A Woman's Scream: In Praise of the Bold and Righteous
On the heroines that raise us and finding your character's steely core.
“I believe God crafted the sound of a woman’s scream,” she says, “to pierce the heart and to test our humanity, whether we still have it or whether we have left it behind. “But there are men for whom a woman’s scream is as a fist that bounces off armor. I have thought to myself, What choices does a woman have for vengeance, for justice? For we cannot simply pray. I can’t stomach my mother’s prayers. We cannot afford to wait and be still. I won’t live this way—not anymore. So when I spoke to God that morning, I decided, if I am to scream, let it be in battle. There is no chance for peace except at the point of a sword.”
― Katherine J. Chen, Joan.
Jane Eyre, Honor Harris, Elizabeth Bennet, Lyra Belacqua, Frannie Langton, George Kirrin, Marian Graves, Joan, Violet Baudelaire… these are the women that raised me, continue to raise me and will raise many women and NB-babies to come. Everyone's list will be a little different. And the relative relevance of each character will shift depending on the task in front of the reader at the time. Someone else’s list might include the heroines born of Malarie Blackman or Louisa May Alcott, Toni Morrison or Kamila Shamsie, George Eliot or Margaret Atwood. But the quality that binds them is a steely core.
At the centre of each of these characters is a bold, even righteous heart. They carry with them a set of convictions so deeply enmeshed in their sense of self that to remove them would leave only a shadow of each of these iconic, beloved heroines.
“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless?—You think wrong! —I have as much soul as you,—and full as much heart! … I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: —it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal, —as we are!’”
- Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre.
I have listened to some readers bemoan the cliche of the “strong female lead”. They complain that these characters are two-dimensional, unrealistic or uninteresting. Others suggest that such characters served their purpose for previous generations but now there are “too many” such heroines.
I disagree. To witness our heroines speak to the fullness of their beliefs, to open their mouths and let their hearts pour out remains as vital to me now as it was at ten and thirteen and twenty-two. What is more, fiction allows us a window into these characters' minds. The true magic of fiction - as opposed to film or theatre - is that the reader does not only watch our heroines make their speeches and their protests but that we get to feel it with them.
Unlike flesh and blood women, these characters cannot be accused of being “overly emotional”, “aggressive” or “angry” because as readers we get to feel their calm convictions in our own hearts and minds. We get to experience the cool logic of their thoughts forming before they are spoken. We feel the inhaling of a deep breath, the deliberate slowing of their pulse, the moment that our heroine chooses to make her thoughts known. The experience is not one of an outsider watching an upset lady blurt out the whims of a moment but instead, feeling the slow gathering of thought and courage like the building of a powerful wave before the moment of articulation.
Readers leave the page inspired and thoughtful.
And best of all, no one has interrupted our Jane to tell her to calm down. Her thoughts are not truncated and mangled by the insinuation that her moment of calm confession is, in fact, one of hysteria and unwarranted anger.
“‘You’re silly to keep feeling cross because you couldn’t go camping too,’ said Anne. ‘The boys don’t want us girls around them all the time. We couldn’t do the things they do.’
George thought differently. ‘I can do anything that Dick and Julian do,’ she said. ‘I can climb, and bikes for miles, can walk as far as they can, I can swim - I can beat a while lot of boys at most things.’”
- Enid Blyton, The Famous Five.
Fiction allows our heroines the time to finish their speech, make their arguments in full, and unburden themselves fully. Whether they are speaking low and slow or in tears or crackling with anger, these characters are permitted to finish their thought. In fiction, women are given the space to make their finalized, unabridged declarations then lay down their pages, and look out to the audience in the knowledge that they have been listened to and understood.
“What would you want to be remembered for? If you had one last page and one last hour, what would you write? In the end, this is what I choose. My account of myself. The only thing I’ll be able to leave behind. That there were two things I loved: all those books I read, and all the people who wrote them.”
Sara Collins, The Confessions of Frannie Langton.
Creative Writing Task
Find the steely core of your character. What is the belief that lives in the heart of your lead character? What will drive them to action or urge them to speak up even to the people they love most?
Identify this belief and then experiment with writing a scene in which their beliefs are tested or challenged. Think about how their belief might manifest itself in speech or action. What or who might spur your character on to reveal this belief?
This can be something big and dramatic or some small gesture only noticeable to the reader.
“I ruined our friendship with my temper.” - Little Women (2019)
Loved this article - so well written and excellent extracts chosen. Fab creative writing task as well. Thank you so much! Really inspiring.
Olive! Such a beautiful read, cannot agree more with the previous comment. Really well written and great food for thought!