The Change and Development of Female Images of Different Social Periods Reflected

Abstract

Before the emergence of deconstructivism, the idea of gender binary opposition occupied the mainstream of social thought. Female was regarded as second gender, attached to male who occupied social resources, and female’s subject consciousness was also weak. The proposal of deconstructivism broke this gender binary opposition, which belongs to the product of patriarchal society, female’s self-consciousness also gradually awakened. With the development of society through different eras, the changes of women’s status and thoughts in the real world are also accurately reflected in the literary works at that time. This paper takes the female images in three classic literary works in different social periods as the key point, including Tom Jones in classicism, Jane Eyre in Romanticism and O Pioneers! in Modernism. By analyzing the surface changes of these female images and the deep social reasons that promote such changes, this paper reflects the changes in social power structure and social resource distribution caused by the development of time and people’s ideological liberation, criticizes the imprisonment and oppression of women in the old society, and witnesses the gradual awakening of female consciousness and the birth of a relatively just society.