Great women from art, literature & myth

Catherine Earnshaw, the tragic heroine of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, soon becomes inseparable from Heathcliff, the gypsy-demon child her father brings home from the streets of Liverpool. In their youth they pass the days together, as wild as the windy moors that surround their home. Raised as brother & sister, but not, as time passes, fate has it that Heathcliff is relegated to mere farm hand whilst Catherine is encouraged to become a lady & is pursued by the eligible Edgar Linton. After receiving a marriage proposal from Edgar, Cathy approaches Nelly for advice, not knowing that Heathcliff stands nearby able to hear every word.

"It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire."

On overhearing this Heathcliff leaves the Heights. Many years pass & he returns, after making his fortune, to reclaim Wuthering Heights & Cathy. He does everything in his power to torment & bring ruin to those who have crossed him – including his beloved Catherine.

If only Heathcliff had not overheard that conversation between Cathy & Nelly, would things have turned out any different? Or if he had listened in a little longer he would have heard what Cathy was really saying, what was really in her heart.

"My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods. Time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees - but my love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath - a source of little visible delight, but necessary”

"Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being."

Even when Catherine is dead Heathcliff continues his need to consume her, whether this be through the capture & containment of her daughter, or the ceaseless summoning of her spirit - forever denying it peace. Yet you get the feeling Cathy would have chosen this regardless, anything to be near him, her Heathcliff.... her "Home"

Great women from art, literature & myth

Countess Ellen Olenska from Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, a controversial character, full of passion & brute honesty. Newly arrived from Europe, where she has presumably left her husband, she arrives in New York to face the gossip & brutal criticism of its citizens. Amongst them is her cousin May & her fiancé Newland Archer. Ellen is like no one Newland has ever met; all his convictions (including his love for May) are suddenly thrown into doubt. And the high society of upper class New York which he once found so engaging becomes vacuous & dull. A rapturous love develops between Ellen & Newland, a love quelled by an unforgiving world, a world where rules reign over truth.

The Age of Innocence was the winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize - the first Pulitzer ever awarded to a woman. The following passage is one of my favourites:

When the men joined the ladies after dinner the Duke went straight up to the Countess Olenska, and they sat down in a corner and plunged into animated talk. Neither seemed aware that the Duke should first have paid his respects to Mrs. Lovell Mingott and Mrs. Headley Chivers, and the countess have conversed with that amiable hypochondriac, Mr. Urban Dagonet of Washington Square, who, in order to have the pleasure of meeting her, had broken through his fixed rule of not dinning out between January and April. The two chatted together for nearly twenty minutes; then the Countess rose and, walking alone across the wide drawing-room, sat down at Newland Archer’s side.

It was not the custom in New York drawing-rooms for a lady to get up and walk away from one gentleman in order to seek the company of another. Etiquette required that she should wait, immovable as an idol, while the men who wished to converse with her succeeded each other at her side. But the Countess was apparently unaware of having broken any rule; she sat at perfect ease in a corner of the sofa beside Archer, and looked at him with the kindest eyes.

“I want you to talk to me about May,” she said
Instead of answering her he asked: “You knew the Duke before?”
“Oh, yes – we used to see him every winter at Nice. He’s very fond of gambling – he used to come to the house a great deal.” She said it in the simplest manner, as if she had said: “He’s fond of wild-flowers”; and after a moment she added candidly: “I think he’s the dullest man I ever met.”

**********

“May is a darling; I’ve seen no young girl in New York so handsome and so intelligent. Are you very much in love with her?”
Newland Archer reddened and laughed. “As much as a man can be”
She continued to consider him thoughtfully, as if not to miss any shade of meaning in what he said, “Do you think, then, there is a limit?”

Great women from art, literature & myth

Frida Kahlo 1907-1954 was born in Mexico City. Frida began to paint while she was an inpatient in hospital after a bus accident left her with a crushed back, pelvis & leg, leaving her in chronic pain the remainder of her life. A metal bar had impaled Frida's abdomen & uterus during the accident which subsequently affected her reproductive capabilities. As a child Frida had also contracted Polio which had left her lower limbs disfigured - it is estimated that she endured up to 35 operations during her lifetime. Frida had a special easel made so she could paint from her hospital bed, the majority of her paintings were self portraits expressing her pain & suffering as well as her sexual experimentation.

The first of the two paintings, "The broken column," depicts her body as being split apart like a cavernous fissure in a landscape left ravaged by an earthquake. Like the barren earth behind her, her body is empty - unable to nurture life, the only thing that exists is a column that is shattered to pieces and is being held precariously together by a corset & Frida's own rigid stance. Nails pierce her skin & tears drive down her checks yet her stoic expression denies the presence of any pain.

The second painting, "Self-portriat with thorn necklace and hummingbird", shows Frida with a thorny collar that is peircing her neck - leaving her once again rigid & unable to move freely. A dead hummingbird sits like a pendant on her chest - a token of her ressurection. On her shoulder sits a black monkey, symbolic of lust & sexuality - is it helping Frida get out of the thorny garland or is it helping construct the torturous necklace? And the black cat - is it steeped in superstition & bad luck or is it associated with anarchism of which Frida was increasingly an active participant? Or is Frida trying to tell us something altogether different?

Great women from art, literature & myth

The birth of Venus, the grand Renaissance painting by Sandro Botticelli, was quite controversial in its day, going against the trend of Roman Catholic influence by showcasing a secular & mythological theme. Venus (Greek-Aphrodite), the goddess of love, beauty, laughter & marriage – arises from out of the sea. Roman & Greek Legend has it that when the god Uranus was castrated & his genitals thrown into the sea, the foam gave rise to Venus. At that very moment the rose flower also came into being – the rose, a universal symbol of love with its thorns reminding us that love can be both cruel & dangerous. Venus is greeted on her right by the west wind Zephyr, the gentle breeze of spring - he ushers her to shore. With him is his bride Flora the goddess that holds “perpetual sway over flowers” – she showers Venus with pink roses. To her left stands the hour spirit Horae – the nymph of spring, waiting to clothe a naked Venus & guide her to dry land.

Great women from art, literature & myth

Venus of Willendorf, crafted from limestone some 25,000 years ago – a relic from the Palaeolithic ages. A woman so large & yet so small - standing at all of 4 ½ inches tall, she was discovered on the banks of the Danube. But this Venus could not stand at all as her tiny feet fail to support her frame, suggesting that perhaps she was meant to always be held. Is her face downcast or is she faceless? Her thin arms they drape over bulging breasts; her vulva pulses out - protruding from between her accentuated thighs. Venus of Willendorf, you great symbol of fertility!….who was it that carved you out from stone? Who was the first to hold you within the palm of their hand?

Great women from art, literature & myth

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery is one of my all time favourite tales as I'm sure it is for many other girls. Who could forget the misadventures & calamities of Anne Shirley (Anne spelt with an 'E'), the red haired orphan girl who comes to live with Marilla Cuthbert & her brother Matthew on Prince Edward Island. They had asked for a boy from the orphanage but a mix up led to them getting Anne instead & what a handful she turned out to be. Who could forget the time she dyed her hair green after the peddler on the road assured her it would turn her tresses into "a beautiful raven black" or when she nearly drowned after the boat sank when she was acting out the Lady of Shallot. One of my favourites would have to be the mouse getting in the sauce after she forgot to put the cover on it and how she described it as "a romantic way to perish.....for a mouse." Intelligent, imaginative & an incurable romantic, Anne worms her way into everyones affections, including one Gilbert Blythe - a fellow class mate whose second encounter with Anne ends up with him having a slate cracked over his head. One of my most beloved scenes is the following where Marilla & Matthew are seeing Anne off at the train station when she is heading off to college:

Marilla: I'm afraid for her, Matthew. She'll be gone so long. She'll get terrible lonesome.

Matthew: You mean, we'll get terrible lonesome.

Marilla: I can't help wishing that she'd stayed a little girl.

Matthew: Mrs. Spencer made a lucky mistake, I guess.

Marilla: It wasn't luck; it was Providence. God knew we needed her.

Matthew: Even with her queer little ways.

Marilla: I loved her for them.

Great women from art, literature & myth

Who is this, who has startled the deer?
Who has filled the woods with fear.... with fear
A young man, a hunter on the chase
Oh how beautiful, how lovely is his face….his face

I will follow him till I know what I must say
For with me words just get in the way….the way
He sees me now & harks “let us two meet”
And folish me all I can do is repeat.....repeat

Does he not share my new found love?
He flees and cries “enough”….enough
Ashamed I fall down in the grass
Until my time has passed….has passed

I see him now down by the spring
Gazing into its depths & wondering….wondering
At just how beautiful, how perfect he is
Until the earth below is his….is his

You can hear me call from cave, from hall
To you I am Echo, that is all…..is all
& by the spring daffodils grow tall
In remembrance of Narcissus, my love…my all

Great women from art, literature & myth

Celie from Alice Walker’s “The Colour Purple”

From an early age, Celie is subjected to a life of abuse and is told she is ugly. Because of this she shies away in silence, and learns to hide her smile. When alone Celie's talks to God - to Celie God is a remote figure whom she fears doesn’t much care for her.

Celie does little to fight back against her stepfather, Alphonso – and soon finds herself pregnant with his children – both of whom die. She is then married off to an equally abusive man, who separates her from her beloved sister Nettie. Then along comes Shug Avery, a strong beautiful woman, who slowly over time becomes closer & closer to Celie. Shug helps Celie restore pride in herself by showing her love and tenderness. Celie once again learns to smile and develops the courage to fight back.

Celie’s new found self worth transforms her into a creative, successful, independent woman whom life has seen fit to shower with happiness. This comes through being reunited with her long lost sister & her own children whom she believed were dead.

The colour purple won the Pulitzer prize for fiction in 1983 and was later developed into an acclaimed film.

“Listen, God love everything you love—and a mess of stuff you don’t. But more than anything else, God love admiration….Not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off if you walk by the colour purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.”

Great women from art, literature & myth

Mariana by John Everett Millais was first shown at the Royal Academy in 1851 where the painting was accompanied by the following lines from the eponymous Tennyson poem:

She only said, ‘My life is dreary-
He cometh not’ she said;
She said, ‘I am aweary, aweary –
I would that I were dead’.

How long has she been sitting there, waiting for her lover to return? The leaves turn brown & fall to the ground about her feet; mice scavenge the floor for remnants from her table. You can almost feel the warmth of the stool where Mariana has sat waiting….wanting – she arches her back now & lengthens out her fatigued frame. Her face, one of a woman past caring with no more tears to shed, tells of her desertion….of her abandonment. The rich tapestries that adorn the room; the lush velvet of her dress; now mere reminders of a tomorrow that may never come.

Great women from art, literature & myth

Spain by Surrealist painter Salvador Dali - a painting making use of double imagery in the form of a female figure, reminiscent of a Renaissance painting, to symbolise the Spanish Civil War. The female form is made up of groups of men, women & horses in the mist of battle, she is seen to be leaning on a chest of drawers symbolising the opening of the subconscious - the unveiling of the hidden. Dali himself viewed the War as a "phenomenon of natural history," he saw it as being something that was essential to reveal the core of Spain's heritage. And the scarf or banner that sits half in half out of the drawer, with its meaty texture & colour, could be equally interpreted as a "pound of flesh".

"that this earth of Spain held hidden in the depths of it's entrails."

-DALI-

Great women from art, literature & myth

Jeanne Hébuterne in red shawl by Modigliani is perhaps one of the saddest paitings ever put to canvas. Who would have guessed that in less than a year the artist, his muse, and their unborn child would all be dead. Modigliani, aged 35, from ill health, Jeanne at 21, throwing herself from their apartment window 2 days after his death. They had met just 2 years earlier when she was an idealistic young art student and he was the struggling but brilliant artist.

The tilt of her head, the vacant stare – eyes like frozen lakes in winter. Is she looking at you, through you, or past you into another dimension?

Great women from art, literature & myth

Psyche:

"Oh box of beauty,
Can I not have a little of you for myself
After all I have been through the gates of hell
& back again just to capture you
To deliver you unto my queen
Can’t I take just a little?
To make my hair more golden
To make my eyes more blue
For I’m tired from my journey
My face, my body ravaged by the task
If I just take a little peep at you
I doubt that Venus would mind
For I’m so tired, so very tired
So tired that I fear I may just fall
....asleep"

Great women from art, literature & myth

Take me out on the waves where
The mermaids swim & play
Where they sing songs of enchantment

& comb their tresses by day

But when darkness falls upon the sea
Don’t leave the helm case you stray
Into wild waters where ships they pass
Like ghosts on murky mists of grey

For they’ll drag you down into their depths
If you should lose your way

They'll take your life or give it back

So spare me please...I pray

Great women from art, literature & myth

Anna Karenina, Tolstoy’s tale of Russian aristocracy, a story of forbidden love - of a love that cost one woman everything. When a married Anna first meets Vronsky there is an instant attraction, an immediacy & danger forged when they both witness a fatal accident at a train station. The two soon become secret lovers, until a public show of affection forces them to confess to a passion much too strong to hide. A proud husband and a society that prides itself upon certain principles (at the sacrifice of both truth & honesty); make it impossible for Anna to find peace. She is shunned by society, her husband refusing to let her go, despite being indifferent towards her; her lover resenting her for what she has cost him. In an act of final desperation, Anna is driven to do the unthinkable:

A feeling seized her like that she had experienced when preparing to enter the water in bathing, and she crossed herself. The familiar gesture of making the sign of the cross called up a whole series of girlish and childish memories, and suddenly the darkness, that obscured everything for her, broke, and life showed itself to her for an instant with all it’s bright past joys. But she did not take her eyes off the wheels of the approaching second carriage, and at the very moment when the midway point between the wheels drew level, she threw away her red bag, and drawing her head down between her shoulders threw herself forward on her hands under the carriage, and with a light movement as if preparing to rise again, immediately dropped on her knees. And at that same moment she was horror-struck at what she was doing. “Where am I? What am I doing? Why?” She wished to rise, to throw herself back, but something huge and relentless struck her on the head and dragged her down. “God forgive me everything!” she said, feeling the impossibility of struggling…..A little peasant muttering something was working at the rails. The candle, by the light of which she had been reading that book full of anxieties, deceptions, grief, and evil, flared up with a brighter light than before, lit up for her all that had before been dark, flickered, began to grow dim, and went out for ever.

Great women from art, literature & myth

Circe, great apothecary of Aeaea
What strange alchemy have you cast?
Your enemies, they prowl about your throne,
Awaiting the day you restore them back to life.

Circe, great sorceress of the sea
Who can resist your many charms?
Ten years of battle has seen the fall of Troy,
How long must it be till I reach my home?

Circe, this past year you have held me captive
As your lover, as your slave.
Be true to your word – your promise
And guide me home to Ithaca once again....

Great women from art, literature & myth

Titania, Queen of all the Fairies.

"I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in'

- Oberon from William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"-

Great women from art, literature & myth

I can see them now
Approaching on their chariots
They ride into war
The Valkyrie,
Ready to administer their mark upon men.
Odin’s charges,
Warrior maidens of light,
Tell me, who will fight alongside the great god?
Who will see the battle at the end of the world?
She beckons me now,
Freyja, the mighty mistress of the slain.
She crowns me victorious,
She takes my armour,
Retains my sword
And guides me onwards to Asgard

Great women from art, literature & myth

In the dead of night
I hear her cries
Reach deep and dark
Into my being
Into my bones
At the waters edge she wails
Her unearthly song
She calls me by name
Like a knell from Hell
My angel of death
My Banshee bride

Great women from art, literature & myth

You may find them swimming in the seas -

off Shetland and off Orkney
In the cover of darkness you may see them shed their pelt
And come ashore as beautiful maidens
To wander the earth for a time

If by chance you can capture a skin
A human existence she must endure
And become lover, wife and mother

But if she should ever find her pelt
She will once again slip into her Selkie skin
And to the sea return
Without hesitation
Without regret