UNCOMMON ANGELS, VILLAINS AND VICTIMS IN WELDONS THE LIFE AND LOVES OF A SHE-DEVIL AND CARTERS NIGHTS AT THE

CIRCUS ANGELA

INTRODUCTION

Starting from the general definition that feminism is a literary movement that empowers women and their status in the society they live in, I am examining the ways in which two important British fiction writers are dealing with the differences between sex and gender in their work. Aware that sex is given at birth, while gender, by society which may be unjust to women, Weldon and Carter have also fictionally experimented with the roles that each gender has in society. The power that persons of a certain gender usually men, has on other persons, usually women, has been and will always be an important topic for discussion. I was aware of the complexity of one of the basic issues of this dissertation, as feminism is more than one homogeneous movement, and its various orientations have undergone drastic changes from the beginning of the first manifestations of feminism until today. In Weldons and Carters literature women are usually the main characters .A special case happens in Carters The Passion of New Eve, where Evelyn is first a man then a woman. Patriarchal society is firmly determined to convince the women that they have to play a secondary role to men, who are the masters in this kind of community. Women in these two authors friction do not accept the roles society has established for them and struggle hard to be able to make their own decisions, express freely their beliefs and thoughts. This is why feminism is relevant to an examination of their work, even if they were not, strictly speaking, militant feminists or militant theorists of feminism, Like Simone de Beauvoir or Betty Friedan. Carter and Weldon seek to define women as women, with the help of their own identity, challenging the social ranks that have been imposed on them. They know and want to make clear that a woman should be defined by her beliefs, thoughts and actions, not by the patriarchal rules that society imposes on them. Some feminist writers tend to see men as central enemies for women; with Carter and Weldon the situation is more complex, as it will be shown is the following sections of this dissertation. The two authors do not want to depict a simple world in which men are the villains and women are the victims, that would only be feminist propaganda, and they are artists, trying to show the world in its complexity, even if, for artistic effects, they will exaggerate or change reality as ordinary people tend to see it. For example, Fay Weldon, one of the most important British feminist writers, said in an article from the dailymail.co.uk that feminism has encouraged women to believe that men are stupid and

useless creatures who are the enemy. They're actually much nicer. She also stated that Life is much better, because you are not dependent on the goodwill of men (http://www.dailymail.co.uk). Men are sometimes seen as nice, sometimes as stupid, sometimes as victims themselves of some beliefs they have inherited from the patriarchal tradition of the society in which they were born and raised. The British writer also gave some advice to women if they want to have a peaceful relationship with a man, but this kind of advice should be seen as what it really is, more than ironical: Women want boyfriends to be like their girlfriends, fun to go to the pictures with, but men are not like that. They want sex and they grunt. If you really want a man to be nice to you, never give him a hard time, never talk about emotions and never ask him how he is feeling. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk)