Limited Spaces, Limited Autonomy: Examining Female Identity In the Stories of Ovid and Andersen

Abstract

This article examines the story of Ariadne in Book X of Ovid’s Heroides in conjunction with Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales “Thumbelina” and “The Little Mermaid” through a modern feminist perspective. Ovid and Andersen write the stories of women who dare to leave restrictive environments yet are ultimately met with the punishment of isolation. The article examines how displacement from the private sphere leads to destabilization of the social norm, and “correction” is otherwise found in the creation of a new, confined space. The institution of the private sphere enforces hierarchical social norms and perpetuates the idea that women are nothing if their identities are not defined by a limited and patriarchal environment. This influence of this environment is evident within both Andersen and Ovid’s texts, as the authors define their female characters through confinement, pain, beauty, and usefulness. The article argues that it is only through destroying the private sphere, and subsequent female objectification, that these women might at last find the freedom they have been searching for.