Scarlett Women

One of the interesting things about reading reviews of romance novels is discovering a common complaint and it goes something like this:

“I really hate the heroine, I wanted to throw the book across the room”

Ouch!

Considering that romance novels are largely written by women for women, it seems to be a surprise that some authors get so wrong.

Now I should clarify here by saying some authors write heroines who are deliberately difficult and unsympathetic  and do it well, but I would argue for the majority of romance readers, we want to relate and identify with the heroines. We insert ourselves into these love stories we want to make sure that the hero and the heroine are worthy of their happily-ever-afters.

But it seems I’m not alone in noticing that not all romantic heroines are created equal.

It seems that some romance heroines fall into one of two deadly traps.

She’s TSTL!

As in ‘Too Stupid To Live’ – she’s the heroine who makes every dumb move under the sun and then some. She’s the type that has you rooting for the villain and feeling pity for the hero.

Keira Gillett sums up reader frustration with a TSTL heroine here:

A TSTL heroine does stupid things. She just can’t seem to help it. Like the dumb females in horror movies who always go the wrong way, a TSTL heroine follows the tradition of unthinking idiocy. She’ll run away from the hero and into a nest of bad guys. During a rescue attempt she’ll force the hero to pause in the middle of gunfire for a cross examination of his heart. And she won’t be drugged, like in Knight and Day, which makes that scenario funny.

 

She’s  such a bitch!

What’s intriguing to me  is that the bitchy romantic heroine is not a deal breaker.

She’s the selfish, angry, narcissistic, unempathetic woman who excuses her nastiness under  new names like, ’empowered’, ‘single-minded’, determined.

In fact there is a whole sub-section of romance readers who really, really, really like them.

But there is a huge caveat which gives a hint at why these heroines are a guilty pleasure for some:

Can any one suggest some books that have heroines who are: bitchy, nasty, arrogant, snobish (sic), all those unlovable qualities. Whether it’s real or a mask, historical or contemporary doesn’t matter as long as she eventually changes her attitude, preferably is tamed by the hero.

Calling Dr Freud…

I have to confess that I used to love the super bitchy hero, instead of just watching Gone With The Wind (which I did at the age of 14) I also read the book (which I still have). As a teenage girl, Scarlett O’Hara was smart, quick-witted, tempestuous, driven and, as depicted by Vivien Leigh, breathtakingly beautiful.

But when I re-read the book in by early 20s, I found my attitude had begun to change. The uncontrolled emotional turmoil that resonated with me as a teenager was seen as pointless and self-destructive as I grew into adulthood.

When you really think about it, Scarlett was not a character to admire at all:

• She abandons two of her four children
• She marries a man she does not love for revenge
• She relentlessly pursues a married man
• She steals her sister’s beau and ends up getting the man killed
• She is motivated by jealousy, hate  and fear
• She’s reckless
• She’s an alcoholic

By the time Rhett tells her, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” I cheered the man on.

That’s not to say that Gone With the Wind is not a wonderful novel – it is most certainly deserving of its iconic status – but the true heroine is not the green-eyed coquette. Scarlett O’Hara is a magnificently drawn anti-hero but she cannot hold a candle to the true heroine of novel.

If we take the same qualities that we like to apply to our heroes – brave, thoughtful, resilient, honest, virtuous – then the real heroine of Gone With the Wind is… Melanie Wilkes.

• She welcomes Scarlett into the family, knowing that the other woman doesn’t like her.
• Defends Scarlett’s scandalous decision to dance with Rhett Butler while still in mourning for her husband (Melanie’s beloved brother).
• She works at nursing and is much more compassionate at it than Scarlett is.
• Works hard to save Tara – even helps Scarlett remove the body of the Union soldier that Scarlett was forced to kill in self-defence.
• Publicly acknowledges prostitute Belle Watling for providing an alibi for Rhett, Ashley and Frank who formed a posse to kill the man who tried to rape Scarlett when other women (including Scarlett) are mortified and resentful.
• Defends Scarlett against the gossips who claim she is having an affair with her husband.
• Provides Scarlett with sage advice while on her death bed: “Be kind to Captain Butler. He loves you so.”

Despite the contempt with which Scarlett treats her one-time sister-in-law, Melanie is a much more interesting character. She is the type of woman whom you’d want as a friend. Hers was a quiet strength borne out of steadfastness and love.

As Rhett observed: “She never had any strength. She’s never had anything but heart.”

How to write a great romantic heroine

Unless you’re deliberately going down the anti-heroine route, we want our heroines as someone we can like, if not identify with but that doesn’t mean that she has to be a Miss Goodie-Two-Shoes milksop.

I’ve just finished writing one of the most complex heroines, Lady Abigail Houghall. She was one of the villains in Moonstone Obsession and she is going to be the heroine in my newly completed manuscript Moonstone Conspiracy.

This is what I learned through the process of turning an anti-heroine into a heroine in her own right. Even without Abigail’s complex back story, every romantic heroine worth cheering on should have these qualities.

1. She may not be perfect, but she acknowledges her faults.
2. She doesn’t blame anyone else for adverse situations, she acknowledges that they are of own making.
3. She is willing to do battle with her inner-demons. She may not always win, but you have to give the girl points for trying.
4. Where possible she will try to do the right thing – even if it costs (financially, her reputation, her ‘face’, her happiness) to do it
5. She will roll up her shirtsleeves to get the job done. She doesn’t shirk her responsibilities or runs away from them.
6. She will also acknowledge that she can’t do it alone. She will not reveal her vulnerability to everyone, but with her hero she knows she is safe and will lay herself bare – physically, emotionally, spiritually

In her own way our romantic heroines should be as chivalrous and valorous as the heroes. That doesn’t require physical strength or brute force because the evils that we conquer and the dragons that we slay are not external, they are within.

And now, a little Adam Ant.