A Novel by John Robert Fowles.

1. The French Lieutenant’s Woman
by John Fowles
Dhanesh Sebastian

2. About the Author
- John Robert Fowles
❖ an English novelist of international renown, critically positioned between modernism and
postmodernism.
❖ influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus.

3. List of works
● (1963) The Collector
● (1964) The Aristos, essays
● (1965) The Magus (revised 1977)
● (1969) The French Lieutenant's Woman
● (1973) Poems by John Fowles
● (1974) The Ebony Tower
● (1974) Shipwreck
● (1977) Daniel Martin
● (1978) Islands
● (1979) The Tree
● (1980) The Enigma of Stonehenge
● (1982) A Short History of Lyme Regis
● (1982) Mantissa
● (1985) A Maggot
● (1985) Land (with Fay Godwin)
● (1990) Lyme Regis Camera
● (1998) Wormholes - Essays and Occasional Writings
● (2003) The Journals – Volume 1
● (2006) The Journals – Volume 2

4. The French Lieutenant's Woman
Genre-
Postmodern literature, romance novel, historical fiction, historiographic metafiction, pastiche
Published
10 November 1969
Point of View: third person, with interjections from a first person narrator
his third published novel, after The Collector (1963) and The Magus (1965)
The novel explores the fraught relationship of gentleman and amateur naturalist Charles Smithson and Sarah
Woodruff, the former governess and independent woman with whom he falls in love.
Part of the novel's reputation is based on its expression of postmodern literary concerns through thematic
focus on metafiction, historiography, metahistory, Marxist criticism and feminism.

5. Stylistically and thematically, Linda Hutcheon describes the novel as
an exemplar of a particular postmodern genre: "historiographic
metafiction.”
Set in the mid-nineteenth century, the narrator identifies the novel's
protagonist as Sarah Woodruff, the Woman of the title, also known as
"Tragedy" and as "The French Lieutenant's Whore".

6. Character List
● Sarah Woodruff
Sarah is a woman of about twenty-five years old, an ambitious farmer's
daughter with a reasonable education which has left her stranded between two
classes: the lower class, into which she was born, and the middle class, to which
her education pushes her but cannot bring her entirely, since she lacks both
breeding and money.

7. ● Charles Henry Smithson
At thirty-two years old, Charles is the son of a baronet and sole heir to both his
father's diminished fortune and his uncle's considerable one . He is a member
of the upper class by blood and by money, and he has no need to work for his
living; he can afford to keep a manservant around him always, and he has
endless amounts of free time to spend however he likes. His hobby of choice is
dabbling in academia, specifically paleontology. Growing up, Charles spent
more time reading books than most young men, and in his uncle's eyes, Charles'
interest in libraries is "sinister" - it seems bizarre to him that someone should
choose books over hunting guns.

8. Sam Farrow
● Sam is Charles’s manservant. He’s a London Cockney, but he has dreams of moving
up the social ladder by opening a haberdashery. Although he’s not portrayed as a
fundamentally bad person, Sam willingly takes opportunities for personal
advancement, even at the cost of others’ happiness. He doesn’t hesitate to blackmail
Charles into giving him the money he needs to start his shop, and he sabotages
Charles’s relationship with Sarah so that Charles will marry Ernestina, thus
guaranteeing that Charles will have enough money to fund the haberdashery.
Eventually, when Sam becomes successful in Mr. Freeman’s store, he feels guilty
enough about how he gained his good fortune that he sends Sarah’s address to
Charles. Overall, Sam acts as a figure disadvantaged by the British class system and
often belittled by the wealthy Charles. His example shows how difficult it is for
working-class Englishmen to better their situations by honest means.

9. Dr. Grogan
● Dr. Grogan is an Irish doctor who lives in Lyme. He and Charles find
common ground in their intellectual pursuits, particularly their dedication
to Darwin’s theory of evolution. Grogan believes that Sarah is not only
melancholic, but also psychologically twisted. According to him, she is
making herself miserable on purpose in order to manipulate the people
around her, particularly Charles. Grogan wants to put Sarah in an asylum,
and despite Charles’s great respect for Dr. Grogan, he struggles to believe
that Sarah is wicked or crazy. Later, Grogan harshly reprimands Charles for
choosing Sarah over Ernestina, telling Charles that he must live the rest of
his life in a way that will prove he’s made his choice with the right motives.
Overall, Grogan acts as a moral counterweight to Charles; his arguments
differ from Charles’s, but make just as much sense—perhaps more.

10. The narrator
The narrator of the book appears sporadically as a disembodied narrative “I,” and
also, twice, as an actual character who inserts himself into the scene of Victorian
England. The narrator suggests that he is also the writer of the story, commenting
on his process of writing, while making it clear that he isn’t entirely in control of
what his characters do and that he doesn’t know everything about them. Despite
that the narrator claims to be the writer, he should not be conflated with Fowles,
since Fowles is writing in 1967, and the narrator appears in the text as a grown
man in Victorian England. The story’s narrator portrays himself as a pretentious
and judgmental, and he seems to think the entire world exists for his own use.
Fowles uses this narrator figure to satirize himself and writers in general, as well
as to provide a reminder that fiction is a construction of the author’s mind, rather
than a natural or somehow inherently true occurrence.

11. Ernestina Freeman
Ernestina, modeled after the conventional love interest of a Victorian novel,
is Charles’s fiancée. She comes from an upper-middle-class family, and even
though her family is actually wealthier than Charles’s, she feels very anxious
about their status difference, since Charles’s family are aristocrats. She’s prone
to be jealous in her relationship with Charles, partly because she truly loves
him. She’s also an only child, which makes her rather spoiled and selfish, but
her sense of irony keeps her from seeming so too often. Ernestina acts as the
safe, conventional choice of a wife, as she never questions Victorian society.
However, after meeting Sarah, Charles begins to realize that Ernestina is too
innocent and shallow to really make him happy. It’s precisely her failure to
question Victorian society that makes her too dull to keep his interest.

12. Mary
Mary is a maid at Mrs. Tranter’s house. She comes from an impoverished
country family. She knows she’s pretty, and she’s not above
making Ernestina jealous of her looks. She falls in love with Sam and marries
him. Fowles uses Mary to point out that the stereotype of the sexually repressed
Victorian doesn’t take into account the frequent sexual activity of the lower
classes.

13. Mrs. Poulteney
One of the upper-class women of Lyme. Mrs. Poulteney is generally known to
be a horrible person who mistreats her servants and judges those around her
by skewed religious standards. Her secret is that she believes in hell and fears
she’ll go there when she dies. She hires Sarah as her companion as an act of
charity that she hopes will help her get to heaven, but she’s cruel to Sarah. Mrs.
Poulteney makes quite a show of her religious faith, but in truth her charity is
largely an attempt to one-up Lady Cotton, who’s known for her good deeds.
Mrs. Poulteney exemplifies the rotten hypocrisy of the Anglican Church, and
the narrator seems to revel in depicting her descent to hell when she dies.

14. Mr. Freeman
Ernestina’s father. Mr. Freeman has made his fortune through his draper’s
store on Oxford Street. He exemplifies the upper-middle-class nouveau riche of
the Victorian Era. Though he strives to be a gentleman and wants his daughter
to gain an aristocratic title by marriage, he also disdains the aristocracy as lazy
and snobbish. He and Charles don’t get along terribly well. They’ve argued
about Darwin’s theory of evolution, and Mr. Freeman wants Charles to take
over his business one day, which makes Charles feel trapped. After Charles
breaks off his engagement to Ernestina, Mr. Freeman treats him harshly,
making him sign a confession of guilt.

15. The prostitute
When Charles is in London, feeling trapped by his future, he picks up a
prostitute on the street because she looks vaguely like Sarah. This woman has a
young daughter and goes about her work in a professional, almost
dispassionate manner. When Charles finds out that her name is also Sarah, he
vomits. Symbolically, the prostitute stands in for Sarah in terms of Charles’s
lust—she’s a form of Sarah that Charles can possess in a way he never can
possess the real Sarah—but she also demonstrates what Sarah’s life could easily
be like, as Sarah herself says she’s likely to become a prostitute if she goes to
London. Furthermore, both Sarahs end up having daughters whom Charles
plays with.

16. Mrs. Tranter
Mrs. Tranter is Ernestina’s aunt, with whom she stays in Lyme. She’s one of the
most truly kind characters, and in her treatment of her servants, she acts as a
counterexample to Mrs. Poulteney and Charles. She sees her servant Mary as a
whole person who experiences pain and passion, and she does whatever she
can to help Mary, Sam, and even Sarah. Ernestina often tries to rebel against
her aunt, but Charles likes Mrs. Tranter.

17. Minor Characters
● Sir Robert
Charles’s uncle, a baronet. He only cares about fox hunting and he doesn’t
understand Charles’s intellectual pursuits. Though he’s been a bachelor his
whole life, he finally decides to marry, endangering Charles’s inheritance.
● Mrs. Fairley
Mrs. Poulteney’s cruel housekeeper. She delights in having Sarah’s activities
spied on and then reporting her wrongdoing to Mrs. Poulteney, which
eventually gets Sarah fired.

18. ● The vicar
The clergyman who serves Mrs. Poulteney. He suggests that she take Sarah in to
pave her way to heaven. He doesn’t particularly like Mrs. Poulteney, but he
humors her because she donates freely to his church.
● The curate
A clergyman who lets Charles pray in his church in Exeter. His religion leans
towards Catholicism.
● Millie
A servant of Mrs. Poulteney, whom Sarah saves from being fired. She has a
breakdown and begins to sleep in Sarah’s bed for comfort.

19. ● Mrs. Hawkins
A servant at Winsyatt. She acted as a mother figure to Charles when he was
little.
● Mrs. Endicott
The owner of Endicott’s Family Hotel, where Sarah stays in Exeter. She cares
only about how much money her guests will pay for a room.
● Sir Thomas Burgh
A man Charles knows from his time at Cambridge. He has a reputation of living
entirely for pleasure, and he takes Charles to a brothel in London.
● Harry Montague
Charles’s lawyer.
● Mr. Aubrey
Mr. Freeman’s lawyer.

20. ● Serjeant Murphy
An official of the law who presides at the meeting that Charles has with Mr.
Freeman and his lawyers. He has a frightening reputation.
● Lalage
Charles and Sarah’s daughter.
● Mrs. Talbot
Sarah’s former employer, who wants to help. Mrs. Talbot’s loving relationship
with her family constantly reminds Sarah of what she believes she can never
have.

21. Lyme Regis

22. The French Lieutenant’s Woman- Plot Summary
● It’s 1867, and Charles Smithson and Ernestina Freeman are engaged to be
married. Charles is an upper-class amateur paleontologist, and Ernestina is
the daughter of a rich draper. They’re walking on the shore of Lyme Regis one
day when they see a strange woman staring out at the sea. Supposedly she fell
in love with a French lieutenant, and she’s waiting for him to return.
● The wealthy and religious Mrs. Poulteney hired the French Lieutenant’s
Woman, Sarah Woodruff, as a companion a year before. Mrs. Poulteney is an
awful woman who’s afraid of hell, so she hopes that her charity towards Sarah
will save her own soul. She knows that Sarah helped nurse a French lieutenant
back to health when he was shipwrecked, and though Sarah thought he would
marry her, he disappeared. Sarah has been an outcast ever since.

23. ● Soon after he sees Sarah by the shore, Charles goes out to look for fossils. He
ends up in a strange wilderness called the Undercliff, and he comes upon Sarah
sleeping in the grass. She wakes and sees him watching her. Sarah often walks
in the Undercliff, even though Mrs. Poulteney forbade it because the area is
associated with immoral activities. Sarah has continued to walk there, but now
she takes extra precautions not to be seen.
● The next day, Charles, Ernestina, and Ernestina’s aunt, Mrs. Tranter, visit Mrs.
Poulteney and see Sarah at her house. Meanwhile, Charles’s manservant, Sam,
is falling in love with Mrs. Tranter’s maid, Mary.
● A few days later, Charles goes fossil hunting in the Undercliff again and runs
into Sarah. He tells her that he thinks she’s a good person, and Mrs. Tranter
would like to help her. Sarah reveals that the French lieutenant has married
someone else and he will not be returning for her. Charles doesn’t tell
Ernestina or Mrs. Tranter that he’s seen Sarah, and he realizes that he’s
attracted to her.

24. ● The next time that Charles goes to the Undercliff, Sarah takes him by
surprise and says she wants to tell him the story of what happened with the
French lieutenant. She feels like she’ll go mad if she can’t talk to someone
sympathetic. Charles insists they should stop meeting because it’s not
proper, but he eventually agrees that to meet her soon to hear her story.
● That evening, Charles, Ernestina, and Mrs. Tranter eat dinner with Dr.
Grogan. Afterwards, Charles and the doctor have a drink and begin
discussing Sarah. Grogan says she has a bad case of melancholia, and can
only be cured if she tells someone her story. They discover that they both
believe in the theories of Charles Darwin.

25. ● Charles meets Sarah again, and she tells him that she fell in love with the
Frenchman, Varguennes, and she slept with him in an inn even though she
could tell that he would never keep his promise to marry her. She did it
because she feels that the circumstances of her life will never allow her to be
happy, and she wanted to be an outcast so that people would recognize her
suffering. Later, she and Charles come upon Sam and Mary kissing. As Sarah
walks back to Lyme alone, she makes sure that Mrs. Poulteney’s cruel
housekeeper, Mrs. Fairley, sees her.
● That same day, Charles’s bachelor uncle, Sir Robert, summons him to his
estate, Winsyatt. Charles believes that Sir Robert is going to give him the
estate, but Sir Robert actually announces that he’s getting married. If he has
a son, Charles will no longer inherit Winsyatt or his uncle’s title of baronet.

26. ● When Charles returns to Lyme with the bad news, Ernestina is outraged.
Charles then learns that Mrs. Poulteney has fired Sarah for walking in the
Undercliff and Sarah has disappeared, though Charles finds that she’s sent
him a note asking him to meet her once again. Meanwhile, Sam is beginning
to realize that something’s amiss, and he’s considering blackmailing Charles
so that he can fulfill his dream of starting a shop with Mary.
● Charles goes to see Dr. Grogan and tells him about his meetings with Sarah
and the note she’s sent him. They’re both worried she might try to commit
suicide. Grogan believes Sarah wanted to get fired, and he thinks that she’s
so desperate to manipulate people that she might hurt herself in the
process. Grogan says he’ll meet Sarah in Charles’s place and take her to an
asylum where she can recover.

27. ● Grogan gives Charles an account of a strange trial in which a man was
convicted for threatening a family and attempting to rape a girl, when in
truth the girl just made it seem as though he had committed the crimes.
There are also cases of women wounding themselves in gruesome ways in
order to manipulate those around them. Though Charles is horrified, he
decides that Grogan’s view of Sarah is wrong.
● Charles meets Sarah at a barn in the Undercliff. She admits that she let Mrs.
Fairley see her walking in the Undercliff so she would get fired, and she says
she loves Charles. They kiss, but then Charles rushes out of the barn and
finds Sam and Mary outside. Charles makes them promise not to say
anything and makes Sarah agree to leave Lyme and go to Exeter.

28. ● That day, Charles goes to London against Ernestina’s wishes to inform her
father that he may no longer be his uncle’s heir. Mr. Freeman ultimately
agrees to let the marriage happen anyway, and he suggests that Charles
might one day take over his business, even though gentlemen don’t usually
work in trade. Charles feels he can’t refuse, but he begins to loathe his
future.
● Charles goes to his club and runs into some wild friends he had at
Cambridge. They all get drunk and then go to a brothel. Though Charles
leaves rather than engage a prostitute, he sees a prostitute on his way home
who vaguely reminds him of Sarah, and he hires her. However, he begins to
feel ill in her flat. As they’re about to have sex, he discovers that her name is
Sarah, and he vomits. She’s very kind to him, and when she goes to get him a
cab, he comforts her crying baby.

29. ● The next morning, Charles receives a note from Sarah that contains only the
name of the hotel where she’s staying in Exeter. Sam reveals his dream to
start a shop and makes it clear that he’d like Charles to give him the money.
Charles eventually says he’d be willing to do so after his marriage.
● Charles and Sam take the train to Exeter, then return to Lyme. Charles and
Ernestina live happily ever after, and Mrs. Poulteney dies and goes to hell.
However, the narrator admits that this ending is false; it’s only what Charles
wanted to happen.
● In reality, when Charles arrives in Exeter, he goes to Sarah’s hotel. She’s
hurt her ankle, so he goes up to her room. After initial awkwardness, they’re
both filled with desire and have sex with each other. Charles says he’ll marry
her, but she protests. When Charles is dressing, he sees blood on his shirt
and realizes that Sarah was a virgin—she has lied about Varguennes. He’s
shocked and confused, and she makes him leave.

30. ● Charles goes to a church, where he realizes that he doesn’t need to worry
about the judgment of the dead, and that the purpose of Christianity should
be to create a world in which Christ can be uncrucified. He decides to marry
Sarah instead of Ernestina.
● The next morning, Charles sends Sam to Sarah with a letter telling her that
he’s breaking off his engagement to Ernestina. If she’s willing to marry him,
she should keep the brooch he’s enclosing, and if not, she should send it
back with Sam. Sam brings nothing back. Charles goes to Lyme and tells
Ernestina first that he was going to marry her for the wrong reasons, then
that he’s in love with someone else. She pleads with him and finally
collapses.
● Charles fetches Dr. Grogan. When Sam finds out what Charles has done, he
quits. After Dr. Grogan tends to Ernestina, he visits Charles and tells him
how morally despicable his actions are. He’ll have to spend the rest of his life
proving that he made his choice for the right reasons.

31. ● Charles returns to Exeter, but when he gets to Sarah’s hotel he finds that
she’s gone to London and left no way to contact her. Charles discovers that
Sam never delivered his letter. On the train to London the next morning, the
narrator sits in Charles’s compartment and tries to figure out what to do
with him. The narrator decides that he must show two possible endings.
● Charles begins to scour London for Sarah, to no avail. Mr. Freeman and his
lawyers force Charles to sign a confession of guilt saying that he had an
affair and broke his promise to Ernestina without cause. He becomes
depressed and travels Europe for a year and a half, finding joy in nothing.
Meanwhile, Sam works in Mr. Freeman’s store and begins to be successful.
One day Mary sees Sarah going into a house in Chelsea.

32. ● Charles goes to the United States and travels extensively until he receives a
telegram that his lawyer has found Sarah. He returns to London and goes to
the house where Sarah is living, which is owned by the painter Dante
Gabriel Rossetti. Sarah is working as his assistant, and she feels like she
belongs for the first time. Charles has come to save her, but she doesn’t
want to be saved. To his fury, she tells him they can’t be together, and they
argue. Just as Charles is about to leave, Sarah reveals that she’s had his child.
There seems to be hope that they’ll be together as a family after all.
● However, the narrator also presents a second possible ending. After Charles
and Sarah argue, Charles perceives that Sarah is offering the opportunity for
them to have a platonic relationship. He refuses, and leaves the house
without seeing the child. He begins to realize that life cannot be solved, but
is meant to be endured.

34. References:
● https://www.gradesaver.com/the-french-lieutenants-woman/study-
guide/character-list
● https://www.docsity.com/es/john-fowles-the-french-lieutenant-s-woman-
analisis-de-personajes-y-resumen-de-la-obra-en-ingles/3868976/
● https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fowles.
● https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-french-lieutenant-s-woman/summary
● https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-french-lieutenant-s-woman/characters

35. Thank You…