As I began this reading, I couldn't help but think in the different types of literature we are reading this semester in comparison to the past semester.  During the fall, we engrossed ourselves in articles and excerpts exploring topics ranging from free will to a sense of purpose to the meaning of a liberal arts education.  While reading Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman, the occurrence of these themes was continual.  With this in mind, I think it is important beginning to begin this semester by uniting our current reading with the topics we explored last semester through a firm hammering of our thoughts into unity.

            Within this novel, reoccurrences of the idea of place abounded.  Last semester, we learned that people form different connections with the same place.  A place that brings melancholy thoughts to my mind might bring a sense of inspiration to a classmate.  Similarly, the Cobb means different things to different people.  For example, "to a less tax-paying, or more discriminating eye, it is quite simply the most beautiful sea rampart on the south coast of England.  And not only because it is, as the guidebooks say, redolent of seven hundred years of English history, because ships sailed to meet the Armada from it, because Monmouth landed beside it but finally because it is a superb fragment of folk art" (4).  One's frame of reference and interests shape their perception of place.

            Fowles¿ work not only brings up the different identifications different people can have with a place but also the need for nature to play a role in our self-discovery.  We have discussed the need for a place within nature that is free of distractions to reflect on life and provide a break from the intellectual demands of university education.  The perfect example of this isolated place comes up in chapter 10 as Charles explores the Undercliff, a place where

            "like all land that has ever been worked or lived on by man, its mysteries, its shadows, its dangers only too literal ones geologically, since there are crevices and sudden falls that can             bring disaster where a man with a broken leg could shout all week and not be heard.  Strange as it may seem, it was slightly less solitary a hundred years ago than it is today.  There is             not a single cottage in the Undercliff now" (67). 

The area is free of human distractions, leaving its explorers to interact with themselves in an environment that is almost entirely natural.

            I also think this reading brings up the concept of free will.  After Charles sees Sarah for the first time, he begins to think "of that look as a lance; and to think so is of course not merely to describe an object but the effect it has.  He felt himself in that brief instant an unjust enemy; both pierced and deservedly diminished" (10).  The experience of seeing Sarah triggers additional thoughts for Charles.  Are all experiences lances?  Are all of our thoughts simply a reaction to being lanced by another experience or encounter?  Or do some things really come from nothing?  Do some thoughts and actions originate independent of outside forces and influences?