The Female Companion in Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye, Alias Grace and The Blind Assassin

Abstract

This paper examines the relationships between two female characters in each of the three novels by Margaret Atwood, Cat’s Eye (1988), Alias Grace (1996) and The Blind Assassin (2000). It identifies a common pattern that characterises all three protagonists and proposes the term companion to refer to and analyse the other three secondary female characters. This paper harnesses the Jungian notion of the four primary archetypes (Persona, Animus/Anima, Shadow and Self) which will be used as tools to assess the characters and their relationships under the lens of Jung’s process of individuation. This paper argues that these relationships present examples of splitting and intertwining of identities, which, with the aid of Adrienne Rich’s concept of the lesbian continuum, will come to show the nuances of female relationships and their relevance when it comes to representation.