The Night Circus Gender Analysis
The Night Circus displays textual features that reinforce realities socially constructed hierarchy in regards to the masculine and feminine. The male/female binaries and societal denotations for the terms ‘male,’ ‘female’ and terms particular to the magical world such as ‘magician,’ strengthen the authoritative and dominant position of men. Within the first pages of the novel the reader is immediately made aware of the severe power imbalance between the male and female gender, evident through the first meeting between Celia and her father Hector.
The girl looks up at him again. Dark eyes narrow beneath her curls. The teacup on the desk begins to shake. Ripples disrupt the calm surface as cracks tremble across the glaze, and then it collapses …show more content…
Celia is identified as ‘girl,’ a term that denotes, in contemporary society, ‘child,’ ‘dependent’ and ‘weak,’ portraying Celia as powerless and subservient to the dominating force. In contrast, Hector is identified as the ‘magician,’ a word that denotes ‘power,’ and ‘wisdom.’ These denotations construct the male in this situation to be positioned at the uppermost point of the gender hierarchy with full control over female characters. Furthermore, in this situation Celia’s display of magic is arbitrary, made in response to emotions, whereas Hector’s is made as an act of restoration, he has complete control over his abilities. By connecting each character’s magical ability to the aforementioned causes, the text inevitably depicts Celia’s magic as contingent on her emotional outbursts and depicts Hector’s as a way to control Celia’s transgressions against social order. This reflects gender binaries that are present, even without the influence of magic Hector is reason, Celia is emotion, he is control and she is intuition. Hélène Cixous, an early and influential theorist for the claim of the relevance of binary opposition for feminism. Cixous claims that the “woman is always on the side of passivity” (Bertens, 2008, p.129) Celia is constantly on the side of passivity, not just in her relationship with Hector. Once the text introduces the character of Marco, Celia’s
The girl looks up at him again. Dark eyes narrow beneath her curls. The teacup on the desk begins to shake. Ripples disrupt the calm surface as cracks tremble across the glaze, and then it collapses …show more content…
Celia is identified as ‘girl,’ a term that denotes, in contemporary society, ‘child,’ ‘dependent’ and ‘weak,’ portraying Celia as powerless and subservient to the dominating force. In contrast, Hector is identified as the ‘magician,’ a word that denotes ‘power,’ and ‘wisdom.’ These denotations construct the male in this situation to be positioned at the uppermost point of the gender hierarchy with full control over female characters. Furthermore, in this situation Celia’s display of magic is arbitrary, made in response to emotions, whereas Hector’s is made as an act of restoration, he has complete control over his abilities. By connecting each character’s magical ability to the aforementioned causes, the text inevitably depicts Celia’s magic as contingent on her emotional outbursts and depicts Hector’s as a way to control Celia’s transgressions against social order. This reflects gender binaries that are present, even without the influence of magic Hector is reason, Celia is emotion, he is control and she is intuition. Hélène Cixous, an early and influential theorist for the claim of the relevance of binary opposition for feminism. Cixous claims that the “woman is always on the side of passivity” (Bertens, 2008, p.129) Celia is constantly on the side of passivity, not just in her relationship with Hector. Once the text introduces the character of Marco, Celia’s