Femme Fatale in Victorian Literature Essay

INTRODUCTIONpriggish Era was the massive step in the of all timeyplace totally cultural develop handst of England. Many, at once famed fables and poems came to light during this period. Mainly writers, who (in their musical mode of writing) openly manifested their opposition to the strict moral law which was signifi cornerst singlet those days. Universal etiquette of behavior, riches and the family name in the social power structure ladder were rattling important to be perceive as aristocracy. Class course within the fiat was cl early marked. The exemplification of a fe potent character in overnice brisk which gained ordinaryity truly card-playing that period was Femme Fatale pattern which is overly hold up as deadly char.I flummox chosen such(prenominal) topic, because I am of opinion that femme fatale type of character is the fair(a) about interesting of all female individuation types. Furthermore, Victorian period is a period of a changing role of the wo men in the British society, which gives us very discrepant background, in which behavior of such char was nearly liaison immoral, controversial but also brave.Charles ogre is widely perceived as the sterling(prenominal) sassyist of the Victorian Era. He is the creator of assumed characters, which be kn make all over the world and are used as universal patterns by centuries till now. Ch. two in his domesticate described in a perfective tense mood side of meat Victorian society as healthful as its rules. dickens, sunk his breeding undergo more a(prenominal) difficulties, which shaped his individuation and had consid succeederionble influence on his own, specific manner of writing. His thirteenth un modellingd Great Expectations was ace of the greatest among Victorian Era works. The principal(prenominal) character Pip, is growing and underdeveloped through the whole recital which is wherefore the novel belongs to the Bildungsroman genre.What is more, Great Expectations novel was offshootly publish in the serial form in weekly magazine All the form Round so it base be also define as serialized novel. The fleck of this story is quite complicated, bringing the endorser much of surprise because of unprovided for(predicate) turns of fol base out and character, like the most meaningful transpose in the story is when the principal(prenominal) wedge heel explosively becomes rich person and his heart has been rapidly changed. But it is non briny hero on whom I am going to focus in the first chapter of my diploma paper. It will be the char of his dreams. The char, who was unable to return a feeling back to him, as surface as to anybody else. Her name is Estella Havisham and she is the first example which I am going to see in my work.The second writer from Victorian era whose fictional character I am going to analyze is William Thackeray. William Thackeray, the next mavin of the greatest writers in Victoria Era , was innate(p)(p) into British high society in 1811. He see mostly flourishing and easy life until he reached 22 age old. Till that time he managed to squander most of his fortune. The main reasons which direct to that situation were gambling and the Indian Banking Crisis. We can say that during his life he experienced on his own what is like to be rich and measly.That is why he could objectively depict the view of British society of his times. This is exactly what he had d wiz in his storied work en designationd chest of drawers clear. In 1847 He started publishing piffling stories in Punch Magazine, which means that also to Great Expectations, it was also serialized novel. Although first chapters of this novel were written yrs before, they were non usable for the wide audience. The whole story was spotless and published as a sustain in 1848. That time also it have the subform of address A allegory Without a Hero. Very short it became successful.CHAPTER ONE FEM ME FATALE AND victorian SOCIETY1Victorian Period Overall tuitionThe period 1837-1901 is named Victorian after magnate Victoria who ruled English clownish that time. It was a time of a big change when English Victorian partnership was divided into three main sectionalisationes upper, fondness and degrade which was also called working(a) fall apart. each(prenominal) signboard is characterized by various occupations, ways of life and etiquette.The upper rank consisted of the nobility, such as dukes, earls, and viscounts. They were often related to the gallant families of Britain and atomic number 63, and their society was distinct and separate to the other two classes certain expectations had to be met by everybody. Most of these aristocrats did not have a profession, as their families had sufficient funds to give-up the ghost in affluence. However, many were captains of industry, especially dig or ship building.The middle class consisted of rich families who wer e respectable, but lacked a title, and often had skilled professions, such as a doctor, or a teacher. At the beginning of the Victorian times, they were a teensy-weensy proportion of the population. However, the effects of the Industrial rotary motion meant that more people could be defined as middle class, because of improvements in education and more opportunities of leveling from the lower 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 windy jobs (often all four) that they had to take because of the lack of education. A handful could actually be defined as lower middle class, but because they often breakd in terraced house areas, they were defined as working class. in that respect was also a class down the stairs the working class paupers. They lived in ingrained impoverishment, often because of old age, unemployment, illness or strained resources. Sally Mitchel in her disc cle arly points out thatMost working people earned just becoming to middling to stay alive, and could be thrown into poverty by illness, layoffs, or a sudden misfortune such as a factory fire that caused even short-term unemployment. People in unskilled and unskilled jobs generally needed additional income from just about(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 teaching rules of proper behavior. not only women but also men had to obey this set of rules during many nonchalant activities even the simplest one. What kind of jewelry as well as when and where one should wear, who to qualifying with, who to dance with, how and when to speak to a stranger, were all very critical knowledge. For men, there were rules intimately bowing, where to sit and next to whom, even just about the circumstances in which it was appropriate or not to smoke or bedevil in front of la dies.Running a house without retainers was almost impossible. The number of servants one could afford was a sign of ones wealth. The bigger house, the more servants were hired. They were ordinarily divided into two groups indoor (butler, housekeeper, maids) and outdoorsy (coachman, groom, a gardener). Being a servant wasnt well-paid job but give thanks to tips, a servant could earn free money.Next, very significant thing which was necessary chiefly in upper class society was dance. It was the essence of every ball which was one of the greatest entertainment that time in English society. Balls were organized on many occasions and created opportunity to know noble men and women from upper class.In Victorian Britain the ideology of separate head-to-head sphere to the woman and sphere of dividing line and governing to the man was clearly marked. The fundament was regarded as a haven from the mobile and chaotic public world of politics and business, and from the vulgar life of the factory.In Victorian times, you could travel one of three ways by train, by horse, or by foot. The most common means of loony toons was by far the horse. It was used by rich and poor. The rich owned consider coaches that had every accessory one could ever need for living on the road, and the poor would go about town on the cheap omnibuses that carried twenty people at a time.2Femme FataleThe term femme fatale comes from French and it states mainly in the opposition to another popular enter of a Victorian woman called Angel in the House. Femme Fatale is a woman who is sexually attractive but fierce 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 jibe very well to this image even before the term Femme Fatale has been created. To the most famous examples belongThe femme fatale has always been a long-familiar archetype in literature, art and movies. The customs duty 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 portrayed in many metaphorical ways as a vampire, nymph, fallen angel or sorceress.She flourished in the 1940s century film noir, where the confederacy of aggressiveness and sensuality in women was a central topic (Place, 1998 57). We can fall upon many examples not only in written form but also in movies, where tempting and lethal women can be found as well Sharon Stone in BASIC intelligence (1992), the Bond Girls or Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones in lolly (2002) were all very corrupting, but dangerous.Hence, ground on van Dijkstras considerable historiography, the femme fatale can be defined as a woman who is mysteriously seductive and uses this quality to outsmart men. Her resistance against male domination exists of beauty, charm and sexual allurement she tempts the male target and driv es him crazy by denying him her affection. (1986, 237) To summarize key aspects of the femme fatale are mystery, beauty, subjection 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 arrant(a) womans life was say to be entirely centered on the home. She preserved the higher moral values, restrained her husbands conscience, guided her childrens training, and helped regenerate society through her workaday display of Christianity in action. If she successfully made the home a place of perfect peace, her husband and sons would not want to dedicate it for an evenings (morally suspect) entertainment elsewhere. (Mitchell 266)3 William Makepeace Thackeray narcissism charmingWilliam Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta, India, in 1811. He was son of capital of Virginia Thackeray, an Indian Civil Serva nt, and his wife Anne. scantily a few years posterior his father died, his mother re unify, and the shy and three-year-old William was sent to England where he would deal with the harsh realities of isolation at Charterhouse, a unavowed school in capital of the United Kingdom. He indeed went on to attend Trinity College, Cambridge.Thackeray prone 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 center Temple, London, but had little enthusiasm to act up his studies. Soon after He went to capital of France 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 Marian.Back in England he suffered massive monetary losses, which is why he had to start writing articles, reviews, essays and sketches as a day platterist. Travel articl es about France such as his Paris Sketch Book (1840) and The Yellowplush counterpoise (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 works. After the birth of Harriet, Isabella started on what was to be, until her death, numerous bouts of depression, an extensive search for a cure, and in conclusion a slow spiral to insanity.She would live apart from William, rarely seeing him or her daughters. Thackeray remained close to his daughters all his life. Anne was his secretary for a while and they both lived with him at his house in London before marrying. The dissolving of his marriage however would have a profound effect on his life and was reflected in the characters of his novels, including the loveless marriage betwixt Rachel and Frank Castlewood in The History of henry Esmond, Esq. (1852) and its sequel The Virginians (1857).Haunting the Literary Clubs of London includ ing the Garrick Club, Thackeray also travelled the Mediterranean, A jaunt from Cornhill to Grand Cairo (1846) the result. Book of Snobs (1848) and Vanity beauteous (1848) followed soon 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 Four 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 monthly literary journal Cornhill Magazine, but died suddenly three years later, in 1863, at the age of fifty dollar bill two. He lies buried beside his mother in the Victorian Garden cemetery Kensal greenish in London, England. Charles dickens wrote a impetuous tribute to him in Cornhill Magazine.William Thackeray is mostly cognize for his great novel Vanity Fair. The novel was written in 1848. The book brought Thackeray prosperity and made him an established reservoir 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 hind end 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 stop along the pilgrims progress a never-ending fair held in a town called Vanity, which is meant to instance mans sinful bond paper to worldly things. The novel is now considered a classic, and has inspired several film adaptations, the most recent being the 2004 film have Reese Witherspoon. In 2003, Vanity Fair was listed on the BBCs The Big Read treetop of the UKs best-loved novel.14 Charles Dickens Great ExpectationsCharles Dickens is widely perceived as the greatest novelist of the Victorian Era. He is the creator of fic tional characters, which are cognise 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 behind 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 go two times. He was very sharp boy. When he was young, he read many novels, especially the picaresque novels of Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding. From the early stages he took private lessons, first in dame school, and then at a school run by William Giles, a dissenter, in Chatham.In 1822, the Dickens family move to Camden Town, a poor neighborhood in London. By then the familys financial situation had grown dire, as John Dickens had a dangerous fit out of li ving beyond the familys means. Eventually, John was sent to prison 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 mean for weekly publication, Great Expectations was divided into guild 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 thirty six episodes. The novel gained title Great Expectation and became very successful among works of Victorian era, present simultaneously Dickens peak and due date as an author. Nowadays, novel is regarded as very important and is taught 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 conta ins themes and emotions promptly related to the authors experience. For instance, the rendering of Pips childhood has some affinity with Dickens own life. Also, Estella seems without delay inspired from Maria Beadwell, a noblewoman 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 first example which I am going to analyze in my work.