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My favorite literary heroinesThere’s an important experience that straight women and gay women have in common — and no, I don’t mean lusting after Angelina Jolie. Falling in love with literary heroines seems to me like something that transcends sexuality, mostly because it isn’t really about sex. The best literary heroines are a mixture of what you can identify with — what you’ve felt and experienced — and what you’d like to be. They are usually smart, strong and not the most beautiful girls in the room; yet somehow they have a charm that puts the most beautiful girls in the shade. Sometimes they don’t even have that outward charm, but because of the internal focus of novels, the reader can still see, and love, their integrity and wit. Growing up, I liked reading about Jo March in Little Women and Laura Ingalls Wilder in the Little House books. I loved Sara Crewe from A Little Princess and Matilda from the Roald Dahl story. There was Emily Byrd Starr from Anne of Green Gables author L. M. Montgomery’s lesser-known Emily books, and the strange, moody Fuchsia Groan from Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy. There was shy, secretive, angry Beth Ellen from lesbian Harriet the Spy author Louise Fitzhugh’s The Long Secret. Here are my 5 favorite literary heroines as a grownup: 1. Elizabeth Bennet from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) Jane Austen wrote of her Lizzy that “I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print,” and she will hear no disagreement from me. As well as reading the book, I’ve also watched three “lively and determined” Elizabeths play out the drama on screen: Greer Garson in 1940, Jennifer Ehle in 1995, and Keira Knightley in 2005.
While I like Keira Knightley, I have to say that her performance was lacking something crucial that the two others conveyed to me: Elizabeth’s maturity, her full understanding even at a young age of how degrading it would be to have an unequal marriage like her parents’. Over the course of the book, Elizabeth discovers that her strong moral judgments are not always right: She is mistaken about Mr. Wickham, mistaken about Mr. Darcy. But she still has an intelligence and strength of character that sets her apart from all other heroines for me — and I can never get enough of her telling off Lady Catherine. 2. Shirley Keeldar from Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley (1849) For a lot of people, a Charlotte Brontë heroine means Jane Eyre. But much as I like Jane, she didn’t capture my heart the way Shirley did. Named for the boy that her parents wanted her to be (Shirley was a male name in Charlotte Brontë’s day), Shirley is supposed to have been partly based on Charlotte’s sister Emily (pictured below) — particularly in her independence and her love for animals.
There are also some intriguing parallels between Shirley and Anne Lister, a real-life nineteenth-century lesbian whose diaries were first published in 1988. Both are Yorkshire landowners who adopt a masculine persona. (Lister was nicknamed ‘Fred’ by an early lover, and she formed a long-term relationship with a woman called Ann Walker, who came to live with her). Playing on her boy’s name, Shirley refers to herself as “Captain Keeldar,” and at one point tells her governess that if she was a man, “there was not a single fair one in this and the two neighboring parishes, whom she would have felt disposed to request to become Mrs. Keeldar, lady of the manor.” Some readers might speculate that Shirley changes her mind on this as she gets to know Caroline, the other heroine of the novel, with whom she becomes close friends. Unlike Anne Lister, Shirley is conventionally feminine and beautiful, and she does eventually marry a man (though their engagement makes her strangely nervous). But I still remain partial to the scene where, running with Caroline through a field at night with an urgent message, she gallantly offers to carry her across the narrow plank over a river. Just what any well-mannered gay girl ought to offer to do for her girlfriend. 3. Lucy Snowe from Charlotte Brontë’s Villette (1853) The heroine of Charlotte Brontë’s last novel, Lucy Snowe is like an older, wiser Jane Eyre, without the fairy-tale ending. Angry, cagey, clever, bitter and searingly sarcastic, she thoroughly offended notions of Victorian womanhood — which, of course, is one of the reasons why I love her.
Like Shirley, her sexuality is also intriguingly ambiguous. She falls in love with the beautiful young Dr. John — who tends the Belgian girls’ school where she works — and also with the irritable professor, M. Paul Emanuel (the idea that any decent woman could fall in love with two men at once was one of the things that horrified Victorian critics). But she also finds herself strangely drawn towards the pretty coquette Ginevra Fanshawe, and admires her employer, Madame Beck, enough to say, “Had I been a gentleman I believe Madame would have found favour in my eyes.” Watching Lucy and Ginevra flirt with each other is, in my opinion, one of the great pleasures of this amazing novel. 4. Ursula Brangwen from D. H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow (1915) The Rainbow is the story of three generations of the Brangwen family, growing up and growing old in the north of England. The first two generations follow a sort of animal existence, having some intellectual curiosity and aspirations when they are young, but soon settling into stolid marriage and parenthood. Then along comes Ursula, whose freshness, force, and lust for life are not so easily dampened. She falls in love with a soldier, Anton Skrebensky. She develops a lesbian crush on her teacher, Winifred Inger, and pursues it quite uninhibitedly and unembarrassedly.
Lawrence put a lot of his own experience into Ursula — particularly into the account of her working as a schoolteacher — and the result is one of the most vivid, sensitive, imaginative female characters ever created. 5. Catherine Bourne from Ernest Hemingway’s The Garden of Eden (1986) I’ve blogged about the upcoming film adaptation of Garden, which will star Mena Suvari as the beautiful, boyish Catherine.
Those who have read the book might wonder what Catherine is doing on a favorites list — after all, she is jealous, unreasonable, unstable and destructive. But when it’s the 1920s and you’re starting to realize you might be a lesbian — or possibly even transgender — it seems to me you’re entitled to be a little cranky. Particularly when your husband and your girlfriend keep hinting that you’re sinful and perverted. When the book was first published in 1986, E. L. Doctorow wrote in The New York Times that “its major achievement is Catherine Bourne [...] Catherine in fact may be the most impressive of any woman character in Hemingway's work.” What I personally love about Catherine is how, even in the context of a narrative and a time that disapproves of her, she remains a real and rounded character — she never succumbs to a two-dimensional Tragic Lesbian stereotype. Those are my favorites. Who are yours? Submitted by on February 1, 2008 - 1:31pm. |
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Literary heroines
Too Many ...
browne, I love your choices.
I'm glad you mentioned Lucy Snowe. I was listening to NPR when they were talking about Villette and it seems like the novel gets overlooked. I like it much better than Jane Eyre. So, here's my short list:
Fleur Talbot - Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark
Anne Elliot - Persuasion by Jane Austen
Robin Vote - Nightwood by Djuana Barnes
Helene - The Illusionist by Francoise Mallet- Joris
Anne Shirley
... that's maybe not very original but what can I say? I love that girl.
Rebecca
Not the nameless narrator but the dead wife Rebecca. A lesbian fantasy character (for me when I was young anyway) courageous, independent, beautiful, brainy and supremely competent and 'Not even normal!' as her poor dull husband Max explains.
I wasn't even slightly surprised that Daphne du Maurier was bisexual.
Rebecca
Great topic!
Everyone has posted some interesting choices so far. I'll add and not in any paricular order...
Olive Chancellor: The Bostonians
Mona Chang: Mona in the Promised Land
Ruth Ann "Bone" Boatwright: Bastard Out of Carolina
Nel Wright & Sula Peace: Sula
Ellen Olenska: The Age of Innocence
The women of The Woman Warrior
Nan Prince: A Country Doctor
Ruth Hall from Fanny Fern's book of the same name
Lutie Johnson: The Street
Hope Leslie from C.M. Sedgwick's book of the same
Patient: There's like this longing ... this pull. I mean, does that make me, you know, like, some kind of...?
Maeby: Homosexual.
Tobias: Maeby, please. She's right, though, you probably are a homosexual.Interesting list, browne.
Interesting list, browne. All those boring Victorians and then you catch me off guard with Lawrence and Hemingway. :)
Oh, and good call with Ruth Hall Filmgrrl, she's one of the absolute best.
Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird. She is, I think, undeniably, the coolest, and a tomboy, so she gets double points.
Lily Owens from The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
For some reason, be it that it's been cold and rainy outside for two days and I might be feeling a little dark, but I'm thinking of a lot of tragic heroines who lurk in my memory: Edna Pontellier from Kate Chopin's The Awakening. I'm more inclined to read her suicide as a triumph rather than a defeat, but that's just me.
Winnie Verloc, Conrad's The Secret Agent. Sure, she ends up murdering her husband and killing herself, but the woman was pushed to the edge and she was a self-sacrificer for her family. Not the strongest woman character ever (not that I'd expect it from Conrad), but she certainly took action into her own hands when it came time.
And the absolute best of all time for me, which is a good way to end after I've named those suicide stories: Janie Crawford from Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. A woman who was herself, whether people liked it or not. She loved but she never lived for her lovers. And when she lost her beloved, she came home, tired, sad, but ready to keep living. The ultimate independent woman of literature.
Please not to be dissin' Jane Eyre
:-)
No, I'm sorry, the woman who launched an entire genre (I think of it as being the first proper romance, with the HEA) cannot be ignored. She's principled, stands up for herself, overcomes a big pile of oppression, and it's not until she and Rochester start operating on a similar level that they get their happy ending. I didn't think of it as a "fairy tale" ending. Nope, she grows and changes (so does Rochester), and that's what makes the story convincing. The only drawback is that she doesn't appear to have a queer bone in her body. Oh well.
thanks for the list!
I'd definitely like to check the less known novels of Charlotte Bronte.
I have to add my personal favorite - Dorothea Brooke in George Eliot's Middlemarch.
I know that some feminists don't approve of her choices, but I've always admired her spirit and her wish to do something siginficant in her life despite her being a woman at that period.
Btw- I agree about Pride and Prejudice, and I think that the '95 version of the BBC has been the best adaptation of the novel.
well done
Great post, Browne! I am a big Hardy fan, so I love his heroines - Sue Brideshead from Jude the Obscure (she's a bit of a pain in the ass in the novel but she's passionate and speaks her mind), Bathsheba from Far From the Madding Crowd, Grace from The Woodlanders.
Also Anne Elliot from Austen's Persuasion, someone mentioned Dorothea Brooke from Middlemarch, also Lily Bart from Wharton's House of Mirth (that one's a bit bleak, I admit). And also Nan from Wharton's The Buccaneers (albeit unfinished by Wharton).
And I'm a huge fan of Kate Chopin's The Awakening, so I would have to add Edna Pelletier...
Agreed .....
Oh Molly ...... You made my heart skip a beat .... or three. Being a fellow Hardy fan, I can only concur with your choices of Bathseba and Sue Brideshead ....
And Anne Elliot is wonderful.
Also agree with Anne Shirley, good call Postman.
Here are my Adult top 5 -
1) Elinore Dashwood - Sense & Sensibility
2) Tess Durbyfield - Tess of the D'Urbervilles (despite the tragic ending)
3) Morgaine - The Mists of Avalon
4) Elphaba - Wicked THE NOVEL (not too fond of the musical representation)
5) Orlando - Orlando (both as male and female)
and this is from Dramatic literature, but I would be remiss if I couldn't give my top three here:
1) Beatrice - Much Ado About Nothing
2) Lysistrata - yeah .... Aristophanes ... I went there.
3) Lady Mackers - Macbeth (ambitious, crazy, but "Screw your courage to the sticking place and we'll not fail!)
Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates. [Mark Twain]
PS
Way too include Greer Garson as an Elizabeth ... she's often one of the most forgotten of Elizabeths, and I know that Austen snobs revile the 1940 version, but she's GREER FREAKIN' GARSON.
I don't care if she's dead; my heart still, and will ALWAYS, melt.
Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates. [Mark Twain]
Ah...Random Harvest
Morgaine and Elphaba are two
Yes...
I can't believe I didn't include Tess or Lady M :P
Isabel Archer
...from The Portrait of a Lady. I know she's kind of a...doormat and tragic, but I love her!
I totally agree with PG about Morgaine in The Mists of Avalon. She's one of my all-time favorites.
I'll add a few more contemporary characters... Misha from The River Midnight by Lilian Nattel; Snow Flower from Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See; Lata from A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. Several of these female characters are "tragic" heroines, but I love them all the same. ;)
Molly Bolt from Rubyfruit
Molly Bolt from Rubyfruit Jungle is sort of my hero. A few weeks went by when I was sixteen where I basically thought in Molly Bolt quotes. :P
Violet Baudelaide from A Series of Unfortunate Events was one of my childhood heroes, as well as Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. I also love Elphaba Thropp from Gregory Maguire's Wicked.
books!
Oh, I love that you mentioned Matilda, Emily Byrd Starr (those books are SO much better than the Anne ones!), and Beth Ellen. I also have to concur with the previously-mentioned Jo March and Sue Bridehead. I'm feeling like a bad lit major for not being able to come up with more off the top of my head, but I keep going back to my childhood literary heroines, when I read mostly fantasy.
So, a list:
Alanna - The Song of the Lioness quartet, by Tamora Pierce
Dairine Callahan - Diane Duane's Young Wizards series
Susan Sto-Helit - Terry Pratchett's Discworld series
Cimorene - The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, by Patricia C. Wrede
And more recently, though still a young adult book:
Gemma Doyle - Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty trilogy (which more people should read! immediately! there's a brilliantly-portrayed lesbian relationship set in Victorian England!)
And my all-time literary heroine, whom people have already mentioned:
Elphaba Thropp - Gregory Maguire's Wicked series (and I swear I discovered the book long before the musical existed! *tries to maintain literary street cred*)
Tamora Pierce
I was glad to see Alanna mentioned here. Have you read Tamora Pierce's other series, also about a female knight?
I also have to say I agree with many listed here, if not all. :)
Heroines
excellent selection..ok you have given me reading tips for the rest of the year..and its only February.
I loved Katchoo in Strangers in Paradise.
And the lesbian character in the cell next to Evey Hammond's in V for Vendetta by Allan Moore.
And Sumire and Miu in Sputnik Sweetheart, by Murakami
Miss Idgie.
Where is Idgie Threadgoode?
I love hre character. Yes, i saw the film first and who wouldn't fall for Mary Stuart Masterson, but the book is fantastic.
I love how Idgie always stands up for what she believes in, treats the black people with respect and friendship, despite what societies attitudes were. I was delighted when i found out she was railroad bill and of course, her challenging the expectation of gender in the time she lived in, and how everybody accepted her and Ruth for what and who they were, truly makes her a heroine.
~I've been watching your world from afar, I've been trying to be where you are, I've been secretly falling apart...~
She's a "character" in one sense of the word.
Definitely Elphaba Thropp
Definitely Elphaba Thropp from Wicked because of her willingness to do anything for justice, but still allowing herself to doubt afterwards in her search for repentance. and maybe Jane Eyre?
Hermione Granger is the
Hermione Granger is the first to come to mind. She's a nerdy bookworm who is also a really strong witch. She always handles everything and saves Harry's life at least a dozen times.
I love Legs Sadovsky in Foxfire. She gets a bunch of girls from broken homes to learn how to stand up for themselves, and she's always fighting against sexism and inequality. Also even though the book never says it, she's clearly a lesbian. I identify more with Maddy Wirtz though, she's the quiet observer type.
Great topic
Here are mine:
man..
really, really great topic
I also love Elizabeth Bennet and Elphaba Thropp. I think Elizabeth embodies what you wrote, at least for me: I identify with her but also want to be more like her. She's pretty much my favorite heroine ever.
I also really like Tess, even though she's so tragic.
Also, Fleur Pillager, from Tracks (and others). I love many of Louise Erdrich's characters, but think Fleur perhaps best qualifies. She's more like an Elphaba though, I think; she's a little too mysterious and otherworldly to be relatable.
Elinor "Lakey" Eastlake, from The Group. I was so in love with her when I read The Group my freshman year of high school. She's a little cold, but I think she qualifies as semi-positive lesbian representation.
Viola, from Twelfth Night.
REBECCA, from IVANHOE. I was also very in love with her at one point.
Cassie Logan, from Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (and others). Actually, I'm not sure if I would choose Cassie or her mom.
Cal (Calliope) Stephanide, from Middlesex. I can't count Cal as female, but I still loved him and related to his story.
part 2
literary heroines
Idgie, Ruth, Sidda, Eowyn, Viola, Margaret, and Hermione
Hermione Granger - the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowlings
Viola - Twelth Night or What You Will by William Shakespeare
Queen Margaret - Henry VI, part III by William Shakespeare
Idgie Threadgoode & Ruth Jameson - Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
Sidda Walker - Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Eowyn - Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trilogy, specifically in Return of the King.
Ack! I forgot Menolly!
Joan of Arc
Have we forgotten the ultimate female heroine? well, one could say that she was not a literary heroine, but a real one. Still...so much written about her...
(in the real trial against her, many of the charges against her had to do with the fact that she dressed as a man and refused to dress as a maid)..
Saint Joan
one of the greatest women to ever walk the earth. truly inspirational.
was burned at the stake for wearing pants..
what a disgusting injustice... i guess at least now she will never be forgotten.
I LOVE
Emily Byrd Starr. Thank you for mentioning her! The Emily books are so overlooked and yet they are so undescribably wonderful.
I too grew up on Laura Ingalls Wilder, Roald Dahl, Louise Fitzhugh, and Frances Hodgson Burnett books. But especially Laura Ingalls Wilder and L.M. Montgomery.
I also adore Madeleine L'Engle. Has anyone read "A House Like a Lotus"? Quite a lovely book, excellent protagonist, and there's even a sympathetic lesbian character.
Oh, and Lois Lowry's "Anastasia" series is good too, with a likable protagonist and hilarious stories.