Female Identity In Vampire Literature

Female identity from time immemorial is linked to the men in a woman’s life. Till her marriage her identity remains to be her fathers and after getting married she is identified as her husband’s. This is the reason why women change their surname to her husband’s after marriage. Even the Indian ancient text like the Manusmriti holds the view that Girls are supposed to be in the protection of their father when they are children, women must be under the protection of their husband when married and under the protection of her son as widows. In no situations is she allowed to take independent decisions herself. Women are always entangled between the important men in her life whether it is her father, her best friend or her love. Stephenie Meyer,

She takes up the age old theme of the mismatched star-crossed lovers and adds an eerie twist to make it something exciting and new. The narrator of the story is the heroine Bella Swan whose parents are divorced. Her life becomes charged with events when she shifts to Forks to live with her father Charlie. The struggle for existence is something that she faces from her childhood due to the broken marriage of her parents. This struggle reaches its peak when she meets new people in Forks. What makes the story more interesting is the fact that the predator falls for the prey and that the human falls for the vampire. The common features of any teen romances like kissing, touching and talking takes on an entirely new meaning as a small mistake would be life threatening. Bella and Edwards struggle to make their relationship work becomes a struggle for survival. “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Thou shalt not eat of it: For in the day that thou eatest thereof Thou shalt surely die” (Genesis2:17).

New Feminism is a movement that is different from Feminism which not only functions against the violence against women but also against male supremacy over women. In the Indian context, the best symbol to understand the idea of New Feminism is the concept of ‘Ardhanarishwara’ were Lord Shiva is portrayed as half ‘Shiva’ and half ‘Shakti’ which denotes that the male and female

On the other hand, men are designed to be fathers who become mental as well as physical support to their woman in bringing a new life to the world. New Feminism is against the discrimination based on sexes as weak and strong. They believe in the equal superiority of both the sexes. They believe in the institution of marriage, which is not only a communion between two people but also a promise to stand for each other in all hurdles and sufferings. Only when the partners are able to get united forgetting their differences of sex, then only the communion gains meaning. They argue that true feminism concentrates not only on women but also on the family as it is the foundation that promotes women both psychologically and socially. When other forms of feminism fight for the domination and power of women, New Feminism holds love and care superior to power and domination. Only when men and women share the bond of love and affection forgetting bitterness of power and domination, a true partnership arises. Another principle concerned with new feminism is that true freedom comes only when men and women are free to perform whatever they are emotionally and physically structured to perform. Last but not the least, they consider fertility as a natural phenomenon which the women and men must respect rather than taking contraceptives to be cured