3rd Arts & Humanities Conference, Barcelona

THE COLOURS GREY AND GREEN AND PSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLENCE TO WOMEN IN A.S. BYATT’S POSSESSION

NAZLI GÜNDÜZ, HATICE TUĞBA KARAGÖZ

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to discuss how patriarchal society puts psychological violence (suppression) on women in A.S. Byatt’s Possession. It also discusses how the colours grey and green reflect suppression and rebellion as a counterpart to this phenomenon. Four women characters are examined in detail to reveal how they are supressed by the patriarchal society and how they accept or try to withstand to this psychological violence. That is, women who accept suppression and women who rebel towards male dominance are evaluated from a psychological and feminist perspective with the use of the colours grey and green. Based on double contemporary characters, yet completely dissimilar ones Christabel and Ellen versus Maud and Beatrice this study scrutinizes the dynamics of a social shift (particularly for Victorian and Contemporary women) which goes from a state of acceptance and obedience to a state of freedom. Through the portrayals of Christabel and Maud, Byatt highlights the quest for equality, cast off the rest of their gender in an effort to identify themselves as masculine to achieve success. Although living in differing eras both are participating in a society where women authors and intellectuals use their influence to perpetuate society's biases against women. Addressing critics, feminist writers, psychologists, and theorists, this study will underline the struggle of women characters and their strife individual freedom.

Keywords: A. S. Byatt, Novel, Fiction, Suppression and Women, Violence in Fiction, Psychological Violence, Rebellion

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