摘要：Keyword : WOMEN, VICTORIAN ERA, NOVELABSTRACT :The women main characters in Eliots and Hardys novels clearly illustrated thetreatment toward women in the Victorian era. Victorian era itself was widelyknown by its restricted law and women only had very limited freedom and rightsthroughout the period. It means that the women main characters faceddifficulties because their gender. The research aims to find out the standard orthe ideal image that all Victorian women had to follow. The research alsodescribes the characteristics of the three women main characters in the novelsthat made them have the decision to rebel against the ideal and also describesthe rebellion itself in relation to marriage, education, and sexuality. Thisresearch uses qualitative method in analyzing the data which are used in theresearch. The method is apt with the research, which is to describe the peopleand the behavior within the novels. The data itself is in the form of quotationsfrom the novels in relation to marriage, education, and sexuality. The results ofthe research are: (i) the novels illustrated the ideal image of women in theVictorian era; such as Victorian women married to improve social status andwealth, prohibited to have adequate education, and had to have attitude of alady, (ii) the characters tried to rebel against the ideal image as an attempt toattain awareness of their wants, needs, and recognition of their existence, (iii)the characters showed an attempt to rebel against the ideal; such as Dorotheaswish to be partner in marriage, Maggies independency, and Tesss self-defenseto Alecs continuous seduction.
