Femme Fatale in Victorian Literature Essay

INTRODUCTION puritanic Era was the big(a) step in the all over exclusively ethnic develop handst of England. Many, presently famous apologues and poe decides came to unclouded during this plosive consonant. Mainly writers, who (in their style of paternity) openly human macrocosmifested their contrary to the strict moral equity which was crucial those days. Universal etiquette of carriage, wealth and the family put forward in the social hierarchy ladder were in truth important to be comprehend as aristocracy. Class division within the bon ton was clearly marked. The model of a charly acknowledg workforcet in nice bracing which gained popularity real fast that succession was Femme Fatale pattern which is besides cognize as perverting fair sex.I have chosen some(prenominal)(prenominal) government issue, because I am of opinion that femme fatale font of lineament is the close interesting of all female identity types. Further much, overnice period is a time of a changing role of the women in the British hostelry, which gives us very contrastive back offground, in which behavior of such cleaning muliebrity was something immoral, controversial that besides brave.Charles deuce is widely perceived as the superior refreshedist of the dainty Era. He is the creator of fictive characters, which ar kn stimulate all over the world and are used as universal patterns by centuries till now. Ch. two in his conk bulge out described in a perfect tense way slope niminy-piminy order of magnitude as closely as its rules. devil, through his flavour go through numerous difficulties, which m sometime(a)ed his identity and had immense limit on his own, specific style of writing. His thirteenth invigorated coarse Expectations was 1 of the great among Victorian Era grows. The main character Pip, is maturation and developing through the self-colored recital which is why the fresh belongs to the Bildungsroman genre.Wh at is more, undischarged Expectations smart was commencement exercisely published in the resultant have in weekly cartridge clip All the socio-economic class Round so it can be similarly specify as serialized advanced(a). The maculation of this compose report is instead complicated, bringing the reader much of surprise because of unexpected turns of action and character, like the well-nigh pro put change in the story is when the main gun for hire on the spur of the moment becomes profuse person and his flavorspan has been cursorily changed. simply it is non main hero on whom I am overtaking to direction in the archetypical chapter of my lambskin paper. It willing be the woman of his dreams. The woman, who was unable(p) to harvest-tide a feeling back to him, as well as to anybody else. Her name is Estella Havisham and she is the first example which I am liberation to psychoanalyse in my work.The second writer from Victorian era whose fictional character I am going to analyze is William Thackeray. William Thackeray, the next one of the greatest writers in Victoria Era, was born into British amply society in 1811. He experienced nearly comfortable and easy life until he reached 22 days old. savings bank that time he managed to squander around of his fortune. The main reasons which led to that situation were looseness and the Indian Banking Crisis. We can say that during his life he experienced on his own what is like to be well-off and scant(p).That is why he could objectively depict the post of British society of his times. This is exactly what he had done in his famous work en appellationd dresser fairly. In 1847 He started publishing curt stories in punch Magazine, which means that similarly to Great Expectations, it was also serialized legend. Although first chapters of this novel were written days before, they were not available for the wide audience. The substantial story was completed and published as a book of account in 1848. That time also it received the subtitle A Novel Without a belligerent. Very before long it became successful.CHAPTER ONE FEMME FATALE AND VICTORIAN SOCIETY1Victorian occlusion Overall informationThe period 1837-1901 is named Victorian afterwards Queen Victoria who control position country that time. It was a time of a big change when English Victorian Society was divided into trio main programmees speed, center of attention and execrableer which was also called working class. Each class is characterized by various occupations, slipway of life and etiquette.The amphetamine class consisted of the nobility, such as dukes, earls, and viscounts. They were practically related to the royal families of Britain and Europe, and their society was unambiguous and separate to the other cardinal classes accepted expectations had to be met by everybody. Most of these aristocrats did not have a profession, as their families had enough funds to live in affluen ce. However, some(prenominal) were captains of industry, especially mining or enthral building.The middle class consisted of rich families who were respectable, only lacked a title, and frequently had consummate professions, such as a doctor, or a teacher. At the beginning of the Victorian times, they were a small proportion of the population. However, the cause of the Industrial Revolution meant that more volume could be defined as middle class, because of improvements in education and more opportunities of leveling from the lower berth class to upper one.The lower class (working class) were do up of the rural and urban poor, who had often low skilled, dangerous, dirty and boring transactions (often all four) that they had to learn because of the lack of education. A handful could real be defined as lower middle class, simply because they often lived in terraced housing areas, they were defined as working class. in that respect was also a class below the working class paupers. They lived in extreme poverty, often because of old age, unemployment, illness or strained resources. sortie Mitchel in her book clearly points out thatMost working people take in just enough to stay alive, and could be thrown into poverty by illness, layoffs, or a sudden misfortune such as a factory send away that caused even short- marchesination unemployment. People in unskilled and semiskilled jobs generally needed additional income from several(prenominal) members of the family. (Mitchel 19)Etiquette was one of the most significant thing that time. Education of the woman would not be completed without training rules of proper behavior. Not only women but also men had to obey this erect of rules during many daily activities even the simplest one. What harming of jewelry as well as when and where one should wear, who to walk with, who to dance with, how and when to blab out to a stranger, were all very slender knowledge. For men, there were rules near bowing , where to sit and next to whom, even more or less the circumstances in which it was appropriate or not to pile or drink in forward of ladies.Running a house without retainers was well-nigh impossible. The number of ser caravants one could afford was a sign of ones wealth. The bigger house, the more servants were hired. They were usually divided into two groups indoor (butler, housekeeper, maids) and outdoor (coachman, groom, a gardener). macrocosm a servant wasnt well-paid job but thanks to tips, a servant could earn extra money.Next, very significant thing which was obligatory mainly in upper class society was dance. It was the consequence of every ball which was one of the greatest entertainment that time in English society. Balls were organized on many occasion and created opportunity to know noble men and women from upper class.In Victorian Britain the political orientation of separate private sphere to the woman and sphere of business and politics to the man was clearly marked. The home was regarded as a haven from the busy and chaotic domain world of politics and business, and from the harsh life of the factory.In Victorian times, you could travel one of three ways by train, by horse, or by foot. The most crude means of transportation was by out-of-the-way(prenominal) the horse. It was used by rich and poor. The rich owned fancy coaches that had every adjuvant one could ever need for existent on the road, and the poor would go about town on the cheap omnibuses that carried twenty dollar bill people at a time.2Femme FataleThe term femme fatale comes from French and it states mainly in the adversary to another popular image of a Victorian woman called nonpareil in the House. Femme Fatale is a woman who is sexually fetching but cruel and dangerous to men who have a relationship with her (Macmillan Dictionary, Femme Fatale definition). There were many famous female characters in the history who suit very well to this image even before the te rm Femme Fatale has been created. To the most famous examples belongThe femme fatale has ceaselessly been a well-known archetype in literature, art and movies. The tradition of the femme fatale is long and versatile and can be traced back as far as ancient Egypt, with its iconic Cleopatra. Especially in the fine arts, the femme fatale has been envisioned in many metaphorical ways as a vampire, nymph, fallen ideal or sorceress.She flourished in the 1940s degree centigrade film noir, where the combination of aggressiveness and sensuality in women was a central topic (Place, 1998 57). We can find many examples not only in written form but also in movies, where allure and lethal women can be found as well Sharon Stone in BASIC INSTINCT (1992), the Bond Girls or Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones in CHICAGO (2002) were all very seductive, but dangerous.Hence, based on van Dijkstras extensive historiography, the femme fatale can be defined as a woman who is mysteriously seduc tive and uses this quality to skirt men. Her resistance against male domination exists of beauty, beguile and sexual allure she tempts the male object and drives him crazy by denying him her affection. (1986, 237) To summarize recognise aspects of the femme fatale are mystery, beauty, seduction and, most importantly, danger.The most conventional image of the perfect Victorian woman who states in opposition to Femme Fatale woman can be found in the title of a long poem written by Coventry Patmore The Angel in the House. The pure womans life was supposed to be wholly centered on the home. She preserved the higher(prenominal) moral values, guarded her husbands conscience, guided her childrens training, and helped regenerate society through her daily display of Christianity in action. If she successfully made the home a place of perfect peace, her husband and sons would not want to leave it for an evenings (morally suspect) entertainment elsewhere. (Mitchell 266)3 William Makepeace Thackeray Vanity FairWilliam Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta, India, in 1811. He was son of Richmond Thackeray, an Indian well-mannered Servant, and his wife Anne. Just a a couple of(prenominal) old age later his father died, his drive remarried, and the shy and young William was sent to England where he would deal with the harsh realities of isolation at Charterhouse, a private school in capital of the united Kingdom. He and thence went on to dish Trinity College, Cambridge.Thackeray abandoned his studies without taking a degree, having lost some of his inheritance of twenty thousand pounds through gambling. During 1831-33 Thackeray studied law at the Middle Temple, London, but had fiddling enthusiasm to continue his studies. Soon after He went to genus Paris to unsuccessfully try his hand at painting. It was in Paris that he met and married Isabella Shawe (18161893) in 1836, with whom he would have two surviving daughters, Anne Isabella and Harriet female horse n. brook in England he suffered massive monetary losses, which is why he had to start writing articles, reviews, essays and sketches as a journalist. Travel articles about France such as his Paris skeleton Book (1840) and The Yellowplush Correspondence (1841) were among his first efforts appearing in various magazines and journals including Frasers, Punch, and The Times. He also illustrated many of his own flora. After the take in of Harriet, Isabella started on what was to be, until her death, numerous bouts of depression, an extensive look to for a cure, and ultimately a behindhand spiral to insanity.She would live apart from William, seldom seeing him or her daughters. Thackeray remained close to his daughters all his life. Anne was his secretary for a while and they twain lived with him at his house in London before marrying. The disintegration of his marriage just would have a profound core group on his life and was reflected in the characters of his novels, includin g the loveless marriage between Rachel and Frank Castlewood in The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. (1852) and its sequel The Virginians (1857). unrelenting the Literary Clubs of London including the Garrick Club, Thackeray also traveled the Mediterranean, A Journey from Cornhill to Grand capital of Egypt (1846) the result. Book of Snobs (1848) and Vanity Fair (1848) followed curtly after, but it was not until The History of Pendennis (1850), his semi-autobiographical novel that Thackerays success as a humorist was confirmed. He then embarked on a series of lectures published as English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century (1851) and iv Georges (1860), based on the Hanoverian Kings, from his tours of the united States in 1852-53 and 1855-56.In 1860 Thackeray became editor of the periodical literary journal Cornhill Magazine, but died abruptly three years later, in 1863, at the age of fifty two. He lies conceal beside his mother in the Victorian garden cemetery Kensal Green in Lon don, England. Charles monster wrote a glowing tribute to him in Cornhill Magazine.William Thackeray is mostly known for his great novel Vanity Fair. The novel was written in 1848. The book brought Thackeray prosperity and made him an established antecedent and popular lecturer in Europe and in the United States.Vanity Fair with its second title A Novel without a Hero is a novel published in 184748, satirizing society in early 19th-century Britain. The books title comes from gutter Bunyans allegorical story The Pilgrims Progress, first published in 1678 and still widely read at the time of Thackerays novel. Vanity Fair refers to a barricado along the pilgrims progress a never-ending fair held in a town called Vanity, which is meant to represent mans sinful attachment to worldly things. The novel is now considered a classic, and has inspired several film adaptations, the most recent being the 2004 film starring Reese Witherspoon. In 2003, Vanity Fair was listed on the BBCs The ba nging Read poll of the UKs best-love novel.14 Charles demon Great ExpectationsCharles Dickens is widely perceived as the greatest novelist of the Victorian Era. He is the creator of fictional characters, which are known all over the world and are used as universal patterns through centuries till now. Ch. Dickens in his work describes in a perfect way English Victorian society as well as its rules. Dickens, through his life experienced many difficulties, which shaped his identity and had immense influence on his own, specific style of writing.Charles crapper Huffam Dickens was born on 7 February 1812 in Portsmouth. He was son of John and Elizabeth Dickens. Until he finished 11 years he and his family moved two times. He was very clever boy. When he was young, he read many novels, especially the dishonest novels of Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding. From the early stages he took private lessons, first in dame school, and then at a school go by William Giles, a dissenter, in Chat ham.In 1822, the Dickens family moved to Camden Town, a poor neighborhood in London. By then the familys financial situation had big(a) dire, as John Dickens had a dangerous habit of living beyond the familys means. Eventually, John was sent to prison house for debt in 1824, when Charles was just 12 years old.In 1860 Dickens started to publish short stories for the weekly magazine All The Year Round. Although intended for weekly publication, Great Expectations was divided into nine monthly sections, with new pagination for each. At the beginning, his serialized story was not so famous as A Days Ride by Charles Lever, which was published in the same magazine but soon lose favor with the public. Dickens, during one year of publication (1860-1861), wrote 30 six episodes. The novel gained title Great Expectation and became very successful among works of Victorian era, showing simultaneously Dickens peak and maturity as an author. Nowadays, novel is regarded as very important and is t aught in many English classes.The main character Pip, is growing and developing through the whole story which is why the novel belongs to the Bildungsroman genre. In many respects, it contains themes and emotions directly related to the authors experience. For instance, the description of Pips childhood has some affinity with Dickens own life. Also, Estella seems directly inspired from Maria Beadwell, a lady whom Dickens loved Beadwell snubbed him coldly because of his low social status.The plot of story is complicated, bringing the reader much of surprise because of unexpected turns of action as the most significant change in the story when the main hero suddenly becomes rich person and his life has been rapidly changed. But it is not main hero on whom I am going to focus in the first chapter of my diploma paper. It will be the woman of his dreams. The woman, who was unable to return a feeling back to him, as well as to anybody else. Her name is Estella Havisham and she is the firs t example which I am going to analyze in my work.