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Team bookends’ pick of fictional women who beat the odds

By Lucy Upton
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Happy International Woman’s Day!  In celebration, the Bookends team have compiled a list of the women who came out on top against the odds. Here’s the run down…

Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre is born with few advantages in life: her parents die; she’s left to be raised with relatives who hate and mistreat her, and who eventually send her away. But she is born with courage and a strong sense of self that, despite all her hardships, mean she is able to carve a life for herself that is meaningful. Even when she falls in love with a dominating man like Mr Rochester, this doesn’t stop her from winning him on her own terms. – Alice

Hild in Hild by Nicola Griffith

 If you crossed Arya Stark with Thomas Cromwell, you would have an approximation of Hild. Based on the life of St. Hilda of Whitby, Hild is the story a young girl who with a little help from her mother establishes herself as seer to the King, and carves out a unique position for herself in the male-dominated world of 7th century Britain.  With a will of adamant and a fierce intellect, she becomes one of the most powerful people in the realm, protecting her family and those she loves.– Fleur
Jane Steele in JANE STEELE by Lyndsay Faye
 Jane Steele

 

My pick is the new novel by Lyndsay Faye, JANE STEELE, which is a fresh take on Jane Eyre, while at the same time being a tribute to the novel Lyndsay so loves. If you think the original Jane stood up for herself, you’ll be bowled over by Ms Steele. Coming from the same humble beginnings, she dons the role of a vigilante, reaping revenge on her abusers. It’s just brilliant. – Abbie

Amy Dunne in Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Going slightly off piste I have picked Amy Dunne from the best seller Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Aside from the fact that she the best antagonist I have ever read, her character crucially deconstructs the ‘all American girl’ image as well as satirising other female stereotypes like the ‘cool girl’. Refreshingly through Amy’s feelings of inadequacy and subsequently her continuing need for control, Flynn gives us the message to give up on trying to be the best ‘kind of woman’ and instead focus on being ourselves. – Emma

Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

This play is a sharp commentary on women’s independence. Phonetics specialist Henry Higgins boastfully bets that he can turn flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a lady by teaching her to speak properly. Her real transformation however doesn’t happen when she learns to speak in the right way but when she decides to stand up for herself against Higgins’ insensitive treatment. At that moment she becomes, not a duchess but an independent woman and from this moment on Higgins begins to see her not as a “squashed cabbage leaf” but as a creature worthy of his admiration. (Also “My Fair Lady” the musical adaptation starring Audrey Hepburn is really great!). -Marie

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