Strong Women in Literature and What 5 Old Books Have to Say

My college roommate and I recently sat down in a coffee shop to talk about strong, independent women and their role in literature.

It was an accident.

We’re just English majors who like to talk about old books and life and love while nursing warm beverages and fangirling about Jane Austen. We may have been born in the wrong century.

And it’s true that many of our role models come from novels set in times when expectations for women were much different than they are now (Read: the majority wore petticoats. And corsets.).

But after much coffee-swirling and amateur philosophizing, we realized that women’s strength reveals itself, despite societal differences, in the many of the same struggles we face today. It’s not just about being old souls; it’s about having the strength to stand for the things that last.

Here are a few of the literary women we love:

1 Penelope The Odyssey by Homer

Looking for strong female characters in literature? Homer got it right – right from the start. His epic poem features a loving mother, and a loyal wife, and a master strategist holding down the fort when her husband is away. And this is no weekend trip – Odysseus, the hero, disappeared for 20 years.

Penelope’s great strength is her loyalty – and preserving her home and marriage takes all the shrewd scheming she’s got in dealing with the rascals who come to take over Odysseus’s property.

The most touching (and symbolic, and thematically resonant) scene in the poem occurs when Odysseus and Penelope meet up, and the wily Odysseus tests his wife by asking her whether she’s rearranged the furniture. “I couldn’t redecorate if I tried, genius,” says Penelope. “Our wedding bed is made of trees – it’s rooted in the ground. It’s not going anywhere.”

And after a 20-year reunion, Homer was right to celebrate the perseverance of Penelope:

“There is nothing more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.”

2 Mary Garth Middlemarch by George Eliot

Mary Garth is the definition of “down-to-earth.” George Eliot (whose real name, by the way, was Mary Ann Evans) goes out of her way to let her readers know she is poor and plain. But she’s also grounded, intelligent, and wise, and as the quintessential “girl next door,” she’s the most sought-after lady in Middlemarch – and eventually finds her own version of happily ever after with her (much less level-headed) childhood sweetheart. Eliot describes how Mary made peace with her plight early in the novel:

“Mary was fond of her own thoughts, and could amuse herself well sitting in twilight with her hands in her lap; for, having early had strong reason to believe that things were not likely to be arranged for her peculiar satisfaction, she wasted no time in astonishment and annoyance at that fact. And she had already come to take life very much as a comedy in which she had a proud, nay, a generous resolution not to act the mean or treacherous part. Mary might have become cynical if she had not had parents whom she honored, and a well of affectionate gratitude within her, which was all the fuller because she had learned to make no unreasonable claims.”

3 Beatrice The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

The woman who inspired one of the greatest epic poems of all time is probably worth mentioning. Dante Alighieri, the Italian poet who wrote the Divine Comedy (“Abandon all hope ye who enter here,” anyone?), fell for a girl he met when he was very young. He’ll tell the story better than I can:

“Nine times already since my birth the heaven of light had almost revolved to the self-same point when my mind’s glorious lady first appeared to my eyes, she who was called by many Beatrice (‘she who confers blessing’) … At that moment I say truly that the vital spirit, that which lives in the most secret chamber of the heart began to tremble so violently that I felt it fiercely in the least pulsation, and, trembling, it uttered these words: ‘Ecce deus fortior me, qui veniens dominabitur michi: Behold a god more powerful than I, who, coming, will rule over me.’”

Later, her character leads his character (because dreaming up new names is apparently too much work for one of the world’s greatest poets) through Paradise, proving that Dante’s love for Beatrice became much more than a boyish obsession. Beatrice teaches Dante vital lessons about love and life – lessons that lead Dante straight to the entrance of heaven. Here’s Beatrice reminding Dante that love is much bigger than himself:

“Indeed I see that in your intellect

now shines the never-ending light; once seen,

that light, alone and always, kindles love;

and if a lesser thing allure your love,

it is a vestige of that light which – though

imperfectly – gleams through that lesser thing.”

4 Elizabeth Bennet Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Ah, our dearly-beloved Miss Bennet. Whatever you think of Keira Knightley (I’m a fan, but some elitists prefer the

“Pride and Prejudice” is great not just because Lizzie takes down snooty noblemen and baronesses with poise and confidence, but also because she learns a lot about her own prides and prejudices in the process. And it’s only when both Mr. Darcy and Miss Bennet acknowledge their mutual misunderstandings that their timeless love story finally comes together.

Here’s Lizzy defending her character in response to Mr. Darcy’s awful aunt:

“In marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself as quitting that sphere. He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman’s daughter; so far we are equal.”

5 Jane Eyre Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bront

It was inevitable that Miss Eyre would make an appearance in our coffee conversation; “Good ol’ Jane” has been our invisible companion since my friend insisted I read Miss Brontë during our first month of college. Jane’s story resonated with us not because we were orphans hired as governesses by mysterious, moody older men, but because we’re stubborn, idealistic young women who want to emerge from college with our pride and dignity intact.

Here’s what my friend described Jane to me: “Whenever her integrity, whether in regard to religion or love, is challenged, she defends it with fire and elegance.”

Jane’s confrontation with Mr. Rochester shows that strong relationships form between people who challenge one another – and for Jane and Rochester, this leads to lasting love.

Take us home, Jane:

“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! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. 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!”

Metatags: coffee, literature, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Dante, Odyssey, English