#literary heroines

[crazycatsiren]

Jane Eyre, Catherine Earnshaw, and Helen Graham walk into a bar...

#bookblr #bookworm #book collector #bibliophile #classics #english literature #bronte sisters #historical fiction #literary heroines

[plainselfraisingflour]

I am obsessed with wanting my hair cut short again. I recently read a blog where someone was bemoaning being one of those 'weird people' who are a bit too old and a bit too young all at once for a pixie cut. And it has really started messing with me wanting my pixie cut. First world problems I know. But I am really feeling like I am not living my best life - the life of a heroine.

I will therefore make a list of some of my favourite heroines who get their hair cut. Could be a fan fuc one day.

Put anne Shirley, Jo march, alanna of trebond in a room together and see what happens.

#hair cut #literary trope #pixie cut #anne of green gables #little women #tortall #books #literary heroines #going to analyse this #this may be why i love cutting my hair #the dramatic hair cut #give me scissors

[rosepompadour]

Her yearning for splendour and glitter was only a part of her vague longing for the beautiful; she wanted to be amongst beautiful things, made beautiful herself by their influence. She only wanted the vague poetry of life, the mystic beauty of romance infused somehow into her existence.

Mary Elizabeth Braddon, The Doctor’s Wife (1864)

#god if ever a literary heroine needed a xanax it's isabel #the doctor's wife #mary elizabeth braddon #literature

[english-history-trip]

Just opened Northanger Abbey for the first time, and I'm loving the tone it sets, but goddamn:

"[Catherine's father was] a very respectable man, though his name was Richard..."

#some Richard did that woman wrong #but for real I love how hard she's skewering classic melodramatic tropes right off the bat #'her mother didn't even die in childbirth with her for god's sake what kind of heroine is that' #literary ladies #I can genuinely hear Helen Mirren narrating this opening montage to cheery music a la the Barbie movie

[biathelstan]

hey does anyone remember the second heta musical. it was so goofy haha. like how america played the role of the narrative heroine because he was young and was an object to be desired and protected and so he wanted to forge his own path but his future was dependent on older more powerful men who wanted to use him for their own rank and status. lol

#this was happening underneath all the funny ha ha hee hee comedy #sometimes I think im delusional but the director said he was in the heroine position sooo #edit: I meant literary heroine #I posted this at night in bed right before passing out dont @ me

[ashtrayfloors]

We didn’t see heroin as a dead end. Not then, anyway. It was more of a release, of inhibitions and euphoria, an elegant method to strip away everything that came between the ego and the will, allowing us to move through the world unencumbered by emotion and anxiety. Like LSD, it made you feel as if you were reaching a part of yourself that wasn’t immediately accessible. We thought we were far-reaching—intrepid travelers of inner space. We were looking to people like William Burroughs who had trodden that path before us. We were a very well-read bunch. Our decadence had literary roots.

Another figure who was very much on our radar was Harry Crosby, the dissolute bohemian playboy poet and mystic who founded Black Sun Press and published Hemingway, Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, and Edgar Allan Poe, among others. Geoffrey Wolff’s biography of him, Black Sun, had recently come out, and if there was one book on every punk rocker’s bookshelf, that was it. We always used to joke that everyone had a copy, but how many of them had actually read it?

Crosby died aged thirty-one, as part of an apparent suicide pact. Fitzgerald at forty-four, from the effects of chronic alcoholism. This seemed innately glamorous and quixotic to us. To be young, decadent, and reckless, to live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse and an undeniable body of work. We were driven by the idea of decadence as its own reward, of attaining nirvana through drugs. Or else falling into an abyss. And most of us, myself included, would have embraced either of those fates, salvation or destruction, wholeheartedly.

—Kid Congo Powers, from Some New Kind of Kick

#quotations #kid congo powers #some new kind of kick #recently read #heroin #alcohol #self destruction #drugs #this part of the book really resonated with me #my decadence too had literary roots #and i definitely fell into that whole live fast die young thing #and that whole embrace of either salvation or destruction as equally desirable

[spookyscribe]

To people smarter than I am, what is the archetype of a Scarlet Witch-type character in mythology/literature? Is there an archetypal figure or name for a female character with these immensely powerful, reality-changing abilities who is unstable?

Because I keep seeing unstable yet powerful female characters like this (Scarlet Witch, Imogen from Critical Role, and Dark Phoenix, etc.), and I really want to know the mythic origins of this type of character. What is her arc and purpose in a narrative? Is she always a tragic heroine? Is she present in mythology? What is the purpose of her story?

Any thoughts on this would be great!

#mythology #scarlet witch #archetypes #meta #analysis #the heroine's journey #the hero's journey #myth #literary analysis

[lemonduckisnowawake]

You know what? Confession time

I don't actually dislike the ditzy and clumsy and/or overly pure shojou romance female protagonist. I actually like her quite fine and find her somewhat adorable, if in need of a bit of growing up (even if she's an adult; it's fine. People mature at different rates)

Nooooo, what I do find annoying is when that sweet child is paired up with a male lead that's known for being a flirt or treats her like dirt or makes her blush and flounder so much. Could I be annoyed at the female lead for falling for his tricks? No. Because that, to me, would be akin to blaming the victim, and we don't do that here. Yes, girl, you need to grow up and mature a bit but there's nothing wrong with getting easily flustered and the like or being a bit weak. What's wrong is when that beef jerky of a male lead takes it as encouragement and pushes despite you saying nothing to encourage it. Saying nothing doesn't mean yes and I'm gonna throw hands with this idiot high school boy who thinks it does! Come at me bro and you'll see just how scary an angry duck protective of her fictional women can be!

#*gets restrained by millennia of common thought that actually enjoys this trope* #*which i understand from a removed PoV but set me freeeee* #okay but to clarify further #it's not the ditzy female lead that bothers me. it's when the author thinks it'd be cool to pressure her weaknesses and call that romantic #nor will i say playboy/popular jerk/etc doesn't 'deserve' the girl #no there CAN be romances well built around the tropes BUT #it's just not a good match #it highlights the helplessness of the girl which is honestly more tragic than annoying to me #and well the boy was already a jerk but it just makes him look like someone who doesn't understand what boundaries are #lemon duck quacks #literary lemonade #weirdly enough I've been lately reading things with cool heroines so hey

[abnerkrill]

THE TERRORRR PLS PLS PLS, also his dark materials 👀👀

omg YES! so the problem with me talking about the terror is that most of the cast is Indistinguishable White Man to me but i do know crozier is played by jared harris and hickey... oh god is his name actually hickey has anyone made the obvious joke yet...??? is played by the guy who was also in gunpowder milkshake (terrible film but i love michelle yeoh and karen gillan so of course i watched it.) and paul ready and ciaran hinds are there too. lots of guys. i’m sure i’m missing a lot. anyway. white men! tumblr lesbians seem to love these white men!

ANYWAY it’s based on the doomed antarctic expedition of, i wanna say the mid to late 1800s, but it adds the element of Giant Fucking Monster to the whole shebang which i think is really sexy. i’m 99% sure the show features cannibalism and mutiny and freezing to fucking death, which i think is super sexy of them all. despite the tumblr fame of this show i have not seen a single episode. mostly because it would be sad to watch it alone, i wanna hoot and holler at these objectifyable men with someone who Gets It, you know? also because i’m a wimp and i need someone to hold my hand :3 i think there’s also an Indigenous woman who shows up but i really don’t know the plot beyond “oh no we’re trapped in the ice boys we’re gonna have to take drastic measures to survive!11!!!” and then they all die. all i know about the characters is that hickey is a jerk and everyone thinks crozier is hot. that is all.

as for his dark materials, i LOVE the lead actress from logan and the actor from the (very bad show but he was great) letter for the king. we also stan whatshername the adult female lead who played cathy in wuthering heights and the lead in true things (2021) what iS her name this is going to haunt me forever. i think lin manuel is also in it? with his polar bear??

and i know the concept of daemons and vaguely that some magical Dust is important, also that james macavoy and cathy from wuthering heights OH HER NAME IS RUTH WILSON YAYYYYY my brain has not failed me--anyway they’re the protagonist’s parents but also fighting each other??? and i know philip pullman was writing these as retorts to CS Lewis’s Narnia/Christianity as a whole so it’s a takedown of Christianity as an institution and canonically lesbian Mary Malone was a big deal because she wasn’t canonically gay in the books? she has something to do with the biblical Garden and man’s fall and how important individual choice is??

i also know that it ends sadly for lyra and will and they’re separated forever :( and i’ve definitely read the tumblr post book excerpt about lyra not being able to use the altheiometer (i am definitely spelling that wrong) anymore at the end but having to learn from scratch. anyway it would absolutely destroy me if i ever chose to watch this show but heyy what’s fiction for if not ripping my heart out!!!!

#wildwren #PLEASE tell me if i got anything hilariously wrong i want to know #edit to add she was NOT cathy in wuthering heights she was jane eyre!!!! my bad!!!!!! not me confusing my literary heroines

[musical-chick-13]

The existence of this Rosaline movie makes me so MAD, because SHE WAS NEVER IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH ROMEO. SHE TOOK A VOW OF CHASTITY, AND SAID THAT SHE WAS JUST GONNA NOT BE IN LOVE.

SHE. REJECTED. HIM.

SHE WAS NEVER INTERESTED IN BEING WITH HIM AT ALL.

And then they just...make a whole movie from her supposed perspective (which is loosely based on a book which...hoo boy we’ll get to that in a second), where the premise is that she’s jealous and wants to break him and Juliet up? That she’s so in love that she has to win him over again? (Also, how do they justify her knowing that they’re together? The entire point is that no one knows Romeo and Juliet are in love?? I know this is an adaptation, but Jesus Christ.)

WHY DID YOU PICK THIS CHARACTER. TO HAVE THIS STORY WITH. THE WHOLE POINT OF HER CHARACTER IS THAT SHE CHOOSES NOT TO BE WITH HIM. THAT’S WHAT OPENS THE DOOR TO HIM MEETING JULIET. IF ROSALINE IS DEEPLY INTO ROMEO, THE ENTIRE PLAY DOESN’T WORK.

Are we saying that she was just “““playing hard to get”””? That she was toying with his heart for fun? That when she told him no, she really meant “yes”?? I THOUGHT WE LEFT THAT BEHIND OVER THE COURSE OF THE LAST DECADE, I THOUGHT WE DECIDED THAT WAS BAD???!!?

Don’t even get me started on the book this is based on, where that general premise is that Rosaline is just an Innocent Average Girl, and her cousin who is Beautiful™ and vOLaTiLeLY uNsTAbLe and cRaZy comes and “takes” her poor unsuspecting boyfriend who is completely blameless for his own terrible behavior away from her while being called a “slut” the whole time. (I doubt much of this carried over into the actual movie, because that’s being billed as an ironic rom-com, and I highly doubt ANYONE would try to make that genre work while keeping this premise 100% intact.)

WHY WOULD YOU EXPAND THIS CHARACTER LIKE THIS. WHY. WE STUDY THIS PLAY IN SCHOOL AS AN EXAMPLE OF LITERARY STRUCTURE AND POETIC LANGUAGE AND FORESHADOWING AND HOW TO WRITE A TRAGIC NARRATIVE AND FOR WHAT. FOR PEOPLE TO NOT TAKE AWAY ANY OF THE INTENDED MEANING FROM THIS PLAY???!?!?!? I AM SCREAMING SO HARD I WILL BREAK THE EARTH’S CRUST UNTIL I AM SUBSUMED INTO HELL.

If you’re going to adapt something, you’ve gotta make it clear that you have some significant understanding of the original work. Retellings are fine! They can even have different functions or deconstruct tropes or be unexpectedly edgy! But it’s 1000% obvious when you don’t have any knowledge or engagement with the source material, and that is a problem. It’s ignorant, it’s lazy, and everyone involved deserves better.

#also like...juliet has been praised as a compelling and well-rounded theatrical heroine with clear goals by literary scholars for a LONG #time. you don't get to just...ignore that and say 'lol nope she's just cRaZy instead' #am I a LITTLE sensitive when it comes to people adapting shakespeare?? maybe. but also I don't care. #is it just because people are thirsting over That One Guy?? is that it?? is that why this movie was made???? I hate it here. #ANYWAY you want an actually GOOD expansion of rosaline's character that gives her Secret Feelings For Someone that she can't say #out loud because of a JUSTIFIED narrative reason and also gives her a well-developed #tentative-allies-to-lovers romance story watch still star-crossed #(which is also apparently based on a book. which I sadly have not read. maybe it'll be the next thing on my reading list) #GOD this is the 'lady macbeth is a stoic badass who never really loved her husband' all over again but like. in the opposite direction #UGH after juliet did the same ''she was just playing COY and HARD TO GET' thing too and I hate it #WHY CAN'T WE JUST HAVE WOMEN REJECT MEN? WHY IS THAT SO HARD FOR PEOPLE TO WRITE??? #we could EVEN have a story about rosaline GENUINELY NEVER FALLING IN LOVE because she doesn't want to!! #wow shocking I know! #okay I'm done now #sorry #salty mc13 is salty #anti rosaline movie #idk how the fuck to tag this #romeo and juliet

[dayas]

BLACK ANNABETH CHASE MY DREAMS JUST CAME TRUE

#BROOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #FUCKING HELL YES!!!!!!!!!!!!! #MY FIRST AND FAVORITE LITERARY HEROINE PLAYED BY AN ACTRESS WHO LOOKS LIKE ME I’M ABOUT TO FUCKING ASCEND EVERYBODY #annabeth chase #leah sava jeffries #percy jackson #pjo #disney plus

[authorityissues]

cannot describe to you how many girls ive heard say "yeah i wanted to be just like effie from skins as a teen-- well, i basically succeeded" the past couple weeks. i know what the success rate for that looks like. i highly doubt these people basically succeeded.

#i know exactly one person who pulled off that vibe n she was an old tumblr mutual who fell off the face of the earth after i think getting #into dope. she had some russian literary heroine un iirc

[justalittletomato]

“I know you by heart. You are inside my heart” ♥️♥️

- Sarah Crewe “A Little Princess”

#baby tomato #star wars oc #zabrak oc #danica #dad!maul #this little one is inspired by so many literary heroines #sara crewe #a little princess

[rosepompadour]

Where can a young, witty and beautiful girl find excitement if not in love? She mentally reviewed all the descriptions of passion she had read in Manon Lescaut and La Nouvelle Heloise. There could be no question, of course, of anything less than a grand amour; a trifling love was unworthy of the most envied heiress in the Faubourg Saint-Germain. She wanted a love that would inspire great deeds. What wouldn’t she be capable of with a king at her feet!

Stendhal, The Red and the Black (1830)

#i've come to the realization that all of my favorite literary heroines fall into three distinct categories #amd mathilde is firmly in group a: the estella #she's in v. good company #i know madame de renal should be my favorite but i always go for the bitch and idk what that says about me! #the red and the black #stendhal #literature

[howifeltabouthim]

It was a moment for Violet to surrender to fate, but she looked now unlikely to surrender to anything.

Iris Murdoch, from The Book and the Brotherhood

#indomitable #stubborn #not giving up #literary heroine #characterization #dig your heels in #quotes #lit #words #excerpts #quote #literature #iris murdoch

[aetherictree]

Perhaps my hottest literature take is that the heroine's journey is misunderstood. Wildly so. Like, they're completely off the mark so much if the arrow flew backwards they'd hit the bullseye.

Because the stories I've read with female protagonists *that were written by women* do not involve rejection of the feminine or disilluisionment with the world, they involve a girl (oftena girl, sometimes a woman) who's life is controlled for her by other people finally reaching a point where she has to make a critical decision *that is her decision*. It's about stepping into her own agency, her own power if you will.

I see this most clearly in The Hunger Games. Both in the first book -- it's Katniss who defies the Capitol at the end by threatening suicide, the one little piece of power she has left to herself -- and at the end of the series with her choice of who to shoot. But also with Lessa in The Dragonriders Of Pern, and Feyre in A Court Of Thorns And Roses. Heck, Jupiter Ascending has this too -- Jupiter's life up to that point has been decided by everyone else, until she declines to sign Earth's death warrant.

It even shows up with male characters who are written by women. The Underland Chronicles has a lot of those themes. Harry Potter, even. I think people have gotten confused because they've drawn on female characters that have been written by men, and hence typically from a male perspective.

The heroine's journey is about the heroine coming into her power and being a person in her own right.

#literature #literary criticism #the hero's journey #the heroine's journey #the hunger games #suzanne collins #stop getting your ideas about femininity from men #admittedly i have an embarressing small sample to draw from #but it shows up enough times i think i'm onto something #and it fits with a lot of critiques made about how society socialises girls #so yeah