English 391

Not Just in “The Dead”: How Margot Norris’ Criticism can be Applied to Countless Works of Literature

In Margot Norris’ article entitled Not the Girl She Was at All: Women in “The Dead”, we see universal themes that can be applied to many different works of literature and not exclusively to “The Dead”.  Norris believes that in literature and especially in “The Dead” that female characters are not given a true voice.  One of the major restrictions that female characters face in literature is that they are presented through the voice of a male narrator, and usually a male author, and also that many works of fiction “assume a patriarchal role in relation to the reader” and applies it to its female characters. (204). Both of these issues, while found in “The Dead” can be found in many works of literature, especially in regards to the Canon, and the problems that arise from these factors can be found in many works of literature.

                Norris spends a significant amount of time focusing on the male narrator or male voice in “The Dead”.  She states that “ ‘The Dead’ must therefore be read not as one text but as two tests: a ‘loud’ or audible male narration challenged and disrupted by a ‘silent’ or discounted female countertext that does not, in the end, succeed in making itself heard”.(192)  Are all male narrators challenged by the female protagonist of their works?  Many male writers of earlier centuries seem to want certain things from the females they depict in their writings.  Think of Andrew Marvell’s poem “To His Coy Mistress”.  What would the mistress’ voice be saying?  Yes he is trying to convince this female to sleep with him, but he  is also trying to dominate her and own her sexuality and beauty.  Her coyness is something that society forces upon her.  Being that men controlled society back in Marvell’s time, he is asking his mistress to break away from the patriarchal hold on society and into his personal patriarchal hold.  Although the whole poem is written about her, one never gets to hear her voice.  This is just one of the many examples of female characters within literature that are portrayed the way in which the male writers believes females think and the way he believes females should act.  Female characters are not given true voices.  How can they when the narrator presenting them is male?  The narrator is going to share with his audience what is important for his story, and bypass what he thinks is not, and this in many ways silences the female characters.   Only when the narrator is female, and usually when the author is female, do we then get to see this shift in active voice. Suddenly, readers begin to hear the females’ voices, and get insight into their feelings and reactions to the plot that involves them.  When a narrator is male, he unknowingly silences his female characters; portrays them in an ideal way that men expect women to behave and act in literature and in society.

                Another issue that Norris finds in “The Dead” which can be found through works of literature is that “‘The Dead’ refuses to instruct readers about female oppression and thereby refuses to assume a patriarchal role in relation to the reader; rather it presents readers with textual problems that they must labor to puzzle, understand, and solve for themselves” (204).  By ignoring or omitting the centuries of struggle women have faced in order to receive equal rights as their male counterparts, texts of literature leave gaps in regards to their female characters.  How can one write about the struggle of not being equal when they are writing from a status of power?  Males have always been the one to hold the power, so they cannot begin to understand what it’s like to not be in such a position.  This idea can be seen in works of literature and not just restricted to male and female depictions.  We can also apply this idea to characters that are of different races.  How are African Americans portrayed in works of literature written by white powerful males?  How can these characters be given authentic voices, if the person giving them their voice cannot relate to the struggles and challenges they have faced? How are these characters silenced?  In many texts, both African Americans and females become the others.  They are not a part of the society that holds the power and makes the decisions, which mostly affect the people of lesser power.  Male narrators and male authors do not understand what it is like to not be in a position of power and therefore cannot give accurate voices to both female and ethnic characters. 

                Although Norris focuses her article on “The Dead”, her ideas can be used in numerous texts.  The struggles that male writers have when giving female characters authentic voices is something that can be seen in countless works of literature, especially works written in earlier centuries.  Readers have to see that in many works of literature, there are two texts, one is the text of the male speaker portraying his story, and the other is a silent text, the text of the supporting characters, female and ethnic, that are depicted in a way in which male ran society wants and expects them to act.  It is not until women and African Americans writings begin to be published, that we see an authentic voice for these types of characters.  If one should write what one knows, how can we, as readers, expected to be given accurate portrayals of female characters when voice is told through a male narrator?  How can someone depict an accurate portrayal of a character if they do not empathize or understand the class struggles in which that particular character has had to overcome?  Norris not only brings up feminist criticism, but she also touches on Marxist criticism, which can be applied to countless works of literature read today.

Works Cited

Norris, Margot. “Not the Girl She Was at All: Women in “The Dead”.” Joyce, James. The Dead. Boston: Bedford Books , 1994. 190-205.