Ralph Godfrey

Professor Cohl

FIQWIS 10105 HA 9

October 29 2018

Exploratory Essay

Throughout different time periods, authors have been creating characters with specific qualities and traits to fit particular roles in their stories in order to direct the narrative of the story. These commonly found characters are known as archetypes. Archetypes such as the protagonist (hero) and antagonist (villain) are ubiquitous examples that are seen in countless numbers of literature from various time periods. The conflict amongst these two contrasting archetypes often tells the tale. The source of their conflict can come from the desired romance of the perplexing and mysterious archetype known as the Femme Fatale. The Femme Fatale or “deadly woman” is a unique female character archetype known for her surreal effect on men. She is known to hypnotize men (beyond the protagonist antagonist character dynamic) with her beauty, charm and sexual allure. She is highly intelligent, and portrays herself as objectively wicked, yet she is far from that as she is always a step ahead of her beloveds and does everything wicked with her own intentions

The 19^th century novel First Love by Ivan Turgenev depicts the Femme Fatale in the patriarchy of 19^th century Russia where there were societal conventions such as strict ballroom etiquette where men could only approach women with very specific exchanges and limitations in education for women. In this short story, Volodia provides a story of his first love at 16 years old with the highly cunning and desirable Princess Zinaida. Zinaida who is the Femme Fatale utilizes many calculative and exploitive tactics in order to keep not only Volodia, but several other beloveds in the palm of her hand.

In order for the Femme Fatale to gain power of any sort or have her reputation at all, she must break the societal norms of her patriarchal society for “it should be noted that these dangerous women, in both the artistic realm and real life were viewed as having adopted masculine traits, which inherently threatened the social balance of male and masculine domination of the feminine female (WLU).” In the patriarchal society, men dominate and thrive whereas women are to comply and live by societal norms set to suit the likes of men. However, the Femme Fatale not only breaks the societal norms, but achieves power “through the mechanism of desire, and while the eroticization of relations of domination (Sherwin),” as an “economical way of embedding women in patriarchy (Sherwin).” When Volodia sees Zinaida for the first time, he was “thunderstruck (Turgenev, 142)” and “confronted with a curious spectacle (Turgenev, 142)” as 4 young men surrounded her as she was “slapping them on the forehead with those small gray flowers (Turgenev, 142).” This public sighting of Zianida surrounded by 4 highly infatuated men not only makes her appear very desirable, striking curiosity and interest into Volodia, but also breaks societal norms of purity. To continue, Zinaida also held games where “the princess has to pay a forfeit, and the one who draws the lucky lot is to have the privilege of kissing her hand (Turgenev, 155).”

Zinaida combines her attempt to break societal norms with a common Femme Fatale characteristic of maintaining push-pull/hot-cold relationships with her beloveds. Throughout the story, Zinaida confuses Volodia by treating him differently every time she sees him, establishing power over their relationship as she determines their relationship status between each other. By enticing Volodia, she constantly asks him intimate and playful questions such as, “What did you think of me yesterday M’sieu Voldemar (Turgenev, 147)?” and “And you? Don’t I love you? (Turgenev, 163).” She then decides to get very cold with her beloved as the second time Volodia sees Zinaida, she stared at Volodia “with big chilly eyes, and softly closed the door (Turgenev, 161).”

Another way the Femme Fatale asserts her power is through finding pleasure when inflicting pain on others, also known as sadism. With sadism can come masochism, where the one who receives the pain also receives pleasure. In the case of the beloveds, they experience masochism under Zinaida’s sadism, in hopes of it paying off with her affection in the end. When Zinaida puts pain into Lushin, she “laughed, thrusting the pin deeply, and peeping into his eyes, which he vainly strove to keep in other directions (Turgenev, 163).” The men who love Zinaida are willing to endure pain inflicted by her because they understand it brings her pleasure, but also believe it will pay off in the end and she will sympathize with them even though it is theorized that “masochism is an intrinsic element of femininity (Sherwin)” and “can be understood as a cultural construction, as a subject position created by the prevailing patriarchal power structures and by the discourses that produce sexual difference (Sherwin.)”

 

Since the power of the Femma Fatale comes from exploiting men, she must only be around men she can master or else her reputation as a Femme Fatale is at risk. Princess Zinaida in one of her few moments of vulnerability and honestly, she admits to Volodia “No; I can’t care for people I have to look down upon. I must have someone who can master me… I hope I may never come across any one like that! I hope never to be caught in anyone’s claws.(Turgenev, 163),” However, she is unfortunate as she crosses paths with Volodia’s father who is the most successful out of all of the beloveds to master Zinaida. What makes Volodia’s father stand out is simply his will. As Volodia’s father tells Volidia, “Will, his own will, and it gives power, which is better than liberty. Know how to will and you will be free, and you will lead (Turgenev, 160),” he applies it himself mastering Zinaida where in the end he becomes the sadist and Zinaida turns into the masochist as he whips Zinaida where she “slowly raises her arm to her lips, kissed the streak of red upon it (Turgenev, 195).”

As society continues to stray away from the old male dominant patriarchy and strive for a more progressive social climate, it is harder to depict the Femme Fatale in works today since Femme Fatales need an unbalanced system to overcome where men thrive. Film Noir movies like Gilda find ways around this by depicting plots of massive wealth and luxury where societal norms are not as as applicable compared to more real life situations. In the 1940’s during the time of Film Noir, directors created surreal plots and stories in order to incorporate Femme Fatales creating a romantic and personal motivation for the male characters.  In more recent times, 20^th century films have incorporated the Femme Fatale into their movies.

Thus, the Femme Fatale is a character that exhibits cunning, lustful and misleading behavior to keep control over her beloveds. She relies on power to maintain her reputation and disregards the emotions and feelings of her beloveds for the sake of her own amusement and feeling of importance. From Zinaida’s hot-cold interactions to behavior of sadism, she portrays the ideal Femme Fatale, until she allows the will power of Volodia’s father to overpower her. Femme Fatales may appear objectively wicked due to the lustful ambition of the beloveds, it is the Femme Fatales that gives her beloveds the illusion they are to be worthy of her love and affection, when in the end, she does not mean to give any to anyone at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

“Historical Context of the Femme Fatale.” Washington and Lee University(WLU). The Femme Fatale

https://crimescandalspectacle.academic.wlu.edu/historical-context-of-the-femme-fatale/

 

Sherwin, Miranda. “Deconstructing the Male: Masochism, Female Spectatorship, and the Femme Fatale in Fatal Attraction, Body of Evidence, and Basic Instinct.” Journal of Popular Film & Television. Vol. 35, Issue 4, 2008, p174-182. CCNY Libraries

https://web-b-ebscohost-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=66f1cae8-8377-48ed-b072-36c4043d385b%40sessionmgr102

 

Turgenev, Ivan. The Torrents of Spring. Edited by Constance Garnett, Bibliobazaar, 2006. First Love

 

Wilkie, Brian. “First Love (Pervaia Liubov’) by Ivan Turgenev, 1860.” Reference Guide to Short Fiction, edited by Thomas Riggs, 2nd ed., St. James Press, 1999, pp. 826-827. Gale Virtual Reference Library, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3408300488/GVRL?u=cuny_ccny&sid=GVRL&xid=451a6078. Accessed 29 Oct. 2018.