A feminist reading:
Muriel Spark’s book Loitering with Intent has a predominantly feminist feel about it. There are only a handful of male characters presented throughout the book, almost all of which are only there to serve some purpose for the main character Fleur. Fleur is depicted as a free-roaming young woman with no regard for the conceptual value of being a proper lady. A possible foil for Fleur is Beryl Tims because of her traditional, and at times backwards minded, beliefs about what a female should desire and do. Everything Tims does she preconceives with the thought of how it will impress or affect the men around her, especially Sir Quentin. Early on in the book Fleur has an exchange with her about the topic of marriage and the role of men and women therein. When asked about marriage Fleur replies simply that she has her career to attend to and “marriage would interfere”(28). Beryl is appalled by this and quickly responds with “your head rules your heart”(29) in a state of complete horror. There are other such encounters in the novel where Fleur’s femininity is called into questions due to her driven and frank nature, both of which, for some reason, fall under the category of masculine characteristics. The wife of Fleur’s lover, a woman named Dottie, goes as far as to say “there is something a bit harsh about you, Fleur. You’re not really womanly, are you?” (73). Fleur retaliates by tearing pages out of her novel and caterwauling until she leaves. She only did this to spite Dottie and prove her femininity thus depicting the mentality that females are no more than mentally unstable and fragile creatures that need to be protected. This pattern of other woman pointing out where Fleur supposedly lacks in her role as a woman is repeated to the end of the book. Men also present a power or influence that she is struggling against but in their case it is because of their evil nature and not just their ignorance. The protagonist of Fleur’s novel, Warrender Chase, and her boss, Sir Quentin, both have schemes to blackmail those around them and are still high standing and respected members of society. These men, for the majority of the book, maintain their status of dignified beings while Fleur is struggling with her landlord, to make ends meet, and is generally outcast from what is accepted as “good”. |
Structure: The structure of this book tends to be very traditional. It follows a chronological order that slowly progresses the plot along with the development of the characters. At times the transition between what is actually occurring and what the protagonist is thinking alters the way the reader perceives time passing in the novel. This is more of a stylistic preference rather than an attempt at subversive use of structure. |