ABSTRACT
Hermaphroditism refers to the nature of original animal or plant, which has both male and female genders. Virginia Woolf is the first person to introduce the concept of “hermaphroditism” into literary criticism and creation. Its essence is equality and harmony. This thesis analyzes the double characters of Eustacia in Return of the Native from the perspective of Hermaphroditism and illustrates her self-redemption in the plight of human existence. By analyzing the awakening of sex-awareness and self-consciousness, the thesis tries to question the realization of self-awareness of Eustacia and analyzes the reasons for her tragedy. However, this thesis does not rest on the analysis on tragedy but goes further to think of the present women survival state and explore the way to achieve self-realization and gender harmony from the perspective of hermaphroditism.
1.Introduction 1
2.Hermaphroditism 2
2.1The ideal concept of Hermaphroditism 2
2.2The essence of Hermaphroditism------ equality and harmony between male and female 3
3.Male and Female Characters in Eustacia 5
3.1An analysis of double gender characters of Eustacia in Return of the Native 5
3.1.1Female character of Eustacia 5
3.1.2 Male character of Eustacia 6
4.The plight of human existence in Return of the Native and self-redemption of Eustacia 7
5.Reasons for the tragedy of Eustacia 10
6.Awakening self-awareness in Eustacia 12
6.1The awakening of sexual awareness 12
6.2The awakening of self-consciousness 13
7.Explore the way to achieve gender harmony 14
8.Conclusions 17
Acknowledgements 19
References 20
