Throughout the literary history of the Western traditions the most enduring heroines either fit in the angelic mold of the innocent girl or its counterpart of the more spectacular devilish provenance, with the innocuous married woman relegated to the sidelines unless a catastrophe occurs (ancient example: Clytemnestra; for famous protagonists in nineteenth-century novels see Theodor Fontane,

; Leo Tolstoy,

). The paradigmatic figures at the end of the extremes are Mary and Eve. Mary morphed into the

(angel-like Madonna) of the Italian school of poetry, of Dante’s Beatrice and the French troubadours, whereas Eve – incarnation of evil passion, temptation of man, and the fall from grace – found reinforcement as a wanton temptress in ancient…

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Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "Femmes Fatales in European Romanticism". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 January 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=14897, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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