3 Great Female Characters from Obscure Modern Classics

Women have always been sidelined in modern literature - especially that of the 20th century which actually seems more male-dominated than you actually think it was. From the poets of the 1930s writing about the horrors of the Great Depression to the writers of the experience of the Second World War. It has all been orientated on the male experience. There have been, in between, the experiences of women. But we do have to go hunting for them.

Experiences of women in times of great turmoil. In fiction. In non-fiction. And in poetry. It seems like this has been around forever. It has and it hasn't. The female experience written by females can often be ignored as not literary enough and the female experience written by males can be called inaccurate or 'cliché'. So what I wanted to explore and give to you are three novels written by both genders which seem to accurately depict the female experience. I would also like to show you who exactly these female characters are and why they are important for depicting themselves the way that they do.

These are not cliché or misinformed, they are not ignorant or one-sided and they are definitely not going to be ignored. These are some under-appreciated modern classics which include the realms of the female experience both physically and psychologically. It really doesn't matter who wrote it as long as it is written well.

This list is in no particular order.

3 Great Female Characters from Obscure Modern Classics

Basic Black with Pearly by Helen Weinzweig

When it comes to female characters that you can identify with psychologically and emotionally, none of them come quite like Weinzweig's Shirley. A housewife who wants to get away, in a turbulent love affair and spends her days wandering the streets - looking for more. Referring to the classic appearance of a little black dress with a string of white pearls, I have to say that this is one of the better books I have read about a love affair because the woman is truly a whole different character of her own. Trapped in the outside world and trapped in her own mind. She is forced to confront things and has such a three-dimensional character that we get to explore every facet of her existence through her travels.

Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum

Grusinskaya is a ballerina. From her character we see the torments of being a woman pushed on by the beauty standards of her day. She is terrified of ageing. Her ageing face, her ageing body and her profession demanding her to stay in a specific shape which seems like it is becoming more and more impossible by the day. She is such a complex character because she tries her best to face adversity even though the reader can see very clearly that she is horrified by the thought of getting old and losing her figure. It is such an incredible book and even though it is supposed to be funny, there is a dark psychological side to it - a rare find in funnier novels.

A Way of Life, Like Any Other by Darcy O'Brien

Written by a man but I will argue that it shows no clichés of the female experience. This novel shows us a woman under fire and in emotional pain. Her son is growing up and her marriage is falling apart. She finds solace in different loves but it never really works out. This is a woman who has been kicked around, shoved down and played like a piano and yet, she still tries her best to be there for her son, her child, no matter how old he is. I find that the way in which the son talks about his mother is kind of charming and accurate as hell. One minute he is romanticising her life as a movie star and the next minute he is feeling sorry for her falling apart the way she does. One minute he adores her and the next minute, she is the villain. This mother character comes with all the complexities of the female experience and I applaud it for doing so well at depicting it.