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(2016
midterm assignment) Sample Student Midterm Answers 2016 #2b: Short Essay (Favorite Term) |
LITR 4328 |
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Cassandra Waggett
Progressive Gender Characterization in the Dark Lady and Byronic Hero
Archetypes
The dark lady and the Byronic hero were already quite familiar to me from
popular TV shows and novels, although not in those terms. In fact, modern
television often features the “golden boy” as a villain. I believe that many
modern audience members feel naturally inclined to gravitate towards these
figures rather than their lighter counterparts because they expect them to be
the protagonists. While I count myself among those who tend to favor darker
figures, and enjoy their mysterious appeal just as much as the next reader, I
also believe that these dark archetypes also manifest as progressive gender
performances.
The first dark lady we encountered in the course was Ligeia. Ligeia
fulfills the “dark lady” archetype, because she has “raven-black” hair and dark
eyes. Perhaps more significantly,
her features were “not of a classic regularity”, and her beauty was “strange”,
indicating that she possesses “otherness”. She further exhibits differences from
the traditional/fair lady Rowena through her “gigantic volition”, “stern
passion”, and “wild words”. While Rowena does not speak, Ligeia speaks in
abundance. Also, her learning was “immense” and sublime, causing the male
speaker to defer to her. While Rowena was silent and submissive, Ligeia was a
formidable scholar and a writer. Ligeia’s terrible knowledge and her ability to
cause a man to defer her are traditionally ‘masculine’ qualities. The
unusualness that is crucial to the dark lady’s appeal often relies upon deviance
from restrictive social norms.
This pattern is also evident in Cora. Like Ligeia, Cora’s beauty is
deemed unusual because of her mixed race: “Her
complexion was not brown, but it rather appeared charged with the color of the
rich blood, that seemed ready to burst its bounds. And
yet there was neither coarseness nor want of shadowing in a
countenance that was exquisitely regular, and dignified and surpassingly
beautiful”. In the context of Cooper’s discussion of the perceived unnaturalness
of interracial relations, Cora’s beauty is strange because it does not conform
to rigid standards of black or white beauty. This description also indicates
that Cora is passionate, as Ligeia is. This passion is revealed when
Cora finds herself entranced by the movements of the Byronic Magua. She “betrayed
an indescribable look of pity, admiration, and horror as
her dark
eye followed
the easy motions of the savage”. Although later Cora became disenchanted with
Magua, her attraction indicates that “otherness” calls to “otherness”, or that
Cora was better equipped to appreciate Magua’s strange beauty because of the
strangeness of her own.
Again, like Ligeia, Cora also proves to hold sway over her male companions when
she convinces them to leave them in the forest to seek help. Hawkeye replies
“There is reason in her words”, choosing her reason over his chivalry. She even
convinces Uncus to go, “perhaps, with an intuitive consciousness of her power”.
This mention of her power paints her momentarily as a seductress, a common form
for the dark lady. Seductiveness corresponds to the dark lady’s maturity when
compare to a more childish fair lady, in this case Alice. Throughout their
journey, Alice is repeatedly fearful, while “Cora
set[s] the example of
compliance, with a steadiness that taught the more timid Alice the
necessity of obedience”.
Finally, the Byronic
Magua demonstrates cleverness that would once have been called ‘feminine’. Magua
is distinguished from the other Indians both by his bloodline and by his
behavior. While the others feasted on raw deer, Magua “sat apart…apparently
buried in the deepest thought”. This abstinence ennobles him, while at the same
time he is scheming violence against Munro’s daughters. When Magua recounts
Munro’s actions against him, the language he uses is filled with gender
references. He says “Magua is a man, and not a fool”, and that Munro “has left
marks on the back of the Huron chief that he must hide like a squaw”. Magua
feels that his dishonor has rendered him ‘womanly’, and he behaves as such. When
he shares his desire to take revenge on Munro’s daughters, Cora says “Would it
not be more like a man, to go before his face and take the satisfaction of a
warrior?”. Magua replies that he
has no need to risk his life when he already has what Munro holds most dear—his
daughters. Magua’s cleverness and wickedness differ greatly from Uncus’
willingness to risk his life to avenge Cora. The Byronic hero, brooding and
scheming, tends to operate through deception and to be ruled by his emotions,
qualities which contradict the traditional understanding of masculine identity.
In conclusion, the dark lady and Byronic hero archetypes allow for the
expression of “otherness”, the discussion of difficult issues such as racism and
sexism. This deviance frequently leads to a progressive representation of gender
as fluid—the male Byronic hero is feminized, while the dark lady becomes
masculine.
