The Characters
Charles Smithson’s rather ordinary name is appropriate to his portrayal as a conventional Victorian gentleman who, because of his encounter with Sarah, undergoes a radical transformation. As an amateur paleontologist and an advocate of Charles Darwin’s new theories, Charles is a bit of a freethinker, but only in the socially sanctioned manner of his feckless mentor, old Dr. Grogan. When Charles does genuinely challenge the codes of his place, time, and class by courageously embracing the outcast Sarah, he is ostracized and dispossessed.
Sarah Woodruff is less a fully developed character than an absence onto which Charles and others project their fears and fantasies of the feminine. Her name suggests the kind of wildness, the passionate self-assertions, that Victorian repression was not entirely successful in subduing. She is a vivid counterpoint to Ernestina Freeman, whose last name mocks the respectable young woman’s conformity to her community’s dour attitudes. Yet the character who most embodies the sense of late nineteenth century England’s social constraints, its embodiment of duty and guilt, is Mrs. Poulteney, a hypocritical despot who, in a public display of charity, lets the homeless Sarah live with her but then will not let her live.
John Fowles, however, is less interested in fully rounded characterizations than in providing through these people a sense of the past and in developing his themes of human servitude. He is also intent on challenging novelistic conventions of realistic characterization and on championing the freedom of characters from their authors as much as the freedom of individuals from social custom. To that end, he is forever intruding into his narrative in such a way as to remind the reader that these are, after all, fictional creations. Fowles himself even appears briefly within the story, mingling with his characters in such a way as to confound ordinary distinctions between author and artifice.
Characters Discussed
Charles Smithson
Charles Smithson, the protagonist, thirty-two years old in 1867, an amateur paleontologist and a gentleman of leisure. He lives somewhat passively and complacently in the expectation of inheriting a baronetcy from his uncle and marrying the daughter of a rich middle-class businessman. He unexpectedly falls in love with the mysterious Sarah and has an affair with her that jars him out of his conventionalized view of the world. He breaks off with Ernestina, who sues him for breach of promise and ruins his reputation, only to find that Sarah has disappeared by the time he returns to their meeting place. After searching fruitlessly for several years, he finds her, at which point the novel offers two different endings. In the first, she introduces him to the daughter conceived at the time of their one sexual encounter; the implication seems to be that they will have a future together. In the second, they part after a bitter argument that convinces Charles that he had been manipulated from the start and that she had never really loved him.
Sarah Woodruff
Sarah Woodruff, the mysterious and melancholy “French lieutenant’s woman,” about twenty-five years old, who becomes Charles’s obsession. Born into a farming family of modest means, she nevertheless had obtained a sufficient education to make her living as a governess but is now a social outcast because of the affair she is supposed to have had with a French officer. In fact, she did not have an affair and is still a virgin but allows the rumors about her to persist for reasons that are never fully made clear to the reader. The narrator’s pretended inability to read her mind (he is “omniscient” with regard to all the other...
(This entire section contains 632 words.)
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characters in the novel) makes it impossible for the reader to determine whether she was genuinely in love with Charles and forced apart from him by circumstances, or simply using him in some way. The novel’s multiple endings support both hypotheses.
Ernestina Freeman
Ernestina Freeman, Charles’s fiancée, who is about twenty-one years old in 1867. She is the pampered only child of a wealthy merchant, pretty and fashionable but also naïve and very conventional.
Sam Farrow
Sam Farrow, Charles’s valet, a Cockney in his early twenties with aspirations above his social class. He eventually betrays Charles to Ernestina’s wealthy father by disclosing Charles’s liaison with Sarah, primarily to ensure his financial future and to be able to wed Mary, the maid of Ernestina’s aunt, prospects jeopardized by Charles’s erratic behavior and his uncle Bob’s remarriage late in life. Sam is rewarded with a job at Mr. Freeman’s department store and rises in the ranks to be in charge of window displays.
Uncle Bob
Uncle Bob, Charles’s rich, titled, and eccentric relative, whose estate he expects to inherit. The inheritance is blocked unexpectedly when the sixty-seven-year-old uncle marries a middle-class woman young enough to have children, which will pass the line of inheritance to them and leaves Charles untitled and much less wealthy than anticipated.
Dr. Grogan
Dr. Grogan, a bachelor in his sixties, a freethinking physician who is, like Charles, a reader of Charles Darwin and a follower of the new scientific advances of the latter half of the nineteenth century. He is the primary advocate within the novel of the view that Sarah may be psychologically unstable or even a manipulative schemer rather than a victimized innocent.
Mrs. Poulteney
Mrs. Poulteney, a wealthy and elderly widow, a sanctimonious hypocrite known for her acts of charity but actually sadistic and intolerant. She takes Sarah in as a companion, ostensibly out of charitable motives but really with the selfish end of furthering her own chances to reach heaven with a good deed.
Characters
The primary characters in The French Lieutenant's Woman are Charles Smithson and Sarah Woodruff. Despite the novel being named after Sarah, the narrative centers on Charles, who must embark on a quest to grasp what Sarah already understands about their constrained world and the need to seek freedom beyond societal restrictions. In much of Fowles's work, the male character operates within an unquestioned, rational framework, while the female character intuitively connects with her deeper emotions and the necessity of choosing a life that embraces free will. The male and female are drawn together because the male subconsciously yearns to escape his barren existence, realizing that the female can help him discover his emotional, intuitive side.
From a Jungian perspective, the male represents the animus or the thinking aspect of personality, and the female embodies the anima or the feeling aspect. Each needs the other to achieve wholeness. The female is aware of this, while the male must come to this realization to succeed in his quest. Thus, the characters in this novel are both representative and unique. Their story is distinctive, but Fowles's narration unveils universal conflicts inherent in their journey.
At the start of the novel, Charles is unaware of his emotional side. He is engaged to Ernestina Freeman, considering it a favorable match, and is seemingly content with his life’s prospects—until he encounters Sarah. Her gaze pierces the facade of his life like a "lance," inflicting a "wound" that won’t heal, prompting his journey of self-discovery. Sarah is also on a quest for self-knowledge but has a head start on Charles. She understands that the answer lies in breaking societal bonds that restrict her freedom to choose for herself. She fabricates the story about the French lieutenant to be ostracized and left alone to find herself. When she first meets Charles, she knows what she wants but not how to achieve it. Thus, they influence each other's lives as they independently define and choose their own paths.
Characters
Ernestina Freeman
The narrator presents Tina, Charles’ attractive fiancée, as a quintessential Victorian woman—submissive and modest, with a pronounced fear of sexuality. However, she also exhibits an unusually strong will and a sense of self-irony, along with a sense of humor that prevents her from being a "horrid spoiled child." Her shallowness becomes evident in her trivial reaction to the news that Charles might lose his inheritance and title.
Dr. Grogan
Dr. Grogan, an old bachelor and confidant of Charles, advises him to view Sarah as an intriguing subject of human behavior but tries to discourage him from pursuing a relationship with her.
Mrs. Poulteney
Mrs. Poulteney takes Sarah in to demonstrate her own pious and charitable nature. She embodies "the epitome of all the most crassly arrogant traits of the ascendant British Empire," with an unwavering belief in her own righteousness. She refuses to accept any limitations to her authority over those she interacts with.
Sam
Sam, Charles’s servant, enjoys a friendly and trusting relationship with his master. However, Sam betrays that trust when he discovers Charles’s relationship with Sarah and decides to blackmail him. His better nature surfaces when guilt drives him to help Charles find her.
Charles Smithson
Charles is a young English gentleman primarily characterized by his laziness. The narrator describes him as an "intelligent idler" who sets high goals "in order to justify [his] idleness to [his] intelligence." His laziness leads him to become engaged to Tina, who demands nothing but loyalty from him. However, his intelligence prevents him from overlooking her shallowness, especially when contrasted with Sarah’s depth. He also realizes that "what drove the new Britain was increasingly a desire to seem respectable, in place of the desire to do good for good’s sake."
While grappling with his place in the world, Charles turns his attention to science, specifically the study of fossils. Eventually, Sarah pulls him away from the constraints of his Victorian world, but not without a struggle. His conservative nature is evident in his shock at her behavior—her open expression of sexuality and nonconformity. Yet, he cannot resist the freedom that she reveals to him.
The three endings reflect the evolution of his character throughout the story. He ultimately sheds his conservative nature, which would lead to the first ending and its happily-ever-after resolution with Tina. In the second ending, he demonstrates his independence by turning his back on his social class and follows his romantic inclinations by reuniting with Sarah and their child. In the third ending, he emerges as an existentialist hero, choosing a solitary but more authentic life over fully committing to Sarah and her world.
Aunt Tranter
Aunt Tranter serves as an excellent foil to Mrs. Poulteney. In her capacity as a confidante and advisor to both Charles and Tina, she helps highlight their best qualities.
Sarah Woodruff
Sarah contrasts sharply with Tina, who epitomizes the ideal Victorian woman. Her actions perplex everyone, including the narrator in his traditional role. However, the modern narrator and reader recognize that her behavior is driven by her rejection of societal norms and her pursuit of freedom. She refuses to accept the subservient role imposed by her society, determined to achieve her desires and express herself freely.
Sarah has always been an outsider, born into the working class but educated like a lady, trapped between two worlds that both fail to offer her the independence she seeks. When she decides she wants Charles, she skillfully manipulates circumstances to her benefit. She deliberately gets caught in the Undercliff, which Mrs. Poulteney has forbidden, knowing this will lead to her expulsion and allow her to seek Charles's help. She pretends to have a sprained ankle when Charles arrives in Exeter, forcing him to visit her room. To pique Charles's curiosity and interest, she remains ambiguous about her relationship with the lieutenant.
In the final two endings, Sarah's desire for freedom clashes with her love for Charles. The first ending suggests that Sarah might stay outside the constraints of Victorian society while still building a family with Charles. Yet, her emotional turmoil, evident when her breast shakes with "a mute vehemence" as Charles questions if he will ever understand her, hints that marriage will bring its own set of restrictive norms that will be hard to evade. The ultimate conclusion emphasizes her complete freedom but also her separation from the man she loves. Fowles does not resolve this conflict, presenting both outcomes as viable. Nevertheless, Sarah enables Charles to undergo a transformation, empowering him to break free from convention and discover his true self.
