Definition and Representations of Femme Fatale Before Wilde And

Lin, F. S. 12 Chapter 1: Definition and Representations of Femme Fatale Before Wilde and Beardsley 1.1 Introduction A femme fatale is a mysterious and daunting figure whose exceptional beauty overwhelms males so much as to bring forth misfortune; she is a female figure who threatens to realize men’s fear/fantasy of being castrated. She is an immense source of inspiration for many writers and painters during the nineteenth century, and her presence is especially prominent during the fin de siècle. In England, writers like Keats and Swinburne create memorable femme fatale figures from their pens, and the Pre-Raphaelites make significant literary and visual renditions of femmes fatales. Femme fatale, as Mario Praz points out, has always existed “both in mythology and in literature” (199), but it is undeniable that representations of femme fatale had particular prominence during the nineteenth century1. To understand what the definitive qualities of a femme fatale are, it is essential to take a look at some of the representative examples throughout the nineteenth century. In his book The Romantic Agony, Praz makes an extensive investigation upon how the femme fatale motif developed in the 1 It is interesting that Mario Praz also traces in the nineteenth-century European texts a shift from a preoccupation with the l’homme fatal (The Fatal Man) to that with the femme fatale. As a consequence, the vampire figure in the latter half of the nineteenth century is predominantly female. In addition, Rebecca Stott also asserts that “the prominence of the femme fatale figure in the literature and art of this period appears to be culturally and historically specific” (1), but then she is careful to point out that femme fatale as a cultural phenomenon is not necessarily a causal effect of the social background of late Victorian era. Easy PDF Creator is professional software to create PDF. If you wish to remove this line, buy it now. Lin, F. S. 13 nineteenth century and discusses in depth some important attributes of the femme fatale figure. Fathoming the characteristics of nineteenth-century femmes fatales is also essential to my discussions on Wilde’s and Beardsley’s Salomés. In academic treatises dealing with Wilde’s and Beardsley’s Salomés, “femme fatale” is the term readily applied to describe her, and indeed Salomé – especially Wilde’s and Beardsley’s representations – is among the most cited examples when one discusses the femme fatale motif. As a result, I will investigate some important femme fatale representations in this chapter and rehearse their quintessential qualities. To explore the nineteenth-century British femmes fatales before Wilde’s and Beardsley’s Salomés, I select to discuss some notable examples from both literary texts and paintings, including Keats’s ballad La Belle Dame Sans Merci and several Pre-Raphaelite paintings. These examples may give a general idea on the definitive qualities of femme fatale, especially the ways she lures men and makes herself appear dangerous to men. 1.2 Femme Fatale in Romantic Literature Femme fatale is generally understood as an attractive female figure whose presence seems to be accompanied with misfortune upon men who long for her, and the men’s misfortune seems to result from being seduced by her physical charm. As Easy PDF Creator is professional software to create PDF. If you wish to remove this line, buy it now. Lin, F. S. 14 Rebecca Stott succinctly points out, femme fatale is characterized “by her effect upon men: a femme cannot be fatale without a male being present, even where her fatalism is directed towards herself” (viii, original emphases). But exactly what characteristics contribute to a femme fatale’s fatalism? Indeed, when one takes a look at the various characters in literary and artistic works that have been identified as femmes fatales through the centuries, sometimes one cannot help but notice that there are considerable diversities among the qualities believed to define these female characters as fatal. The characteristics of a femme fatale seem to consist in her physical charm and the sense of malice or danger lurking behind that charm. These qualities may be best summarized in a phrase by Flaubert, “la femme belle et terrible” (qtd. in Praz 222), the woman beautiful and horrifying. What makes her horrifying, then? Praz offers a general conception of femmes fatale, characterizing her relationship with her male victims: In accordance with [the] conception of the Fatal Woman, the lover is usually a youth, and maintains a passive attitude; he is obscure, and inferior either in condition or in physical exuberance to the woman, who stands in the same relation to him as do the female spider, the praying mantis, &c., to their respective males: sexual cannibalism is her monopoly. (215-16) As the above generalization of the femme fatale figure shows, the figure is characterized Easy PDF Creator is professional software to create PDF. If you wish to remove this line, buy it now. Lin, F. S. 15 by a combination of manipulative aggressiveness and insatiable sexuality, and it is this sexuality that propels her to manipulate the male characters, turning herself into a vampire-like figure. In contrast to her fatal sexual power, the males at her side tend to assume a weaker personality, possessing no means to resist the dominance of the femme fatale. The generalized image of femme fatale in the passage quoted above is one that many scholars invariably refer to. As envisioned in this generalized image, femme fatale is aggressive, exploits men for her needs – especially sexually –, and thrives on a bloodthirsty vampirism, endangering either men’s sexual virility or their lives. This image, however, often do not match many of the important nineteenth-century European representations of femme fatale. While physical charm and sexual aggressiveness are quintessential qualities a femme fatale possesses, these qualities may have different levels of intensity. In The Romantic Agony, Praz surveys several important femmes fatales found in nineteenth-century European Romantic writings; he not only discusses their characters but, more importantly, draws a comprehensive map of the evolution of the femme fatale figure as a literary motif. Although Praz himself admits that it is only “an arbitrary arrangement” (201), he reckons that these femmes fatales represent some quintessential qualities of a femme fatale. In the following I will review some of these femmes fatales and sort out their important characteristics. Easy PDF Creator is professional software to create PDF. If you wish to remove this line, buy it now. Lin, F. S. 16 The first example Praz discusses is Matilda from the British novelist Matthew Gregory Lewis’s gothic novel The Monk. Matilda is a representative femme fatale figure whose qualities can be identified in some later femmes fatales, including Salammbô (Flaubert), Carmen (Mérimée), and Cécily (Sue) (Praz 201). Matilda is a witch, and in Lewis’s story she seems to be a female incarnation of Mephistopheles with the seductive acts of a Manon Lescaut. The male protagonist Ambrosio is originally a monk with a saint’s reputation, but after she voices her love and bares her breast to him, he bows to her charm. Matilda offers her knowledge of witchcraft and further tempts Ambrosio with a beautiful Antonia undressing herself to bathe. However, Matilda later becomes ruthless and even tempts Ambrosio to commit criminal acts that make both of them end up behind the bars. Matilda uses her magical arts to escape, but before she disappears, she encourages Ambrosio to renounce God, “who has abandoned” him, and to raise himself “to the level of superior beings.” Her farewell speech is mingled with such a “wild imperious majesty” that she “inspire[s] the monk with awe” (qtd. in Praz 204). The two characteristics that make Matilda representative of the femme fatale figure, in my opinion, are her assertive independence and exotic paganism. Both qualities are related to her magical power. First of all, this command of magic demonstrates her assertive independence, which is a characteristic generally shared by the other femmes fatales Praz mentions. Secondly, her magical arts are contextually set as Easy PDF Creator is professional software to create PDF. If you wish to remove this line, buy it now. Lin, F. S. 17 paganism against Christianity. This pagan background bequeaths Matilda with a natural antagonism tinted with exoticism. Exoticism or exotic settings prove to be a quality shared by several of the femmes fatales Praz discusses, and it is a quality that can imply eroticism and/or antagonism. Besides Lewis’s Matilda, the French novelist Prosper Mérimée’s creation Carmen is a gypsy localized in Spain, a place that promised exotic imagination during the end of the nineteenth century; Gustave Flaubert’s novel Salammbô is set in the North African Carthage during the Punic Wars before Christ, namely in the “traditionally” exotic Orient; and Cécily from the French novelist Eugène Sue’s Les Mystères de Paris is a Creole. As Praz comments, “the exotic and the erotic ideals go hand in hand,” and “a love of the exotic is usually an imaginative projection of a sexual desire” (207). Salammbô is a good example of such fantasy, where Flaubert obviously resorts to “an atmosphere of barbaric and Oriental antiquity, where all the most unbridled desire can be indulged and the cruelest fantasies can take concrete form” (Praz 207). On the one hand, the exotic other may imply antagonism or chaos, hence giving male characters a sense of uncertainty, but on the other hand, the concomitant exoticism also has a potential to emanate charm and erotic enticement. Aside from exoticism, several of the femmes fatales often appear aloof and unattainable, showing an indifference that distances themselves from the yearning males; Easy PDF Creator is professional software to create PDF.

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