Nurse Ratchet- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Nurse Ratchet- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
lol noOriginally Posted by weltanschauung
every person, a universe, dude.
A great character, but maybe not exactly a Scarlet O'Hara type.
__________________
"Personal note: When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. So once when I was six, I did. At first the brightness was overwhelming, but I had seen that before. I kept looking, forcing myself not to blink, and then the brightness began to dissolve. My pupils shrunk to pinholes and everything came into focus and for a moment I understood. The doctors didn't know if my eyes would ever heal."
-Pi
Definately--
Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter
Tess from Tess of the D'Urbevilles
These suggestions may be more in the realm of the fantasy genre, but they came immediately to mind:
The Mysts of Avalon has a host of strong female characters
The Hunger Games has Katniss and Prim
Lysistrata from the play of the same name.
Miss Kenton - The Remains of The Day
Polina Alexandrovna - The Gambler
Last edited by smerdyakov; 02-04-2012 at 12:47 AM.
Someone mentioned Romeo and Juliet. Assuming you're talking about Juliet . . . how exactly is she a strong female character? She seems like the stereotypical love-struck, doey-eyed, irrational woman. I mean, come on, she commits suicide because the man she loves is dead. Doesn't get much weaker or defendant than that.
Esther Greenwood in The Bell Jar by Plath
Catherine in A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway
Caddy in The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner
Sonya in Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky
I think it is arguable that Juliet was a strong woman. We can't really compare her to the concept of a "strong woman" in by modern feminists standards. In Shakespeare's time (late 1500s or so), the "independent" woman did not exist. The very concept of being husband-less was practically unthinkable. Modern concepts of a strong woman would be completely anathema back at that time. Additionally, in noble society, one was to fit into their place and follow orders, or was left to the wolves, so to speak (After all, her family threatens to disown her if she doesn't wed Paris). Juliet specifically defies her family's orders, chooses Romeo despite risking complete abandonment by her family and in a way faces the intense feud between the Montagues and Capulets head on.
Yes, she does commit suicide at the end, but consider the mental state : Her cousin has been murdered, her family is quite sure to abandon her if she reveals herself as alive, her love is now dead. She couldn't just pick up and somehow "start over". It's a moment of complete desolation that drives her to suicide: She literally has nothing left. Would I call particular scene that a moment of strength? No, however its arguable that the preceding events show that she at least has a backbone.
same here
Maggie Tulliver in George Elliot's ....
The Mill on the Floss.
Gloria- Beautiful and the Damned (Fitzgerald)
She's a well developed character, but not as well developed as Anthony, her husband. This is so, because the character of Gloria was loosely based on Fitzgerald's wife Zelda.
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Naoko, Reiko, and Midori
Murakami writes these three characters with respect and sympathy. They are all well developed and quite distinct in personality. Although this is a recent novel, you may be surprised by how lyrical the writing is. I myself tend to be turned off by most modern stories.
Nicole Diver from Tender is the Night.
I agree that many of Dostoevsky's female characters were strong women, in the sense that they dominated or manipulated men around them. In Brothers Karamazov, both Agrafena Alexandrovna Svetlova and Katerina Ivanovna Verkhovtseva did this. I love how "human" and flawed they were, and yet I still had a great deal of strength in them.
For grievous war these arms don't ask,
No armor, save this joyous flask
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