This thesis examines how feminine identity is represented in Iris Murdoch’s The Time of the Angels (1966) through Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity. The central argument is that the novel depicts femininity as roles created by repeated, socially regulated acts within a religiously saturated household, rather than as an inherent essence. By resorting to Butler’s concept of gender as a "stylised repetition of acts" and Foucault’s idea of discursive construction, this study analyzes how language, space, and ritual define which forms of femininity are recognized and allowed in the rectory. The analysis focuses on three central female characters: Elizabeth, Pattie, and Muriel. Elizabeth embodies a pious femininity defined by illness, enclosure, and spiritual seriousness. Her identity is reinforced by Carel’s characterization of her as fragile and otherworldly, as well as by her disciplined routines of reading, listening, and moral attention. Pattie represents a racialised, working-class domestic femininity shaped by service, endurance, and guilt. Her repeated labour and repentance make her indispensable to the household but leave her morally and socially marginal. Muriel navigates a precarious, intellectual, and artistic femininity, moving between daughterly duty, domestic work, and aspirations to independent thought, but is never fully recognised as authoritative. The findings indicate that these feminine identities are plural, hierarchical, and sustained by asymmetrical power relations that privilege male theological and intellectual authority. At the same time, the novel stages moments when feminine performances misfire or fracture: Elizabeth’s emerging doubt, Pattie’s refusal to remain a self-sacrificing redeemer, and Muriel’s decision to leave the rectory with Elizabeth all mark points of limited resistance and re-articulation. The thesis thus shows that The Time of the Angels offers a complex, intersectional portrayal of femininity as both deeply constrained and, at certain moments, open to change within modern religious and moral contexts.
