Amelia Cropley
Amelia Cropley’s go-to reads concern heroines, whether they be victims or victors. Sadly, there is only a handful of female victors throughout literature, and contrastingly, not enough time to name all victims. Nevertheless, if it has a female lead, it’s on her list to read, just as it should make it onto yours. Without further ado, here are Amelia’s favourites…
First up must be two of my favourite female characters: archetypal Lady Macbeth and Medea. And I ask, are they victims or villains? They both commit sinful acts; Medea murders Jason’s uncle to ensure Jason climbs to power, and Lady Macbeth emasculates Macbeth to persuade him to kill the king. Both these women are fighting for their husbands, only for them to betray them. Ovid presents Medea as a murderous sorceress, and many share that view in Lady Macbeth, whereas Euripides writes of Medea’s heartbreak in Jason’s adultery that she must murder her children in revenge, and Shakespeare ensures Lady Macbeth’s demise to avoid an ending with a powerful woman. So, are they really victors of literature? I don’t think so. Simply put, Lady Macbeth and Medea are victims of their patriarchal societies. They are forced to convert to extreme measures due to men’s cruelty or to feel heard. Medea is a good, intelligent woman, and Lady Macbeth is well-liked amongst the nobility, but of course, both women have no authority over the power-hungry men in their lives, who destroy their livelihoods and mentality – they are literary victims through and through.
imagine being killed for being a kind and amicable young girl. Why was she killed? Fragile masculinity!
So now imagine being killed for being a kind and amicable young girl. Why was she killed? Fragile masculinity! You may be acquainted with Duchess Ferrara or Duke Alfonzo II, most popular in Robert Browning’s ‘My Last Duchess’, and if so, you may be as angry as I am. The kind-as-can-be Duchess is killed by her husband for not recognising his wealthy and aristocratic name and treating him equally rather than feeding his superiority complex. Poor Duchess Ferrara is a victim of her husband’s big-headed egotism when faced with the ideals of social status. The Duke is unbothered at committing such an inhumane act, as in his eyes, the crime that occurred is his wife being what we would consider the loveliest girl in the world.
Turning now to our favourite gothic heroine, is Jane Eyre a victim or a victor? Growing up as an orphan in a neglectful household and then an institution cannot have been easy, especially falling in love with (spoilers ahead) a secretly married man. However, Jane receives a good education, works as a governess and gets the ‘rags-to-riches’ romance I fall for every time. So, Jane is this gothic’s victor, but Charlotte Brontë had other ideas for Bertha Mason. The epitome of female oppression and domestic victim, she is locked away in the attic like a prison and villainised as a violent ‘madwoman’ rather than a woman controlled and locked away by her husband. We hate seeing Jane locked in the Red Room, but Bertha Mason lives in her Red Room with no one aware of her existence. Jane had it hard, but unfortunately, Mr Rochester’s first wife wasn’t as lucky as his second.
I may be biased, but when I think of a woman wronged, I think of Tess Durbeyfield, the female character I would protect at all costs! Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles displays an array of oppression for the Victorian woman: as Tess is exploited by every man in the novel and her poverty-ridden family, she falls victim to industrialisation as a pastoral woman, and even the fates have it cut out for her. Hardy’s subtitle to the novel, ‘A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented’ defends his wronged heroine that she is not to blame, but being at the bottom of the food chain is unable to avoid the vicious and salacious antagonist, Alec D’Urberville, making her a fallen woman and wronged further by her husband, who she believed a good man.
Hardy gives Tess nothing but a gut-wrenching experience in life but gives his preceding heroine, Bathsheba Everdeen, in Far from the Madding Crowd, the life I wish Tess could have had. The two men who wrong her end up killed or incarcerated, and she marries the man who protects her throughout the novel. Bathsheba, the sole inheritor of her uncle’s estate and farm, is a true victor, conquering Victorian society like it’s going out of style, but Hardy does not give the same luck to Tess, who is killed for her self-defence. Hardy’s heroines could not be more different than night and day. One a victor and one a true victim. Is it the luck of the lottery, or was Hardy just trying to break our hearts to see every way a woman could be wronged in one character?
But now we need some female victors, so Elizabeth Bennet obviously makes the cut. Pride and Prejudice sees an opinionated young woman who initially detests her love interest’s irritable manner learn a valuable social lesson. She learns the disagreeable and unappeasable Mr Darcy is not who she thought, but an honest, fair man and her favourite man on the marriage mart, Mr Wickham, is not honourable at all. Elizabeth learns to overcome her often misjudged pride and her prejudiced first impressions. So yes, I’d say Elizabeth Bennet is the female victor, becoming socially intelligent and having the purest enemies-to-lovers driven romance.
Elizabeth [Bennet] is now the ditzy Bridget Jones under societal pressure to find a partner.
So, Elizabeth Bennet is our 18th-century victor, but how are these victors presented today in popular culture? Elizabeth is now the ditzy Bridget Jones under societal pressure to find a partner. But with the new era, free-ranged Bridget is a self-reliant, working woman (who only must see her mother on social occasions), whilst Lizzy Bennet is constantly cautious of her societal appearance. Similarly, Austen’s Emma is reflected in 90s Clueless, while Emma navigates the 19th-century marriage market and Cher struggles to pass her driving test (both as hard as the other), Emma is timeless to popular culture. Cher is a victor in popularity, style, and valuing what she wants in a relationship even as a teenager, undergoing that important self-growth, which Emma, too, develops alongside finding her Mr Knightly.
So, female victors and victims in literature is a never-ending cycle, and hopefully, we will see more victors in the rise of popular culture, but no matter which direction you look, women in literature will always be here. You just need to take your pick!
Amelia Cropley
Featured image courtesy of Birmingham Museums Trust via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
In article image 1 courtesy of Elaine Howlin via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
In article image 2 courtesy of Dominika Walczak via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
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