An Analysis on O’Henry’s View of Women from the Female Characters in O’Henry’s Works

李旭阳 刘星杰

I. Womens Virtues

（I） Loyalty to Love

Love is always the most beautiful，and subtle contact between

the males and females.In many works of OHenry，the females tend to be defined as the incarnation of love.Theyre loyal to love，and are willing to faceeverything with their men，whether its suffering or happiness.Della and Delia Caruthers might be the most impressive love saints OHenrys love stories.Their firm belief of love made an outstanding contribution to the presentation of a shinging American female image in the early 20th century.

（II） Moral Loftiness

In addition to a loyal attitude to love and eternal pursuit to life，the femalesre still shining with warm and high moral loftiness which people should admire in OHenry literary world.In many cases，the females often appear as a supporting role for the males，they affect the males in various ways with their unique charms.Some brings out the males images of brave and great，but some reflect the females capacities to compete with the males in strength and boldness through some strong contrasts.Not all the females described by OHenryre overshaowed by the tragedies；somell still be in the unique shining wisdom and courage which can amaze the readers.

In Witches Loaves，a 40-year-old woman，Miss Martha has a better condition compared to other married women.If theres another difference，that must be “a sympathetic heart”.The story begins with her reverie of falling in love with an artist and the two loaves of stale bread.OHenry directly clarified Miss Marthas favor to the strange artist.At the same time，the passion，kindness and compassion in her heart are also heating up as her emotions become increasingly apparent.

Besides，though Miss Marthas curious why the stale bread ie his only choice，but she never asked.Though she wants to do something for the artist，but she hasnt.Not because shes timid，but knowing her eagerness of doing something in front of the artist may hurt his self-esteem stops her，and she has the awareness that everyone needs privacy and respect.

Whats more，womems loftiness can be revealed in their courage and bravery.Josefa was such kind of figure.Josefa can ride and shoot，has a head for figures and plays with her kitten.Shes a desirable matrimonial catch andRipley Givens，foreman at the Espinoza spread，has set his cap for a royal matrimonial alliance.

II. Womens Vices

（I） Greed for Money

Money worship is the weakness of human nature，and desire is pushing people to ask for more.In the early 20th century，American women do not have much convenient ways to get money，most are simply through labors.Theaccumulation of wealth is quite slow，but the material temptation grows quickly，thus the living pressure in front of women keep going up.

While the Auto Waits is a typical representative picture of females losing identities and soul corroded while living in the era of money.A female must be very charming and attractive as long as she has a beautiful appearance and wealthy family background.Nevertheless，it may upset the readers if they become the slaves of wealth just because the strong desire.OHenry shows an attractive woman sitting in a small park at dusk in the preceding paragraph；her unpretentious appearance attracts a young man.

However，shes not so friendly to the young mans chatting up.Actually，she emphasixes her superior grade of identity a bit through words and actions at the beginning of the dialogue. “The girl looked him over leisurely；at his ordinary，neat dress and his features distinguished by nothing particular in the way of expression.”（OHenry，2011）After taking a dismissive looking at the young man，the girl express her strong dissatisfaction with the address of “honeysucker”. The expressions deliberately stress the difference between their commercial areas.Subsequently，OHenry detailed the girls formulation through her lifted up confessions，thus the attitude to money and extravagant life is coming to be the subject.She hates money and extravagant life，not because of the envy，but owning too much is bothering her，and shes tired of them.

The girl gives out an amount of information in this section which eventually becomes the evidence to prove her vanity in the end.She emphasizes the “money”for three times，and uses the word“sick of”to express her feeling of luxury.Perhaps at the moment，she finally foua correct person and let her real self-expression out.However，when the final ending comes，the reader can suddenly realize that this expression is the most ubreal one，a fictional people with a fictional life.

OHenry uses his outstanding ironic tone to switch the status of the male and female in the story，which makes the readers imagine if there would be a period of laudable love between the wealthy daughter and poor young man.As soon as the description reaches a climax，he turns everything over，and all truth come to the light.The girl actually works in the cheap restaurant which is in accordance with the young mans working place according to his confession before.This is the real OHenry.He can see the hardships of life from the world of ordinary people，including the females desire for money，for the passion of the material life，though with frustration，but its pretty true.

（II） Fragility of Women

If greed is human nature，fragility belongs to women only according to public opinions.In OHenrys works，some female characters are doomed to tragedy because of their fragility.

The characters in The Marionettes can be seen as passive existence from the title itself.Facing a varity of oppressions，the heroine chooses to select the passive subservient，being unable to resist，which means she has to endure the suffering and torment.As the image of the weak and victim under the theme of the marionettes，shes afraid to make any effective resistance to against the long-term violence and exploitation of money，she could do nothing but wait for all external factors to help her extricate from the predicament，after a long-term torture and injury.OHenry shows one undeniable weakness to majority of women，thats the fragility and powerlrsssness in facing of the plight.

作者簡介：李旭阳。男（1993.1-）辽宁大学外国语学院123班宣传委员，研究方向：英语语言文学系。

刘星杰。男。 （1994.7-）辽宁大学外国语学院134班班长。研究方向：英语语言文学系。