The Woman Portrait in the

Modern English Literature

Portrait is one of the means of art characteristic in literature with the help of which a writer depicts the typical

character of the heroes and show his idea attitude to

them through their image: constitution, face, clothes, gestures and manners.

The portrait of a character has both the individual traits and

typical ones Typical traits

• A character is shown as a social and historic person

• A character is shown as a representative of a definite social period/epoch

• A character is a representative of a definite social level and social group

Individual traits

• A character has an unrepeatable personality

• A character acts in a manner according to his/her individual mixture of principles and moral preoccupations

Naturalism / Realism• Portraits of characters are

close to the reality and bear some signs of typicalness

• the author underlines in the characters usual, everyday sides of character which have nothing

in common with something exclusive or extraordinary

Romanticism / Science Fiction

• The author show characters pushing from routine and everyday life

• Characters are shown as being unique persons in extraordinary situations

• Portraits of characters have a lot of unusual, exaggerated and sometimes even fantastic traits

Analysis of 3 types of woman portrait from:

• A Shooting Season

• Being Stolen From

• Mr Tennyson

A Shooting SeasonThe main character – Anna

The author doesn’t idealize her

She even has some negative traits of character: being too self-critical, sometimes she commits errors, she doesn’t think of the consequences of her actions, she is a bit jealous > the character is close to the reality

But: the author sets her in a mixture of usual and extraordinary situations.

Being Stolen From The main character – Norma Lacy

She is described as a mediocre woman: • sheepish• irresolute / diffident• listless• depressed

The author sets her in usual problematic situations to which she can’t find any solution

> the character is absolutely usual and hackneyed

Mr Tennyson

The main character – Jenny

The author describes her appearance as being rather usual but pretty

In some way he idealizes her

The author gives her traits of character both of an adolescent and of a mature woman

> The character is shown as usual but the actions and some description of her bear some idealising attitude of the author