43 And Eve Was Weak
Becky Norton
In literature, the angel transformed from a woman of Heavenly virtue to a woman who does housekeeping, smiles, and waves. Goethe literally describes the angel of the house as, “a life whose story cannot be told as there is no story” (815). How lovely.
The monster is the woman who does not conform to the selfless, actionless, spineless female role. She is cunning, manipulative, and she fights. The monster is therefore characterized as being really disgusting looking, and mainly looking like a woman up top and a monster below the waist. The sexuality of a woman is only acceptable when it is to selflessly please her man and bear children — the moment she starts to enjoy it?
I think the dynamic between angel and monster is similar to that of heimlich and unheimlich in the way that it develops and transitions. “That is, precisely because a woman is denied the autonomy…she is not only excluded from culture…but she also becomes herself an embodiment of just those extremes of mysterious and intransigent Otherness which culture confronts with worship or fear, love or loathing” (814). By not allowing women to partake in common culture, she becomes a sort of mystery to those who are involved in culture. No one knows what to think about women, or more importantly what women think, because they never give her the chance to express herself. As a result, they can either transform her mysterious, unknown image into a kind of Utopian ideal, or they can shape her into a dangerous creature who harbors everything bad with the world. They isolate women to make them perfect angels, but once they realize they know nothing about women, they turn women into monsters.
On the same note, the angel is an angel because she experiences everything like everyone does, but she does not let it affect her and her mission to be quiet and proper. She is able to put on a smile and give advice when really, she might not have the faintest idea what is going on. “The fact that the angel-woman manipulates her domestic/mystical sphere in order to ensure the well-being of those entrusted to her care reveals that she can manipulate; she can scheme; she can plot” (818). The woman unintentionally manipulates the energy and feelings of others with her own “angelic” actions, which only proves that she is capable of manipulating, lying, and acting without her husband’s command or permission. If she has to manipulate the information in order to respond appropriately, as opposed to just responding appropriately off the bat, doesn’t that mean she does not possess the qualities of a genuine angelic nature?
Gilbert and Gubar also discuss how the angel transforms into an Angel of Death. “But if, as nurse and comforter, spirit-guide and mystical messenger, a woman ruled the dying and the dead, might not even her admirers sometimes fear that, besides dying or easing death, she could bring death? As Welsh puts it, ‘The power of an angel to save implies, even while it deni