The Robber Bride Research Paper

Depending on how you look at Margaret Atwood’s The Robber Bride, Timson calls it an “upmarket melodrama” whereas Martin refers to it as a novel “confronting politically correct feminism”. The truth is it isn’t either of these. While some of the situations are greatly exaggerated, this book comments on the way that women interact with each other on a day-to-day basis. Atwood tells the story of three women, and how they are drawn together because they have all been double-crossed by a mutual female friend, Zenia. These characters seem so real that in some cases they are reminiscent of actual acquaintances. The male characters in The Robber Bride, however, are dull and lifeless. We never
Or as Timson put it “…and male characters who, it can be argued, are uniformly portrayed as so hapless, brutal or pathetic you could forgive them for forming a support group, leaping off the page and tearing the author from limb to limb.” Their only purpose is to serve as vehicles for the female characters to injure each other. For instance, West barely ever speaks and Tony treats him like a baby, sheltering him from everything and everyone. She believes that it is her job to protect him, and this comes from Zenia almost taking him from her. This same basic experience with Zenia is common between the three women. She tried to steal each of their husbands, and in some cases, succeeded. It is for this reason these women are drawn together, not because of pain or fear, but because they want to be able to share their thoughts with someone who has gone through the same thing. Simply knowing that someone else has been humiliated in the same way gives these women a sense of comfort. Charis for instance does not even need to talk when she is around Tony and Roz, she just needs their company. Martin described The Robber Bride described as “the closest thing to