Nightwood

In Djuna Barnes’ novel Nightwood, she sets forth an opposing view for the “patriarchal woman”, those who believe men to be more rational, stronger and decisive. Barnes style of prose in Nightwood can best be described as surrealist writing. The novel deviates significantly from conventional plot structures while emphasizing on the aesthetic imagery and stressing the automatism behind human action. Barnes unique style of writing undeniably reinforces the mystique and curiosity surrounding the novel, but it also makes the reading very heavy. Barnes creates such an enigma to signify the complexity of defining gender roles. In Carolyn Allen’s journal, The Erotics of Nora’s Narrative in Djuna Barnes’s Nightwood, Allen proposes that Barnes utilizes the relationship of Robin and Nova to address and contest the ‘classic white stereotypes of lesbian desire’ (177), while using the binaries “wife and husband”, “mother and child” and “feminine and masculine” to support her argument.
Robin doesn’t fit into the patriarch idea of a wife, one who should be a homebody and spend the majority of her day in the kitchen. Robin embraces her freedom dispelling the misconception of female’s gender role. If one was to juxtapose Robin and Cinderella the difference between the two characters would be like comparing night and day. Cinderella is the story of a female who is destined to live a submissive house wife life, a lesson she learns while waiting to be rescued by Prince Charming, but when reading about Robin it becomes evident that her place isn’t in a home. Throughout the novel we see Robin jumping from home to home, struggling to find complacency with the “wife and husband dynamic”. Felix tries to play the role of Robin’s Prince Charming but fails horribly, much like his female successors. He may have believed that Robin would be his trophy wife in the patriarch sense that she would be gentle, submissive and nurturing, as ‘he was taken aback to find himself accepted, as if Robin’s