The unfettered woman: an exploration of the representations of women in fiction

The question of women in fiction brings a myriad of female characters to mind. Whether they be like Austen’s or Brontёs’ women – splendid, heroic, and autonomous characters with complex stories behind them, perhaps having been reinterpreted as some sort of feminist symbol in more recent times, or like Bukowksi’s or Murakami’s women – a sex symbol or side character lacking in agency, a mother, wife, or sister, only known in their relation to male characters, women have existed consistently in literature throughout time, and the question of their existence within fiction is nuanced and incredibly vast.

Having considered my favourite books and the variety of ways in which women are presented in literature, I realise that the female characters I enjoyed reading about the most were the ones who were unfettered, almost depoliticised. Women who were able to exist outside of any constraints, who exist purely for the reason of existing; women who may have a relation to a male character but without it subjugating or defining their role in the book; women who are lively, immoral, nefarious, with a distinct personality. Perhaps, to put it briefly, women who are allowed to act like men.

She is unfettered and feisty, and even indefensible in what she does, but she is so very loveable and an extremely exciting character

This brings to mind a book I recently read – Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan, written in its original French in 1954, when Sagan was eighteen. The heroine, Cécile, is unconstrained, promiscuous, and immoral. She finishes high school having failed her Baccalauréat, has no intention to study seriously, spends her days basking in the relentless French sun, meets a man whom she might love but also might not, and conducts a rather elongated plan to ruin her father’s impending marriage which leaves the book with a tragic end. She is unfettered and feisty, and even indefensible in what she does, but she is so very lovable and an extremely exciting character. Although, this is not to say that Bonjour Tristesse is entirely an unserious or unchecked novel; it speaks very intellectually of the post-war woman and the bourgeois family dynamic, as well as provoking an interesting discourse about love, climate, and suicide. To do so whilst having such a feisty and unconstrained female protagonist is commendable and makes Cécile one of my favourite women in fiction.

Turgenev and Tolstoy’s female characters are consistently distinctive in their personalities, described in such a way with such vivacious prose, that they come to life and become relatable and loveable to the modern reader

I have also grown particularly fond of the representations of women within Russian literature, where two books especially spring to mind – Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev, and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. Turgenev’s novel contains some of my favourite descriptions of women in all of fiction; take, for instance, his introduction of Arina Vlasevna:

“She was frightened of mice, snakes, frogs, sparrows, leeches, thunder, cold water, draughts, horses, goats, red-haired humans and black cats and considered crickets and dogs unclean. She did not eat veal, pigeon, crayfish, cheese, asparagus, artichokes, rabbit or melon, because a severed melon resembled the severed head of John the Baptist. She could not speak of oysters without shuddering. She was very fond of eating, but was strict in her fasting. She would sleep ten hours out of the twenty-four, but wouldn’t go to bed at all if Vasily Ivanovich had a headache. She had never read a book in her life apart from Alexis, or the Cottage in the Forest and she wrote one – at most two – letters a year, but she was clever at running a house, drying produce for storage and making preserves, although she never touched anything with her own hands and in general liked to remain sedentary. Arina Vlasevna was very kind and in her own way not at all stupid.

She was nervy, constantly anticipated some great misfortune or other and instantly burst into tears whenever she recalled something sad. Such ladies are few and far between. God knows whether one should be glad of that fact!”

Women for so long have only existed in fiction in relation to the other sex

Arina Vlasevna is funny! A steadfast woman with a large personality, resolute in her ways and independent. The same goes for the young Marya Bolkonsky in Tolstoy’s novel, a very pious girl who lives under the roof of her despotic father, kindly and eager to please, and yet very adamant and self-sufficient in her ways. Turgenev and Tolstoy’s female characters are consistently distinctive in their personalities, described in such a way with such vivacious prose, that they come to life and become relatable and lovable to the modern reader. While they may reflect the patriarchal society in which they were conceived in through their relations to male characters or their situations, both authors ensure that their female characters are eccentric and exciting women who exist independently, and purely for existence’s sake.

Women for so long have only existed in fiction in relation to the other sex. I believe that there should be an effort made by authors to liberate their female characters from this stagnant position and allow them to be as equally capable as their male counterparts. This will allow them to develop a personality that they have for so long been deprived of in literature and thus become autonomous and interesting characters. It is within our power to write stories about women, to make women immoral, feisty, and distinct, and to give them their long overdue presence within literature.

I hesitate to finish this article without briefly mentioning Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. Written in 1928, Woolf’s essay explores the topic of women in fiction, looking at works by female authors as well as representations of female characters. It contains, in my opinion, some of the most poignant lines in literature about women (in fiction), and some of her ideas are likely to be underlying within this article. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t read it before and is interested in the topic.