الفهرس 
Feminist Criticism and The Image of WomanOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 149 |  |  |
| | | from | 149 | | |
Abstract
This thesis discusses images of women within the context of the feminist theory with special reference to Dickens’ Hard Times and Great Expectations and Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley and Palace Walk. It discusses the socio-cultural and literary circumstances of women in Victorian London and in the early twentieth century Cairo. It also reflects the similarities and dissimilarities between the two cultures reflected in fictionalizing various images of women in the novels in question.
Dickens’ women characters are important and active in the contexts and structures of his novels. They are examined from the view point of being central acting on events and male characters. Dickens portrays women characters as the culmination of women as humanized figures. Dickens shows the frustrations experienced by women in the male – oriented world of Victorian England. His heroines are clearly considered as social victims. His condemnation of the moral squalor of the industrial revolution is exemplified in his portrayal of women characters. The world Dickens was reflecting in his novels was one that dealt harshly with women who could not or would not conform to socially approved patterns of feeling and behavior.
Duality of outlook on woman and her role in society is illustrated in Mahfouz’s novels. It is Mahfouz’s female characters who personify Egypt, while men represent the political authority. He reflects his personal sympathies and his rejection of the values and conventions of patriarchal society. He presents both the liberated women and the traditional one. His women characters are basically defined by the system of values that treats them as mere sex objects and inferior helpless beings. His heroine willingly becomes a prostitute to improve her economic situation and to condemn the then existing political and social system. Her fall is but one instance of the social degradation and exploitation of women in Egyptian society. Mahfouz’s ultimate aim is to explode the fallacy that woman is and should be subservient to man. Mahfouz tries to reveal the many negative aspects that show corruption in society. He explains the purpose of using the fallen woman, she becomes a good example for the social critic. He portrays the female gender first as inferior to the male gender, and second as the prototype of the prostitute.