Female Characterization in the Novels of Robert Penn Warren: Variations on a Cinderella Theme

摘要

The psychological construction of Robert Penn Warrenu27s characters is an established tenet among Warren critics as is the influence of Sigmund Freudu27s work upon Warrenu27s fiction. Specifically the oedipal nature of Warrenu27s male characters has been widely discussed especially in regard to plots culminating in patricide. Based upon this criticism of Robert Penn Warrenu27s novels to date, Warrenu27s female characters are revealed to be developed likewise upon an oedipal paradigm. The female paradigm which corresponds to Freudu27s Oedipus complex in women is the Cinderella tale. These stories, some at least a thousand years old, were critically divided into three main types by Marian Roalfe Cox a century ago. These three archetypes as well as the writings of Sigmund Freud were a part of the intellectual climate from which Warren as artist drew. The eleven females in Warrenu27s ten novels that are developed sufficiently for study—given physical, emotional, and psychological construction—correspond to the three Cinderella archetypes. As such this reading offers a new understanding of Warrenu27s fictional women by revealing them not as aberrations of u22normalu22 women but simply as types of women first revealed to us in our earliest childhood tales.