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- Kathryn Houghton
My Favorite Heroines in Literature
Updated: Jul 6, 2021
Everyone has those characters in stories that stick close to their hearts. Maybe you feel a deep connection to them or admire them - want to be them even! Here are just a few of my favorite literary heroines and what they mean to me.
Margaret Hale
Margaret Hale is the main gal in Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel North and South. I most like to describe it as an industrial victorian Pride and Prejudice. What I like most about Margaret is how she adapts to a new environment. Going from Helstone, a southern town in England, to Milton in the north, Margaret is required to change just as much as her surroundings.
Margaret is able to let go of most of her prejudices and contempt, and I admire her for that.
Lizzie Hexam
I’ve actually done an in-depth review article on Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens and the significance Lizzie Hexam has. Lizzie isn’t someone I look up to as much as I just connect with. She has a natural kindly disposition that many try to use to their advantage. She feels a lot of deep conflict with her main love interest and goes through many obstacles to avoid him at all costs, which I can’t help but relate with.
Christy Huddleston
Christy Huddleston is not only the star of Christy by Catherine Marshall but also a fiction series based on the show based on the book. A bit confusing but all relatively the same! Even though I’ve only seen the series and am making my way through the fiction set, Christy hasn’t left my mind.
Being a teacher out in the Appalachian Mountains, Ms. Huddleston faces a unique set of challenges. She starts off as 19 years old, so it was easy to attach myself to Christy being the same age as her. Putting myself in her shoes, thinking about how hard it would be to deal with that many unruly children (and the mountain men).
Jane Eyre
These last three hardly feel like they need explaining, am I right? Jane Eyre has taught me so much about a woman’s self-worth and the respect we should have for ourselves. Sometimes society or people around us make us believe that we should risk it all just to be with a man, or that if he has some issues it can all be excused as long as he still wants us. Well, Jane wasn’t having that.
She realized that you can still love a person but know that they need time to fix themselves before being with others. Granted, Mr. Rochester was still very chaotic as a person in general, but at least he had time to work on himself and they both were able to reevaluate what they wanted for each other.
Elizabeth Bennet
This list of favorites would not be complete without Elizabeth Bennet, of course! She is my main motivation when needing to speak my mind.
Anne Shirley
I have read 3 out of 8 of the Anne of Green Gables books and love them all. Although finishing this series is an ongoing process, Anne Shirley has become a kindred spirit for me. I resonate with the way she feels about the world and her friends, and I always feel a little guilt for not delving into these stories sooner!
I‘d love to know who some of your favorite heroines are and if some of them made it on this list! Let all of us be the heroines of our own story and learn from our inspirations.