The Role of Women in Victorian Literature

Role of Women in Victorian Literature

Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy was a controversial publishing; it had a positive portrayal of a ‘fallen women’ with much of the book chronicling life for Tess after she engages in premarital sex of dubious consent. In contrast to this very human figure, the eponymous Carmilla in Sheridan Le Fanu’s tale is a horror – a parasitic seductress who inveigles herself into household after household to befriend and then drain the trusting young women whom she forms an attraction to, with the more traditional Victorian girl of Laura slowly succumbing to her. Both women would be figures of revulsion for the average Victorian reader, and yet the portrayal of their roles within the story are not as simplistic as might be imagined, especially when viewed from the modern perspective.

To Victorians, the ideal young women would be pure, delicate and innocent, with many kept sheltered by their families until they reached a marriageable age. However, this purity, and the naivety that came with it, is proved to be to the detriment of Tess and Laura in their respective stories, as their lack of knowledge about the world makes them vulnerable to predatory interest. A great deal of attention is paid to Tess's physical beauty in the narrative, such as her “sumple” skin and “luxuriant” hair, but her appearance is presented as a “disadvantage” as it causes Alec to pay attention to her in a manner that she is neither ready for, nor encourages, as seen when she attempts to wipe away his kiss and thus incurs his anger. Indeed, Tess herself later states to her mother that she was a “child” when she left her parents’ house, and did not know “what to fend hands against” due to her lack of knowledge about what dangers men could pose to her. Laura, meanwhile, has grown up in isolation in Styria, with only her father and servants for company, and it is this loneliness that makes her eagerly welcome Carmilla into their household - “You, who live...