Nature as Space: Gender Roles and Subversion in Edna O’Brien’s “A Scandalous Woman”

Christopher Herman George

doi:10.31178/ubr.11.2.6

Abstract

The rigid social conventions for women in rural twentieth century Ireland, specifically that of the nun and the mother, are illustrated and subsequently subverted by the figures of the scandalous woman and the witch in Edna O’Brien’s short story, “A Scandalous Woman”. Most of the scholarship on this short story and O’Brien’s work in general has been focused on the gender roles in terms of women’s rights. The purpose of this paper, however, is to explore the interrelationship between both the accepted and subversive roles of women, and at the same time demonstrate how social conventions are made subversive by the natural surroundings, outlining both the conventional and subversive nature symbolism which underpins conventional morality. Nature takes on various guises in the story: it has symbolic importance as spiritual sustenance, it has an underlying psychological component, and finally it is present in both erotic and esoteric situations. Spaces are inexorably intertwined with religion and the role of the women in the story, specifically in the context of Eily, the protagonist, and her progression from an innocent girl to a scandalous woman. These connections also serve to illustrate the main character’s progression from innocent girl to scandalous woman in terms of the interactions of gender, nature, and space.

Highlights

The rigid social conventions for women in rural twentieth century Ireland, that of the nun and the mother, are illustrated and subsequently subverted by the figures of the scandalous woman and the witch in Edna O’Brien’s short story, “A Scandalous Woman”
Even though she was largely ignored at the beginning of her career, the recent studies on Edna O’Brien tend to focus on her contribution to Irish literature both as an author and a champion of women’s rights thanks to the female protagonists in her stories and novels, as Lisa Colletta and Maureen O’Connor point out: Ireland, banned her books in 1969 on the grounds of their frank portrayal of female sexuality, a subject considered by Irish censors to be pornographic and obscene
In “A Scandalous Woman,” the subversive nature of the story is present from the beginning, made explicit in the title, and later developed through the character of Eily

Summary

Introduction

The rigid social conventions for women in rural twentieth century Ireland, that of the nun and the mother, are illustrated and subsequently subverted by the figures of the scandalous woman and the witch in Edna O’Brien’s short story, “A Scandalous Woman”. In “A Scandalous Woman,” the subversive nature of the story is present from the beginning, made explicit in the title, and later developed through the character of Eily.

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Conclusion