Lady Charlotte, “The Condemned Cell”
Lady Charlotte sits in prison awaiting execution for the murder of her bigamist husband. Her story is delivered in flashbacks which serve to fill in the story behind what really happened and brought her to her fate.
The Bawling Brotherhood, “The New Aspect of the Woman Question”
“The Bawling Brotherhood” is the all-encompassing name that Grand has given to the members of the British patriarchy confused by burgeoning feminist movement. In their capacity to see the world only as a either-or proposition, the Brotherhood’s only available touchstone of reference was that women not satisfied with doing “womanly things” must by definition simply want to be men. Upon discovering this isn’t the case, they flail wildly about asking, “then what is it women want?”
The New Woman, “The New Aspect of the Woman Question”
The “new woman” is, like the Bawling Brotherhood, not a singular character, but a metaphor. However, it is of such significance as a metaphor that it stands out as perhaps the most memorable character in Grand’s body of work. Unlike other types of traditional feminine stereotypes, the New Woman operates at a level above the understanding of the Bawling Brotherhood because she is something they have never seen before. They will soon more of her than they wish as the “New Woman” would leap off the pages of the essay to become the name of a brand-new literary genre: New Woman Fiction.
Elizabeth Caldwell McClure, “The Beth Book”
The official title of this New Woman novel is The Beth Book: A Study in the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell McClure, a Woman of Genius. Beth married a pathetic excuse for a man, Dr. Dan McClure and manages to escapes what she believes to be a model for a rather excessive number of marriages which produces “wives whose attitude towards their husbands must be one of contemptuous toleration.”
Ideala
The title character of her own novel, Ideala does not actually narrate her own story. That job is left to her friend, Lord Dawne. The central premise of the story is whether a woman who marries bad should take the opportunity to leave her husband for another, better, man or sacrifice her own happiness for the betterment of women who are worse off. The character’s name is a rather strong clue as to which choice she eventually pursues.
