Representing Femininity

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Two widely differing novels and yet with a similar undercurrent, that make for an interesting and probing insight into the way in which these authors have represented femininity.

What seems to be the most obvious place to begin and perhaps the most pertinent is that both the female protagonists here lead very different lives, and yet their circumstances can certainly be seen to echo one and other. Eliza is taken from all she knows, and essentially used by men who are playing a game. This is of course simplifying matters slightly, but Antoinette is also removed from her familiar surroundings (although later put back in different circumstances) and used by the men in the book for their own purposes with little thought as to what is best for her.

Both women have interesting relationships with their father's - namely that the role of father is mostly absent throughout both stories. This therefore, may explain a little of why they both so willingly fall prey to what is proposed to them. Eliza is indeed a much stronger character, but interestingly enough has the sense to see that a life with Higgins would do nothing by echo a life with her father - a man of arrogance who does not need her and would use her simply for his desires. Antoinette however, seems too weak, too much of a follower to break away from firstly her past, and secondly, what she must surely know her future has in store for her.

'Bertha is not my name. You are trying to make me into someone else, calling me by another name.' The fact that her husband begins to turn her into someone else doesn't seem to worry her all that much - aside from the odd outburst now and then she lets it pass - she does not realise that he is doing this to try and disassociate her from her mother, after he has learned her mother's fate. It is difficult therefore to know how much of Antoinette's eventual madness is her own, and how much it has been encouraged by her husband - suspecting the worst, treating her submissively, ignoring her, withholding affection, and trying to turn her into something else.

In many ways, Eliza represents a modern woman in her time. Although she is indeed 'used' by Higgins to prove a point, she comes out of the whole thing much better off - her social climb is enviable, her life is undeniably materially improved, and she is throughout strong willed and very much her own person. She does not conform to the submissive demeanour of many women;

'Done to me! Ruined me. Destroyed my happiness. Tied me up and delivered me into the hands of middle class morality.'

Here, rather than being diminished to the 'grateful' role of someone who has been offered a gift as many people would see it, Eliza has the guts to stand up to Mrs Higgins and Higgins and tell them exactly what she thinks of what is being done to her. She is not seduced by their lifestyle, but rather sees that the moral and social constraints of the middle class limit much further what one, particularly a woman, may do. Eliza exclaims, 'I was happy. I was free.' Reinforcing this point, she is bright enough to realise that with material standing and social acceptance comes constraints and bounds that she has previously been immune to.

Antoinette however, is a slightly different case. Antoinette has always been bound in a way. Whilst Eliza has had to struggle with climbing a social ladder, Antoinette has had to grapple with being of a certain social standing but still outcast, as a Creole girl in a black community. She then had to suffer the indignity of losing her warm family core, being shunted around as a child and growing up in very fragile and uncertain conditions. Whilst Eliza undeniably had hardship to bear, her life was very much more constant; perhaps toughening her enough to deal with what lay ahead. Antoinette is delicate and insecure - she has lost the love of her father when she was very young and made the fatal mistake of idolising him;

'If my father, my real father, was alive you wouldn't come back here in a hurry after he'd finished with you. If he was alive. Do you know what you have done to me? I loved this place and you have made it into a place I hate. Its just somewhere else I have been unhappy.' She is hanging on to a past where she remembers a feeling of safety and security - when returning to Granbois she expected the place alone to rekindle those sentiments, but instead, because of the changed circumstances, she cannot recapture the feeling of her childhood and cannot let go of the past, rendering her unable to move forward. Eliza has no real sense of security or safety whilst growing up; she did not have the protected and rather surreal childhood of Antoinette and is therefore much worldlier.

Antoinette again falls short of Eliza in that she is surrounded by women - Eliza has never really had a female role model, she has really been very much on her own. On the surface this would suggest that Antoinette has the upper hand here, however, when we look at those women who help to bring her up, our opinions may change. Antoinette's mother is an obvious place to begin. She is clearly neurotic, not very affectionate and obviously, ends up mad. This does not provide a very stable role model for Antoinette.

'All that evening my mother didn't speak to me or look at me and I thought, 'she is ashamed of me, what Tia said is true.'

Antoinette is given ample opportunity to mull over the insults of the locals, without a firm and reassuring line from her mother. She is too young to comprehend why or what exactly they are saying, and simply takes it to heart, without a mother to literally or metaphorically protect her. It is interesting that her mother remarries a wealthy man and with the material affluence expects everyone to now be alright. Of course this is not the way of things, and we can see clearly how Eliza has here benefited from learning how to take care of herself, and how to see that material wealth does not bring stability or happiness on its own.

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