Felicia Hemans - Female Suicide in Hemans' Works

Female Suicide in Hemans' Works

In many of Hemans’ works, a choice is made by several female characters to take their own lives rather than suffer the social, political, and personal consequences of their compromised situations. The social context in which Hemans was writing was not largely conducive to the writing of women, as many modern readers might assume according to the poet’s success. Instead, women writers were often torn between a choice of home or the pursuit of a literary career. Hemans herself was able to balance both roles without much public ridicule, but left hints of discontent through the themes of feminine death in her writing. The suicides of women in Hemans’ poetry dwell on the same social issue that was confronted both culturally and personally during Hemans’ life: the choice of caged domestication or freedom of thought and expression.

‘The Bride of the Greek Isle’, ‘The Sicilian Captive’, ‘The Last Song of Sappho’, and ‘Indian Women’s Death Song’ are some of the most notable of Hemans’ works involving women’s suicides. Each poem portrays a heroine who is untimely torn from her home by a masculine force- such as pirates, Vikings, and unrequited lovers- and forced to make the decision to accept her new confines or command control over the situation. None of the heroines are complacent with the tragedies that befall them, and the women ultimately take their own lives in either a final grasp for power and expression or means to escape victimization. The true reasons for the recurring femicide in Hemans’ poetry collections can only be found in readers’ personal interpretations, giving speculation to Hemans’ life and cultural context.