The Madwoman in the Attic is a feminist theory article that calls our attention to archetypes that men writers have historically based their women characters on. The angel and the monster, the virgin and the whore, the madonna and the virgin and so on. We see women in these roles throughout literature, never being any more than an "angel in the house" there to help others, serve her husband, and be beautiful and quiet. Or, on the other end of things, a monster or a whore. A disgusting woman who does nothing by try and harm the angel, or cause problems in general. Throughout Madwoman, the authors provide example after example of female characters who fall prey to this mindset. They explain that it is harmful because these characters have effects on real-life women, they cause different kinds of issues in the way women are treated in general as well as how women see themselves. The authors want female writers to be able to completely push away from these archetypes to be able to write something that is completely theirs. I believe that quite a few contemporary novels written by women have taken this advice, and provided us with female characters that completely reject these roles in literature. In this article, I will explore the novels of Luster, Bunny, and Eileen to study the changes made in portraying women in literature.
Bunny
The main character of Bunny is Samantha Mackie. A young girl making her way through graduate school in her creative writing cohort. Samantha is an extremely pessimistic human being, maybe not the most pessimistic in our grouping, but still more than the average person. She doubts her writing ability despite getting into her graduate school, what seems to be a prestigious one at that, does not even try to see the positives in most situations, and the most we see her kind of happy in the beginning of the novel is with her best friend Ava. From page one, we see that Samantha tends to have violent or dark thoughts most of the time. She watches our infamous bunnies hugging, telling each other how much they love each other, then thinks "And then they hug each other so hard I think their chests are going to implode. I would even secretly hope for it from where I sat, stood, leaned.." (Awad 1). It is a jarring thought process, but you almost get used to this part of her personality throughout the novel. The interaction also makes it very clear than what Samantha really craves is connection, her brain just brushes it off as disgusting so she does not have to reflect on the fact that she does not have that, nor does she want it. This dark though process is very consistent, and starts on page one. It is even acknowledged to be a huge part of her writing, with a pretty early interaction between her and Jonah showing us that her writing scares people.
Starting from this simple explanation of our main character, we can already tell she is not an angel archetype. She is not there just to help people or just to be someone to serve a man. It is clear that the only person she truly likes is Ava, but she tolerates Jonah. Her relationship with the "Lion" is something that also strikes the angel out. Although we find out later than the Lion and Samantha never had any sexual encounters, the fact that she is even attracted to the man, or that the situation was even complicated, would push her away from the main definition of the angel.
As the novel progresses, Samantha gets involved with the Bunnies and starts to lose her sense of reality. Stepping away from the archetypes alone, the fact that Samantha even recovers from this at all is a twist on the typical idealism in classic literature that some women are just mad. Most women we see as mad are considered the monster, they never recover, and do horrible things due to their madness. Samantha makes some bad decisions, but in the end is writes her novel and moves on with her life. She gets a great amount of development throughout the novel, he mental health reaching a low and climbing back up. She never develops into a monster, she isn't out to get everyone, she is not a disgusting human being. Samantha would have cause to be a monster, the amount of things she has experienced would send most people into villany. Samantha finds her way in the end. Samantha doesn't fit into any of these archetypes that the partricarical writings of the past developed.
Verity
Lowen starts off this novel with a 100% traumatizing experience. She sees someone literally get hit by a bus right in front of her face. Splashing her with blood and all. It is gruesome, as well as a really intense way to start off this novel. Lowen is a pretty average character at the beginning of our reading. She has an average life, is in a bad spot with her dying mother, and needs money desperately. As we move deeper in, we dance on the line of morality when she starts going through Verity's manuscript. We move deeper into considerations of morality when she doesn't tell Jeremy what she has found for a long while.
We as readers experience her paranoia throughout the novel, being in the same house as Verity and knowing all the disgusting things that she has done. Many peers who I have spoken to are a little on the line about liking Lowen. Whether it has to do with her sleeping with Jeremy, (they usually mention when she bites the headboard being the moment they stop), or her lack of action there is a lot of fault to be found in the way that she handled the situation. This applies to both her handling of the manuscript and her feelings for Verity's husband.
Despite all this, we are forced to consider what we would do in a troubling situation like this. Lowen is no angel, but she is certainly not a monster either. Her reaction was human. Her decision at the end to decide that Verity's letter was a lie is also a human decision and the only one she felt like she could make. These protagonists go through such mentally taxing situations and we need to stop and consider what that would do to the average person. I am not arguing that these people are inherently good people, or they make decisions that are the best for the majority. I am simply arguing that these women are making the choices they deem they can live with and that are possible in their frame of mind. We see their motives, we know about them as people, we can see just the tiniest bit of ourselves in them despite not wanting to. I think this is one of the most important parts of this era of contemporary literature.
Eileen
As an avid lover of Ms. Ottessa Moshfegh I had to add at least one of her protagonists to this list. Perhaps the most disgusting character on this list, Eileen has horrendous habits and thoughts that we continue to hear about throughout the entire novel. I do not have time here to list all of the things that genuinely horrified me. HOWEVER, although Eileen could be considered a monster at a very stiff standpoint, I feel as though Ottessa writes her in a way that makes her impossible to put in that box. She described the abuse she had endured from her parents and still is from her father, the negative thoughts she has about herself, her drinking problems, and so much more. We understand Eileen in a way that doesn't make us less disgusted by her perhaps, but it does allow us to keep her in a human category.
This woman has been frayed down to the bone with every last thing in her life. There are so many emotions and thoughts that are horrible to even consider having. Eileen is a huge example of representing these kind of characters in a way that really changes her perspective on people and women. Although unpleasant, I think it is important that we gave these women dimensions like this. To the point that we are almost uncomfortable with the fact that we understand them or maybe even relate a little bit. I recommend all these novels if you really want to push into the world of understanding other dimensions of people and women. I truly think that this is the work that Gilbert and Gubar wanted women to come out with. The kind of thing that is so complex, feminine, and human that it can't possibly be put in these kinds of boxes. It doesn't even seem to have a relation to them.
Works Cited
Awad, Mona. Bunny. New York: Penguin Random House, 2019
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