Best female characters written by male authors

[kelby_lake]

There's always been the joke that women are a complete mystery to men, whereas men are transparant to women, hence why we have many female scholars looking and masculinity but few 'feminist' male writers.

So which authors would you say managed to get women right?

[kinesj]

Faulkner's Drusilla Hawk Sartoris "slender and invincible and fatal as the physical shape of love" has always been one of my favorite female characters. It is not just her courage, or her strength, but the complex layered nature of the character.

A good example of this is in Raid from The Unvanquished when she is explaining to Bayard why she doesnt sleep.

". . .Stupid, you see. . .it is, it's fine now; you don't have to worry now about the house and the silver because they get burned up and carried away. . .and you don't have to worry about getting children. . .because the young men can ride away and get killed in the fine battles and you don't even have to sleep alone, you don't even have to sleep at all and so all you have to do is. . .say Thank God for nothing."

On the surface, Drusilla feels liberated by the war's destruction of the antebellum societal order and its requisite expectations of femininity, but there is also a decidedly sardonic undertone to the diction which reflects her sense of loss. A loss, not just of a sense of order, or of her fiance who was killed at Shiloh, but a loss of the innocence of youth. She is coping with this loss via sublimation and abdication of societal expectations of womanhood, of the society veritably destroyed by the war, and embraces a heretofore male archetype, even riding off to join Colonel Sartoris and his men in fighting the war.

The war denies Drusilla the opportunity to function as an antebellum southern lady; she has lost two men she loves deeply and the South's principles and social convictions have been challenged. The idea of staying behind, trying to hold together the remnants of family life, is impossible for her. However, it remains evident that she holds onto the essence of her womanhood even as she embraces the life of a Confederate cavalier to avenge the death of her fiance and father. In "An Odor of Verbena" she is depicted as passionate and even lustful, kissing Bayard in the garden and trailing the scent of verbena behind her. In Faulkner's words Drusilla comes to represent "the Greek amphora priestess of a succinct and formal violence." Drusilla represents an ancient concept —the need for formal vengeance: Drusilla is like the Greek Electra who, when her father was killed by his wife, demanded her own mother's death as an act of formal revenge.

Due to her indomitable spirit, fiery passion, iron-bound honor, alluring sensuality, compassionate sensitivity, and yes her all too human flaws, I find her to be one of the more complex and complete female characters in all of literature. I can think of no character who more aptly demonstrates that women really can do it all, and then some.

[My2cents]

To me, characters are only 'right' insofar as they are are believable within the context of the story. Emma Bovary is a supremely drawn female character in that sense. Whether her wickedness, her cliched romanticism, and vulgar sensibilities are or aren't representative of certain types of women who exist in certain times, in certain places, are irrelevant.

[PeterL]

"Few 'feminist' male writers"!
I suppose that might be true, if one uses a restrictive definition of "feminist". In it's broader sense, most male writers are feminists. If one looks with open eyes, then one can easily see that even George McDonald Fraser was a feminist writer.

[kelby_lake]

I suppose that might be true, if one uses a restrictive definition of "feminist".

The trouble is that the academic world does. Feminism in academic terms does not simply mean appreciating women. It's a topic that has been 'taken' by women. Many people argue that men can never be 'feminists' because they do not experience what it is like to be a woman.


To me, characters are only 'right' insofar as they are are believable within the context of the story. Emma Bovary is a supremely drawn female character in that sense. Whether her wickedness, her cliched romanticism, and vulgar sensibilities are or aren't representative of certain types of women who exist in certain times, in certain places, are irrelevant.

It's not about whether the character is a flattering portrayal of women. Anna Karenina is not exactly a female role model but she is a believable woman and not simply a cardboard cut-out.

Whenever there's a female character, you'll always get some female scholar complaining about how the male author is simply writing a stereotype, but male scholars never seem to say that female writers have written stereotypical men.

[kiki1982]

I think Richardson may qualify for this one!

As to feminist, maybe not, but having his character Clarissa that she would rather live on her own than marry at al is quie controversial!

[Alexander III]

I loved Anna Karenina. I think Tolstoy created a incredibly profound and beautiful character with her, she seems just like the woman I would fall in love with.

[Desolation]

I thought that Dilsey and Caddy from Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury were pretty strong characters.

[My2cents]

It's not about whether the character is a flattering portrayal of women. Anna Karenina is not exactly a female role model but she is a believable woman and not simply a cardboard cut-out.

Whenever there's a female character, you'll always get some female scholar complaining about how the male author is simply writing a stereotype, but male scholars never seem to say that female writers have written stereotypical men.

I could see how there could be a whole cottage industry around it, female scholars disparaging male authors for creating stereotypical female characters. Funny thing about this is, what would the female scholars do without the artistically incompetent male authors to disparage and to base their scholarships on? Shouldn't the female scholars be grateful for the wealth of material put at their disposal to be mined?

[FROADS]

Tolstoy's Anna Karenina is a solid choice 4 me. She was, in a way, a man inside a woman's body... Abandoning her spouse n child to run away with her lover, obstinate, overtly jealous, and independent, could have easily characterized a man but described this woman.

[wordeater]

Tolstoy: Anna Karenina
Dostoevsky: Grushenka in "The Brothers K"
Henry James: Isabel Archer in "The Portrait of a Lady"
Thomas Hardy: Tess of the d'Urbervilles
D. H. Lawrence: Lady Chatterley
Nabokov: Lolita

[PeterL]

The trouble is that the academic world does. Feminism in academic terms does not simply mean appreciating women. It's a topic that has been 'taken' by women. Many people argue that men can never be 'feminists' because they do not experience what it is like to be a woman.

Defining "feminism" with that restriction eliminates almost all possible value in feminism. It just becomes another way to divide people. I suppose that is one of the many ways that academics want to take power after they eliminate "Enlightenment ideas.

[joelavine]

I think the question is very difficult to answer for a number of reasons. Especially as a man. I could only guess, for instance, that Malcolm Lowry's Yvonne in Under the Volcano impresses me as a real flesh and blood woman. Since I've never been a real flesh and blood woman I can only take this on faith. (Of course there are characters of both genders that I don't find persuasive in written works, but that's another story entirely; persuasion of a negative is not the same thing as proof positive.)

Anyway, as I was saying, there are many reasons why answering this question is difficult, for both men and women. For one thing, men and women have arguably become as much defined, by themselves and by each other, by reference to the gender roles and archetypes in storytelling, as gender roles in storytelling have been defined by male and female human beings.

[kinesj]

I thought that Dilsey and Caddy from Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury were pretty strong characters.

I would concur with these as well, Drusilla just happens to be my favorite, and perhaps more closely aligned to the feminist icon the OP is looking for, but nevertheless D&C certainly endured, transcended, and overcame societal and familial repression.

[kinesj]

I loved Anna Karenina. I think Tolstoy created a incredibly profound and beautiful character with her, she seems just like the woman I would fall in love with.

She was definitely an interesting character, but the archetype she represents is not entirely consistent with feminist ideology. I think the OP is looking for (actual or potential) feminist icons portrayed by male authors. Note that this doesn't make the character any less stellar in any way, I just wonder if she doesn't fit a somewhat traditional female archetype too closely to be consistent with what the OP is looking for. (please clarify however if my understanding is mistaken)

[Alexander III]

I could see how there could be a whole cottage industry around it, female scholars disparaging male authors for creating stereotypical female characters. Funny thing about this is, what would the female scholars do without the artistically incompetent male authors to disparage and to base their scholarships on? Shouldn't the female scholars be grateful for the wealth of material put at their disposal to be mined?

Well feminist are highly illogical. Because they are women. And we all know women are illogical pretty little things. :leaving:


She was definitely an interesting character, but the archetype she represents is not entirely consistent with feminist ideology. I think the OP is looking for (actual or potential) feminist icons portrayed by male authors. Note that this doesn't make the character any less stellar in any way, I just wonder if she doesn't fit a somewhat traditional female archetype too closely to be consistent with what the OP is looking for. (please clarify however if my understanding is mistaken)

Ahh from what I understood, I thought the Op meant great women characters by male authors, not role model women characters. If it is the latter, then Anna Karenina miserably fails.

[cl154576]

Ahh from what I understood, I thought the Op meant great women characters by male authors, not role model women characters. If it is the latter, then Anna Karenina miserably fails.

I also thought he meant the former.
In response to wordeater, as a female I am slightly dissatisfied with Hardy's Tess. Parts of her character are very convincing, for instance her letters to Angel, but for me, everything from the murder on was rather flat.

I find many of Tolstoy's women convincing, and Dostoevsky's femmes fatales. I especially liked Marya Bolkonskaya in War and Peace and Nastasya Barashkova in The Idiot.

[kinesj]

I also thought he meant the former.


Perhaps that is the case, I very well could be mistaken. However, if it is the former, with the scope and potential variance of individuation, gender itself effectively becomes irrelevant.

[kelby_lake]

She was definitely an interesting character, but the archetype she represents is not entirely consistent with feminist ideology. I think the OP is looking for (actual or potential) feminist icons portrayed by male authors. Note that this doesn't make the character any less stellar in any way, I just wonder if she doesn't fit a somewhat traditional female archetype too closely to be consistent with what the OP is looking for. (please clarify however if my understanding is mistaken)

Not necessarily characters that fit within the feminist ideology, seeing as some feminist scholars will whine about any female character, though if you could find any exceptions, I'd be impressed. Simply male writers that seem to understand how women work. I think the way that Fitzgerald writes the character of Nicole from Tender is The Night is sensitive. She's not simply a hysterical woman, a tragic figure to be pitied, but a strong woman held back by mental illness and ultimately her husband. And Fitzgerald's portrayal of Rosemary is fully believable.

[kelby_lake]

I also thought he meant the former.


I must have quite a good understanding of men then, seeing as I am female. :rofl:Hence my avatar of Simon Le Bon :D

[kinesj]

Not necessarily characters that fit within the feminist ideology, seeing as some feminist scholars will whine about any female character, though if you could find any exceptions, I'd be impressed. Simply male writers that seem to understand how women work. I think the way that Fitzgerald writes the character of Nicole from Tender is The Night is sensitive. She's not simply a hysterical woman, a tragic figure to be pitied, but a strong woman held back by mental illness and ultimately her husband. And Fitzgerald's portrayal of Rosemary is fully believable.

Well that expands the field considerably. As a feminist icon Drusilla Hawk Sartoris is as good as it gets, but as merely a good portrayal of women there are innumerable examples. In point of fact, to the extent that feminist critiques assert that a given female character is somehow not true to the gender is to put an artificial cap on the range of personas of a given gender and hence sexist and in and of itself.

[joelavine]

Couldn't it be argued that James, Ibsen and Shaw were feminists?

[My2cents]

Fictional female characters as ideal role models for girls/women of flesh and blood...I find the premise laughable...but if I were pressed for an answer without being ironic, I'd say you can't do much better than Shakespeare's Portia and Olivia in The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night, respectively.

[PeterL]

Couldn't it be argued that James, Ibsen and Shaw were feminists?

Yes, but it depends on how one defines feminism.

[Varenne Rodin]

People will hate me for saying this, but Stephen King writes women about as perfectly as an author can. I dislike the subject of "feminism," so I hope it won't be attached to my words. King's female characters are equal to his male characters in their humanity. Many of them are portrayed as strong and intelligent, but without losing feminine beauty, vulnerability, and emotion.

Susan Delgado in "Wizard and Glass" (from the Dark Tower series) is one of my most favorite female characters ever. She's young and silly, but passionate, beautiful, determined and willful. Very relatable for me.

In "The Talisman" young Jack is on a quest to save his mother and her counterpart, even though she's a washed up, chainsmoking has been. There's just something about her that is amazingly human and broken. The love for women in King books is clear, so that's my pick.

[kelby_lake]

Couldn't it be argued that James, Ibsen and Shaw were feminists?

I think so, seeing as their political beliefs (or so it would appear) are for women to get equal rights.

[Heteronym]

There's always been the joke that women are a complete mystery to men, whereas men are transparant to women, hence why we have many female scholars looking and masculinity but few 'feminist' male writers.

So which authors would you say managed to get women right?

Really? I never heard of that joke before. I've always had the impression male writers were better at writing female characters than women were at male characters. I've also noticed that whereas men are quite prone to write about women and men, women will more often write about women only.

Also, I despise the word feminism because that always seems to me like a code word meaning "being nice to women." For me male writers write great women because they don't pull any punches. They don't idealise them. They write them with the same whims, idiocies, irrationalities, pettiness, prejudices, fears and hopes that drive men. I always get a laugh when Philip Roth is accused of being mysoginist, when in fact he merely writes women in the same brutally honest way he writes men.

[Melysnl]

[QUOTE=Varenne Rodin;1069651]People will hate me for saying this, but Stephen King writes women about as perfectly as an author can. I dislike the subject of "feminism," so I hope it won't be attached to my words. King's female characters are equal to his male characters in their humanity. Many of them are portrayed as strong and intelligent, but without losing feminine beauty, vulnerability, and emotion.


I totally agree with you about Stephen King.

I had to really think about it but James Michener creates equally complex female and male characters as well. What a thought provoking question! I'm racking my brain trying to think of any other male authors and the only other one I can come up with is Sidney Sheldon. He's hardly a literary writer but he created and wrote about memorable female characters including Barbara Eden's character in I Dream of Jeannie .

There aren't many men who nail female characters. It says alot about men and how clueless they are about us.

[tonywalt]

Wally Lamb's "She's come undone"

[OrphanPip]

Well we should probably distinguish between 2nd and 3rd wave feminist thinking. 2nd wave feminist arose out of Classical Liberalism, and that's where we get the general meaning of feminism as the belief that women are equal beings to men. Shaw, in that sense, was an avowed feminist. We could also look at philosophers like Mill or Engels who had avowed feminist positions, Engels arguing that marriage involved a capitalist oppression of women for example.

Third wave feminism has arisen from post-modernist influences, and is usually what people complain about when they complain about feminist scholars. Although, reducing feminist criticism to being female scholars complaining about male authors is just trite. Feminist approaches to texts are just as valid as any other, are we going to presume that dominant conceptions of gender don't affect how women (and inevitably how men) are portrayed in literature?

Anyway, Ibsen has been mentioned earlier, some would probably cite Nora from a Doll's House, but I prefer Hedda Gabler. Vivie and Mrs. Warren from Mrs. Warren's Profession are pretty interesting too.

[TheFifthElement]

Sarah Woodruff in The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles. Particularly as he doesn't try to explain her, just presents her. And she's a strong, independent woman of her time.

[tonywalt]

Sarah Woodruff in The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles. Particularly as he doesn't try to explain her, just presents her. And she's a strong, independent woman of her time.

Meryl Streep:wink5:

[kelby_lake]

Although she may be a bit doomed, I'm inclined to add Tess to my list. Feminists may argue that she is a passive weak figure and so Hardy is being misogynistic but I disagree. As I see it, the story is about two men's unsuccessful attempts to mold Tess into their ideal woman, and both men find that she defies their definition.

[kinesj]

Having just reread Flags in the Dust, Virginia Sartoris Du Pre is a highly worthy candidate. Indomitable and strong-willed she comes to run the Sartoris household, outliving all of its men, and enduring countless tragedies with an iron will whereas the men of the family utterly fail to cope and sublimate their fear into fatalistic vainglory. In fact, she often foresees the sad fate of the Sartoris men with a perspicacity bordering on prophecy.

[The Comedian]

I like Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter a lot. She's one of the reasons why I fell for literature. But I don't know if he got writing a woman character right or not though.

When I first read this thread, all I could think of is the line from As Good as It Gets when young woman asks the Jack Nicholson character (a famous novelist), "how can you write women so well?"

And he responds, "I think of a man. . . .and I take away reason and accountability". :smilielol5:

[JuniperWoolf]

I didn't know that men thought of women as unreasonable and unaccountable. How dissapointing.

[The Comedian]

I didn't know that men thought of women as unreasonable and unaccountable. How disappointing.

Only some men, and only some women. ;) I just though that line was pretty funny. Women are great -- they're a lot like men too: some are nice, and some are mean, some pretty and some are ugly, some are inspired, some are insipid, some are happy and some are sad, some are short and some are tall. . . .and on and on.

[JuniperWoolf]

I just though that line was pretty funny. Women are great -- they're a lot like men too: some are nice, and some are mean, some pretty and some are ugly, some are inspired, some are insipid, some are happy and some are sad, some are short and some are tall. . . .and on and on.

Well... alright.

It always feels like people are talking about me when they make negative generalizations like that about women (me being, after all, a woman, so if they're talking about "women," who else could they be talking about?). If they're talking about me then it's personal and the reaction is always "but I'm not unaccountable/manipulative/stupid/irrational/useless..." followed by sadness. I think it might be the same for every group around which stereotypes cluster, eg. Mexicans are lazy, black people are criminals, Jews are cheap, ect. If you're a Jew, and they're calling Jews cheap, then they're calling you cheap.

Steroptypes about women are so prevelant that it feels like I'm being called horrible things almost every day, even by people like you who I respect and like (also my friends, my father, my favorite teachers and writers, it's... confusing and frustrating).

[The Comedian]

The only thing that I'll add is that the OP was asking for generalizations -- what male writer got "women" right. And I briefly posted one of my favorite female characters written by a male -- Hester Prynne -- whose strength of will, individualism, and devotion to principle are qualities that I greatly admire in anyone, man or woman. Then I added a second comment to simply play around a little because Hester is anything but "unaccountable" and is only "unreasonable" a few times. That and I kind of like the idea that men and women aren't much different.

I guess if one were to write a woman that pictured "women" right, then, for me the character would not be all amazing and ever-strong, perfectly reasonable, and utterly accountable. That character would be fragile at times, strong at other times, confused over what to do next, and at other times she would be certain and confident. And sometimes her confidence would be misplaced and misdirected. And other times her confidence would be a model for others to follow.

She'd be foolish and vain at times. Then other times she'd be wise and self-effacing. She'd be jealous and compassionate, forgiving and cruel. . . . . . She'd be neither particularly admirable nor particularly despicable, except in moments for each. Self-righteous and timid, and on and on. . . .

Anyway, I'm sorry if my quip offended you. That was not my intention.

[author1500less]

Charles Dickens portrayal of Amy Dorrit in Little Dorrit is a character worth mentioning.


Some of the traits that make her character worthwhile are the leadership skills she finds within herself, helping her siblings that look like have the physical traits of an adult get career training or employment.

One of her conflicts is hiding certain facts from her dad, like her employment or frugality (stealing food from work).

Compared to other literary females like Joan of Arc, Juliet or Ophelia, she has conflict with her relations (sister that dislikes her frugality/genuineness, father that doesn't work, and an absent brother), against worldy prejudices (one being her smallness, another being the lack of support her family provides) and finding independence (she always works for the better of her family, as opposed to her own personal gain).

The novel is titled after her so it is difficult to make a detailed comparison with other characters. Few works I am familiar with dedicate so much effort to exploring a female character and the world around her.

[JuniperWoolf]

The only thing that I'll add is that the OP was asking for generalizations -- what male writer got "women" right.

Yes, don't think questions like the OP's don't irritate me as well, and not only when people are asking for archetype of females. In the Fashion thread last week I believe that it was MarkBastable who posed the question of what "makes" a man, followed by various theories about what qualities a male must possess in order to be considered such. It's all complete bunk, there's no standard of behaviour encompassed by all and to insist that there is limits us (it limits what is socially acknowledged or accepted, which either puts pressure on us to be a certain way or calls us "exceptions" if we aren't that way).

I don't mean to sound like some politically-correct dick regurgitating the latest public service broadcast (although I realize that this is exactly what I sound like), the things that I've really do weigh on my mind a lot. You also run a high risk of ruining a joke which people seem to enjoy when you decide to make a comment about generalizations, but you have to admit that they are irritatingly common and the frustration just kind of builds until after the umpteenth steotype that you encounter about a group of which you just-so-happen to belong to generates within you a strong desire to struggle against the whole practice (and for the record, I am sorry that it is you that I'm reacting against right now - I'm only doing so because it's only people that I respect who can faze me).

Also, because I mentioned gender sterotypes in comedy previously in my rather inconcise and probably ineffectual diatribe and because this started with your appreciation for a line in a comedy which implies that strangers consider me subhuman (not that I'm bitter or anything), I'd like to just briefly point out that as a great fan of the genre, the what I like to call "take my wife... please" jokes are low humor indeed. Any lunkhead could hammer them out as easily as breathing (just ask Virgil or Emil, they rely heavily on them). Give me the subtleties of the Kids in the Hall (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zJTNOxV4Qg)'s brand of humor, or the unique insights to be found in South Park's better episodes. Now that's gold. Comedy is an artform, and gender comedy is the equivelant of the caricature.

[Alexander III]

Yes, don't think questions like the OP's don't irritate me as well, and not only when people are asking for archetype of females. In the Fashion thread last week I believe that it was MarkBastable who posed the question of what "makes" a man, followed by various theories about what qualities a male must possess in order to be considered such. It's all complete bunk, there's no standard of behaviour encompassed by all and to insist that there is limits us (it limits what is socially acknowledged or accepted, which either puts pressure on us to be a certain way or calls us "exceptions" if we aren't that way).

I don't mean to sound like some politically-correct dick regurgitating the latest public service broadcast (although I realize that this is exactly what I sound like), the things that I've really do weigh on my mind a lot. You also run a high risk of ruining a joke which people seem to enjoy when you decide to make a comment about generalizations, but you have to admit that they are irritatingly common and the frustration just kind of builds until after the umpteenth steotype that you encounter about a group of which you just-so-happen to belong to generates within you a strong desire to struggle against the whole practice (and for the record, I am sorry that it is you that I'm reacting against right now - it just hits me harder when people that I respect are the ones who help to perpetuate the beliefs which I find so debilitating).

Also, because I mentioned gender sterotypes in comedy previously in my rather inconcise and probably ineffectual diatribe and because this started with your appreciation for a line in a comedy which implies that strangers consider me subhuman (not that I'm bitter or anything), I'd like to just briefly point out that as a great fan of the genre, the what I like to call "take my wife... please" jokes are low humor indeed. Any lunkhead could hammer them out as easily as breathing (just ask Virgil or Emil, they rely heavily on them). Give me the subtleties of the Kids in the Hall (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zJTNOxV4Qg)'s brand of humor, or the unique insights to be found in South Park's better episodes. Now that's gold. Comedy is an artform, and gender comedy is the equivelant of the caricature.

Wow that is a long and well thought out post. I hope you didn't spend to much time on it, thinking to much distracts women from the ironing and sandwich making duties.

[JuniperWoolf]

Wow that is a long and well thought out post. I hope you didn't spend to much time on it, thinking to much distracts women from the ironing and sandwich making duties.

:biggrinjester: Blow me, you fop.

[Lulim]

(...)

So which authors would you say managed to get women right?

I think Gontscharov did a very good job on "Anisia", the wife of Oblomows servant, Sachar. While she is not a main character, let alone a heroine or a beauty, she is completely convincing in her position.

As for Olga, her portrayal makes me believe, Gontscharow had some understanding of women's minds.

[kelby_lake]

Yes, don't think questions like the OP's don't irritate me as well.

Of course woman are all different- hey, I'm one too. What I mean is "Which male authors ignored stereotypes and presented a credible female character?"

I like the debate on gender. Gender is a collection of traits that society defines as being "masculine" or "feminine". Most people are a mixture of masculine and feminine traits, and it's interesting to see which characteristics are 'desirable' for men and which for women. It's not about trying to prove or disprove anything. Gender Studies has been rather sexist in the way that it focuses almost entirely on women and "female identity".

[wordeater]

Charles Dickens portrayal of Amy Dorrit in Little Dorrit is a character worth mentioning.

I prefer her sister Fanny, because Amy is too much of a saint. In Anna Karenina I prefer Kitty.

[dfloyd]

What about Becky Sharp?

[author1500less]

What about Becky Sharp?

At least mention Vanity Fair. She is a typical spoiled immature young woman. She is interesting because Will (the author) makes her childishness seem reasonable.

Best symbolism from the book was the young couple traveling with the army carrying furniture, specifically a dresser. While reading that scene it made Becky's character shine, to manipulate a young solider (her husband, the scene almost sounds out of a reality show) to use army resources to transport her furniture in a time when the war is being lost.

Classic writers really knew what characters to know about and be cautious of.

[author1500less]

Just to be clear about what a best female character written by a male author is to me.

Best female character is a character that I would want to know and having regular relations with.

Some characters are entertaining like Anna, or Becky but I wouldn't want to deal with them unless I was related to them in real life.

I selected Amy because she is someone who is starting to "get it." The whole being an adult and being responsible thing. The other girls are just young and into having fun, their attitude being "who can I find that will let me get away with my poor attitude."

Compared to a work like Fahrenheit 451 where all the women (two) die because they don't know what they want out of life and just go along with whatever, Anna and Becky are trying things which is a redeeming quality.

Anna and Becky are just trying to keep the good times alive. What makes Amy great is she knows she had good times, wants to go back to them, but doesn't give in. Instead she moves on and tries to find new excitement out of life, I like the realism. The fact that good times are over and her mindset isn't to die (by suicide), or sneak her way back into the debtor's prison but to just accept what has happened and move on. Who knows what excitement can come unless she tries something different. That is why Amy is great.

[AjaxAscendant]

Well, there's Charlie from John Le Carre's The Little Drummer Girl, and the narrator from Tosa Nikki.

[Buh4Bee]

Wow that is a long and well thought out post. I hope you didn't spend to much time on it, thinking to much distracts women from the ironing and sandwich making duties.

Your mother should wash your mouth out with soap.

[Seasider]

What about Lisbeth Salander? I think she's the best Dont Mess with Me female character I have ever read.

[Chris 73]

Mattie Ross from True Grit by Charles Portis. I found her to be a very likeable puritan.

[Stewed]

In this thread and the corresponding one it's not clear whether we're talking about characters as works of art or characters as moral exemplars.

[magictrick]

In this thread and the corresponding one it's not clear whether we're talking about characters as works of art or characters as moral exemplars.

Exactly. What constitutes the "best" female character? Is it a character I found really enjoyable to read about or one that is supposed to represent something more like a symbol for feminists at the time

[kelby_lake]

Exactly. What constitutes the "best" female character? Is it a character I found really enjoyable to read about or one that is supposed to represent something more like a symbol for feminists at the time

The most believable and resonant female characters.

I think Becky Sharp is great, although I do like poor Amelia as well.

[mal4mac]

Daniel Defoe - Moll Flanders - a rounded portrait of a survivor - the TV version, starring Dr Who's wife is worth a look, but not an excuse for skipping the excellent novel.

Dickens - so many intriguing characters - I've a soft spot for Nancy in Oliver Twist, a bit like Moll, but not so good at picking boyfriends...

[PoeticPassions]

One of my favorite female characters is Gloria from Fitzgerald's THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE DAMNED.

I also vote for Hermine from STEPPENWOLF...
with close behind her, Sabina from Kundera's UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING. She's the type of woman I sometimes envy and perhaps admire, but at other times condemn.

[Seasider]

Characters..OK? What about Portia from M of V? Cleopatra? Beatrice? Juliet? Lady M.? Titania?

[Gregory Samsa]

"Anna Karenina", amazing book and female character by Tolstoy.

[kelby_lake]

Characters..OK? What about Portia from M of V? Cleopatra? Beatrice? Juliet? Lady M.? Titania?

Good point. We need some Shakespearean suggestions :)

[ZTay]

Grushenka by Dostoevsky was great.

I loved Carol Kennicott and Leora Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis.

Though mentioned third, Leora Arrowsmith is my number one.

[TheFifthElement]

I'm liking Tess Durbeyfield by Thomas Hardy :)

[joelavine]

I think it's important to consider Irene Heron. Galsworthy returns repeatedly to the theme of what women want, as if consciously responding to Freud. In his sympathy for Irene he consciously ponders the problem of a male author's ability to enter into the mind and heart of a woman and whether he can achieve success. Jolyon consideration of Soames relation to Irene:

"Was there anything, indeed, more tragic in the world than man enslaved in his own possessive instinct, who couldn't see the sky for it, or even enter into fully into what another person felt!"

suggests Galsworthy's effort to inhabit Irene (perhaps to do so to many other women in the saga as well, but primarily his heroine) not objectify her as a woman in the life of the male protagonists. A priori, he is a male author, in his attempt to do so. But his effort and understanding that he might not succeed because of the gender gap commends him and hits the problem - if it is one, who can say? certainly not I, a man - square in its tracks.

There is a self-evident authorial stamp to Jolyon's professed feminism as it responds to Soames' efforts to control Irene.

[McGrain]

Madame Bovary.

[McGrain]

In Anna Karenina I prefer Kitty.

Kitty is definitely a great shout.

[Brett Cottrell]

Did anybody mention Thursday Next, Jasper Fforde's heroine? She rocks.

[Darcy88]

I'm partial to Shakespeare's Cleopatra for her keen wit and extravagant melodrama, especially as seen in act 2, scene 5. His Antony is also one of my most beloved characters.

Antony's passionate profession:

"Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space.
Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike
Feeds beast as man: the nobleness of life
Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair
Embracing

And such a twain can do't, in which I bind,
On pain of punishment, the world to weet
We stand up peerless."

And Cleopatra's lament:

"Noblest of men, woo't die?
Hast thou no care of me? shall I abide
In this dull world, which in thy absence is
No better than a sty? O, see, my women,
[MARK ANTONY dies] 3240
The crown o' the earth doth melt. My lord!
O, wither'd is the garland of the war,
The soldier's pole is fall'n: young boys and girls
Are level now with men; the odds is gone,
And there is nothing left remarkable
Beneath the visiting moon."

[Prairie]

Trollope said stupid things about women when he was speaking personally; but in his writing, he has a sympathy and awareness and respect for the lives of women that is unmatched in his century.

[dfloyd]

Moll Flanders by Defoe.

[dysfunctional-h]

I always personally identified with Countess Geshwitz in Wedekind's Lulu plays, tho she may not be considered "feminist," per se. I honestly disagree with Woolf's aggressive feminism as spoken of in A Room of One's Own, if only because it implies that everything written by a woman who's not a feminist with their own room etc must be bad. But maybe I'm nitpicking.

[hampusforev]

I'm sure these have already been mentioned, but Anna Karenina and the Scherbatsky sisters by Tolstoy. Many Shakespeare women, I'm especially partial to Portia and Lady Macbeth. Blanche from A Street Car... Mrs Warren, Daisy Buchanan. I'm probably forgetting many... A great female character transcends the label, but is tragically trapped by what's expected from women in society. Some great writers who wrote terrible female characters; Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, Hemingway (not all of them)... etc.