Femme Fatale vs. New Woman

Vivien from Henry R. Rheam’s “Merlin and Vivien” and Oriana from Vernon Lee’s “Prince Alberic and the Snake Lady”, however similar, portray two different women in the fin de siécle. Both women begin as manifestations of the wicked femme fatale, but further analysis shows that Rheam’s Vivien is a closer example, while Lee's Oriana contests the stereotype. The two women are shamed for their sexual expression because they do not conform with societal standards, and Oriana, however defeated, succeeds in criticizing patriarchal double-standards.

The inclusion of these two works in The Yellow Book documents the magazine’s participation in the discourse of gender in the 1890s, yet neither are examples of the period’s “New Woman”. It shows the difference between the femme fatale and the “New Woman”, and however similar they may seem, they are not equivalents of each other. Rheam’s Vivien is an example of the femme fatale, driven by pride and working through seduction, while Lee’s Oriana is much closer to a “New Woman” attempting to relieve herself of the curse and live freely in human form. Both women are victims of a dominantly male society, who retold their histories and portrayed them as villains.

Their presentation in The Yellow Book in the context of late-Victorian female sexuality offers the possibility of having different female roles emerging through development of modernity. It also presents The Yellow Book as an avant-garde publication curating culturally-relevant issues in its literature and art.