When you think of classic books from earlier centuries, you wouldn’t typically think of strong female characters. However, many classics feature strong female characters (and even the authors themselves) who break the gender norms of their times, and even somewhat still to this day.
Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Plot (from Goodreads): “Orphaned as a child, Jane has felt an outcast her whole young life. Her courage is tested once again when she arrives at Thornfield Hall, where she has been hired by the brooding, proud Edward Rochester to care for his ward Adèle. Jane finds herself drawn to his troubled yet kind spirit. She falls in love. Hard. But there is a terrifying secret inside the gloomy, forbidding Thornfield Hall. Is Rochester hiding from Jane? Will Jane be left heartbroken and exiled once again?”
Jane Eyre is quite the independent young woman, which is very unheard of for Victorian woman. She inherits her own money and becomes financially independent before she even considers marrying Rochester. Jane shows her independence throughout the novel which inspires many young women around the world.
Jo March from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Plot (from Goodreads): “Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War. It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the freethinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with woman’s work,” including sewing, doing laundry, and acting as a domestic servant. But she soon discovered she could make more money writing. Little Women brought her lasting fame and fortune, and far from being the girl’s book” her publisher requested, it explores such timeless themes as love and death, war and peace, the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities, and the clash of cultures between Europe and America.”
Jo March is a very strong young woman and often her personality gets her into trouble because she is more of a tomboy than a lady. She would rather be a professional writer and live with her sisters than ever get married and leave them. She wants her marriage to have them as equals and be wholly her choice, unlike many girls at that time who married into money or by someone their parents picked for them.
Scarlett O’Hara from Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Plot (from Goodreads): “Gone with the Wind is a novel written by Margaret Mitchell, first published in 1936. The story is set in Clayton County, Georgia, and Atlanta during the American Civil War and Reconstruction era. It depicts the struggles of young Scarlett O’Hara, the spoiled daughter of a well-to-do plantation owner, who must use every means at her disposal to claw her way out of the poverty she finds herself in after Sherman’s March to the Sea. A historical novel, the story is a Bildungsroman or coming-of-age story, with the title taken from a poem written by Ernest Dowson.”
Gone with the Wind is set during the American Civil War and Scarlett herself had to fight to survive. Scarlett was married and pregnant by the time she was 16 and was widowed shortly after due to the War. Despite her hardships, she stayed an independent thinker the whole time and refused to follow traditional customs. She is often considered a feminist by readers which I think fits perfectly to her character.
Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Plot (from Goodreads): “’It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.’ Thus memorably begins Jane Austen‘s Pride and Prejudice, one of the world’s most popular novels. Pride and Prejudice–Austen’s own ‘darling child’–tells the story of fiercely independent Elizabeth Bennett, one of five sisters who must marry rich, as she confounds the arrogant, wealthy Mr. Darcy. What ensues is one of the most delightful and engrossingly readable courtships known to literature, written by a precocious Austen when she was just twenty-one years old. Humorous and profound, and filled with highly entertaining dialogue, this witty comedy of manners dips and turns through drawing-rooms and plots to reach an immensely satisfying finale. In the words of Eudora Welty, Pride and Prejudice is as ‘irresistible and as nearly flawless as any fiction could be.’”
Elizabeth Bennett is one of five sisters and she is very stubborn and independent. She isn’t interested at all in getting married and instead, she’s a lot more interested in reading her books or conversing with her sisters. Everyone knows the story of Elizabeth and Darcy and knows that they do not get along for most of the book, which is partly due to Elizabeth’s strong opinions, and desire to do whatever she pleases.
Marguerite St. Just from The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
Plot (from Goodreads): “Armed with only his wits and his cunning, one man recklessly defies the French revolutionaries and rescues scores of innocent men, women, and children from the deadly guillotine. His friends and foes know him only as the Scarlet Pimpernel. But the ruthless French agent Chauvelin is sworn to discover his identity and to hunt him down.”
Marguerite isn’t considered the main character in this novel, but she is very important to the story. Marguerite is very determined to help her husband and heads off with her husband’s friend to do just that. She stands up to many villains, alone, and comes out of the confrontations a lot stronger than she was before. She is very inspiring and a strong character overall.
