"The French Lieutenant's Woman"

Paper Summary:

A paper which details how theories from Charles Darwin's "Origin of the Species" conveys themes discussed within the lives of the main characters in the novel, "The French Lieutenant's Woman" by John Fowles. The paper explores Darwinism and how it pertains to Charles, Sarah and the narrator. It also demonstrates societal evolution within the context of Darwinism.

From the Paper:

"The narrator discusses Darwin and relates his ideas to the condition of the characters. Fowles suggests that despite evolution, every species struggles and often loses the same kinds of fights fought and lost centuries before. To Fowles, evolution, in essence, means both change and no change. In the novel, the narrator says himself: "Darwinism, as its shrewder opponents realized, led open the floodgates to something far more serious than the undermining of the Biblical account of the origins of man; its deepest implications lay in the direction of determinism and behaviorism" (pg. 120)."

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