In the classical novels, women, their representations and their roles reflect the real life at 19th
century. There are so many female characters in Great Expectations and Crime and Punishment
and in both novels there are various types of female characters.
In Great Expectations, the female characters are Mrs. Gragery, Miss Havisham, Estella and Biddy.
These female characters have different roles in that novel, however they have some similarities
also. Mrs. Gragery is a mother-like character. She always takes care for her husband and her
brother. She does the house works as cooking, washing and so on. She is proud of her selfsacrifice.
When someone says that she looks after her orphan brother which is a very difficult and
good behaviour, she perks from it. However, she sometimes behave in a bad attitude to her
brother and also her husband. When we observe Mrs. Gragery, we can say that she is the ideal
woman. Furthermore, we can say that she is not good at looking after a children in a good way. In
my opinion, she sometimes thinks that her brother and her husband ruins her life. Thus, she
behaves like that. In addition to that, she has not got her own children. It can be the possible
reason for her attitude to her brother.
The other female character is Biddy. She has some similarities with Mrs. Gragery however she
bahaves to people better that Mrs. Gragery. Thus, it can be said that she is the most perfect female
character in that novel. She shows to the reader the stereotyped woman in the society who is selfsacrifice,
apt, intelligent, gentle and amenable. At the end of the novel, we see the perfect
marriage of Biddy and Joe. They have that perfect marriage because of her characteristic features.
Miss. Havisham is the most problematic female character in that novel. She was left by her fiance
before her marriage. Thus, she begins to live as a living dead. She is a rich woman and her fiance
wanted to marry with her probably because of her money. By that event, novel gives a general
survey to the arranged marriages because of money. She hates men, so she tries to grow Estella as
a robot to break the heart of men who loves her. With Miss. Havisham, the novel gives the idea
that girls can be affected by their mothers. To explain it briefly, it can be said that Estella can be
affected from Miss. Havisham because she is the only woman that she can take as a role-model.
Estella does everything that Miss. Havisham teaches and says to her. Lastly, it can said that she
cannot be a character that is taken from real life because of her attitudes and her life is told
overblown in the novel.
Estella is the girl that is raised by a strange female. Thus, she is also strange. However, she is the
perfect representation of a daughter who takes her mother as a role-model. She always does
whatever Miss. Havisham says to her. She accepts everything that she teaches her. She is a created
character in that novel. However, at the end of the novel she realizes that Miss. Havisham shaped
her in a wrong way and she begins to taker her decisions with her mind and her own emotions.
When we read the novel, we observe all female characters from outside. There is not any emotions
of them and their inner lives. In some parts, these woman characters speak and say something
about their emotions however it is not as deep as the male characters as Pip and Joe. To sum up, it
can be said that, the representation of female characters is not so deep. The role of the female
characters in the novel is identical to the real life. The novel and their lives represent the realities
of that times.
In Crime and Punishment there are also so many female characters. They are Alyona, Lizaveta,
Dunya, Sonya and Pulheriya. These characters are different than the female charachters from
Great Expectations. They are more real and they are represented deeper. In some parts, we can
feel their emotions. However, it cannot be said that, we can see their inner world and emotions so
clear.
Alyona is the woman that Raskolnikov murdered. We do not know much about her but we are sure
about she behaves her sister in a bad attitude. We read that she sometimes beat her as Mrs.
Gragery in Great Expectations. Thus, it can be said that she is not a good character. She is a victim
of a crime, so the reader can forget her bad attitudes. Her death makes Raskolnikov a worse man
even he helps many people as looking after a old man, rescuing some children from fire and so on.
In the novel, Alyona represents the old, rich and bad attituded woman. However, the novel does
not gives many information about her and just focuses on death of her and the murderer of her.
Lizaveta is a kind of victim in that novel. Firstly, she is the victim of her sister and after that she is
the victim of murderer. In some parts, some people says good things about her, especially Sonya.
She is a friend of Sonya and she gives Gospel and the cross to her. She also fixes a dress for Sonya
and her sisters that shows she is a nice woman.
Dunya is the sister of Raskolnikov. She is the most ideal woman in that novel. She accepts to marry
with a man to have money for her mother and her brother even she does not love him. She is well
educated, intelligent and noble. Thus, some men want to marry with her. With that, the novel
shows to the reader that the ideal woman for marriage at that times. We see that she had some
bad manners from Svidrigaylov however she clears her name and she straightens up to gossip
about her morality. She resembles Biddy in some ways as being self-sacrifice. However, she does
more than Biddy to sacrifice herself for her brother and mother. At the end of the novel, she makes
up stories and hides the truth from her mother and sustain to her brother. By looking these
attitudes, it can be said that she lives for her mother and brother not for herself. She dedicated
herself to them. She is the most perfect and stereotyped female character in the novel.
Sonya dedicates herself to her family. She earns money for them from prostitution. She is not
accepted from society because of her job. Except her job and being not accepted, she resembles
Dunya. She also sacrifice herself to her family and for Raskolnikov. In some ways she resembles
Biddy because she tries to understand Raskolnikov as Biddy tries to understand Pip. These two
woman gives rational reasons to behaviour of these men. When Raskolnikov says about the
murder she says “What did you do to yourself?”. That means, she does not accuse him for the
crime. In Great Expectations, Biddy does not accuse Pip because of his shame of his family and life.
However, she says to Pip that is not good. In Crime and Punishment, Sonya says Raskolnikov that to
go and confess your crime afterwards you will be forgiven. In addition to that she leads her to be
religious. She always tries to make him believe in God and pray. In Great Expectations, Biddy
teaches Pip how to read some religious passages. Both women in these novels have a role as a
mother who shows a way to her children.
Pulheriya is the mother of Raskolnikov. She has a role as a good mother to her children. She always
thinks her children. She wants Raskolnikov to have a good education so she tries to send him
money by borrowing money from usurer that shows her sacrifice. She is always proud of her
children and she has great expectations from her son as being a very educated and intelligent man
after she reads his article on journal even she does not understand well. As a mother, she is well
enough. However, she cannot accept that her son can commit a crime. She always thinks that her
son is perfect as many mothers in the world as usual.
To sum up, both novels have female characters who reflects the structure of the society at 19th
century. In many classical novels, reader cannot go into the female characters inner world. Thus,
these two novels are well enough to understand the women in the society due to hear their voices
in some parts as being a part of some events. However, readers cannot hears their feelings directly
from their mouth. In 19th century, the role of woman can be explained very clearly in these novels.
