The Image of Women: A Feminist Reading of The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

Abstract

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing is a powerful account of a woman searching for her personal and political identity. Anna Wulf, the protagonist, negotiates the trauma of emotional rejection and sexual betrayal, and the tensions of friendship and family. This study has been written with an aim to interpret Lessing’s novel from the feminist point of view. The study shows how the novelist artistically discusses the challenges to feminism that is reflected in the novel. The study not only reflects the fragmentation of the protagonist’s inner world, but also the chaotic society she lives in. This work examines the theme, structure, characters and narrative style of the novel, which serve well for the aim of its feminist interpretation. Most importantly, the study concerns about how women were considered subordinate to their male counterparts. For this purpose, Simon de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex has been taken as a tool to elaborate the concept of women as Other, which is projected in Lessing’s novel.