also adds to the sense of pretence in two

ways. The first is the logistical

impossibility of a 20th century viewpoint in a novel set in the 19th

century, the second is the way in which his intrusions disrupt the flow of the

story. By talking about the book, ?The History of the Human Heart? which he found

when, ?nosing recently around one of the best kind of second hand booksellers?

he draws attention away from the story and disrupts the world which the reader

is inhabiting whilst reading the book. ??????????? However,

by including this he also, in a way, reinforces the realism. There are numerous

examples of this throughout the book, but the most interesting is when he

claims to own the same Toby Jug as Sarah bought in Exeter even though he, ?

unlike her?fell for the Ralph Leigh part of it?. By saying this he tries to

persuade the reader that the characters actually existed and that it is a true

story. Fowles?s other great intrusion is in Chapter 44, when provides us with a

?thoroughly traditional ending? and tells us that Charles and Ernestina ?did

not live happily ever after? and ?begat what shall it be- let us say seven

children? and that Sam and Mary ?married, and bred, and died, in the monotonous

fashion of their kind?.? By writing this

ending in a throwaway and careless style and not being as precise about details

as he has been in the rest of the book, Fowles suggests that ?it is all a

pretence?. It goes against all the attempts of the Victorian narrator to

convince us that all the events he describes are true. However, Fowles once

more contradicts himself in the next chapter when he admits that actually, ?all

(he) has described in the last two chapters?did not happen quite in the way

(we) might have been led to believe?. He then goes on to tell us the rest of

the story until we get to the last two chapters in which he provides us with

two possible conclusions to the book. Not only does this show conclusively that

the events in the book have been fictional despite both narrator?s efforts to

convince us to the contrary , as it is impossible for people to live two lives,

but it also fits in with one of the other aims of the book, that of juxtaposing

the Victorian and modern novel. The fact that

the book has three endings shows that Fowles has tried to make it a very

modernist novel, in stark contrast to the Victorian side of his book, as there

would never be more that one ending in a Nineteenth Century novel. It also

deals very nicely with the existentialist ideas that have been presented

throughout the book, that one should ?know thyself? and make your own decisions

on how to live your life. Throughout the book, Charles has been a very

Victorian character in a Victorian framework, but all the time he is striving

to become more modern, as Sarah surely is. In two of these endings he fails at

this goal, it is only when he meets his child that he can take the first step

towards the Twentieth ?Century. ??????????? Therefore,

in conclusion it can be said that, ultimately, Fowles does make sure the reader

knows ?it?s a pretence?. However, it is not made easy by the fact he constantly

contradicts himself. Fowles, in the guise of the Victorian story teller tries

to convince you that it is all true, and then, in the guise of a modern writer,

he tries his best to make it clear that it is all a pretence and his real

motive for writing the story is to make a number of points oabout the Victorian

age and modern novel and the conflict between them. It is made even more

confusing by the fact that sometimes even the modern novelist contradicts

himself again to try to tell us that it is all genuine, for example the Toby

Jug. However, despite all this confusion, we have chapter thirteen and the

multiple endings to prove to us that it is, indeed, ?a pretence?. ??????????? Now

we have established that Fowles follows his own advice very successfully, the

question remains as to why ?he chooses

to create the complication in the first place? It cannot be simply that he

wants to show himself to be a clever writer (although that he clearly is), but

that he wants to make a point about the modern novel. Traditionally the reader

is encouraged to immerse himself fully in the story and suspend his disbelief,

but Fowles wants to stop the reader from being lulled into this passive state,

so he creates all the devices discussed above to keep the reader on his toes and

attentive. Thus he turns the passive reader into an active one. He does not

wish the reader to take the easy option of believing completely in the environment

he creates and so he intervenes constantly with reminders that it is all a

pretence, and in doing so keeps the reader alert and makes the experience that

much more demanding. Word Count: 1,861Bibliography The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles The Modern British Novel by