The heroines of literature have been portrayed in all their glory throughout the ages. Here are our favorites!
The fictional lady hero Princess Cimorene from Dealing with Dragons is the first on our list here. She’s one of our favorites. Dealing with Dragon, for those of you who never had the privilege of reading it, is the first in a magical and funny and rad four-book fantasy series by Patricia C. Wrede.
Cimorene is a total BAMF who a) runs away from her parents when they try to make her marry a dopey prince, b) gets a job and moves into a cave with a delightfully sassy talking dragon, c) refuses to be rescued, d) makes friends with a cool witch, and e) ends up saving the day.
Basically, Cimorene is smart and hot and very capable. What’s great is that she knows it; she’s not some fainting ingenue who has to be convinced of her own virtue. She’s ready to take charge from page one.
Jane Eyre, Jane Eyre
This was one of the earliest representations of an individualistic, passionate and complex female character. Jane Eyre knocks our socks off. Though she suffers greatly, she always relies on herself to get back on her feet. She’s no wilting damsel in distress, no no.
China Miéville wrote, “Charlotte Brontë’s heroine towers over those around her, morally, intellectually and aesthetically; she’s completely admirable and compelling. Never camp, despite her Gothic surrounds, she takes a scalpel to the skin of the every day.”
Kristy Thomas, from The Baby-Sitters Club, was smart and a great leader. She had some great ideas, but she’s also bossy and loud. We admire her because of how she dealt with her dysfunctional family, her tomboyish nature and her sense of humor.
Melba Beals, Warriors Don’t Cry
We slipped in Melba Beals here, but the book Warriors Don’t Cry is actually non-fiction. In fact, it’s the memoir of Melba Patillo Beals, who was one of the Little Rock Nine.
It details what it was actually like as one of the first black kids to integrate the Arkansas school system. Melba describes having acid thrown in her face, losing friends who were scared to associate with her, and the terror of having to be escorted to school every day by guards who she didn’t know if she could trust.
The title alone is powerful. You’ll feel empowered and grateful for her sacrifice after reading this great book.
Hermione Granger, the Harry Potter series
In the Harry Potter books, Hermione starts as an insufferable know-it-all. But she blossoms into a whip-smart beauty who doesn’t suffer fools (except Ron). She ends up as the glue that holds the whole operation together.
Hermione’s steadfastness and intelligence (plus the fact that she’s the only one who has ever read Hogwarts: A History) save her two best friends time and time again. She’s the only one of the three never to wholly break down in a crisis.
Intelligence often translates into strength, but only when wielded by a steady hand — and Hermione just happens to have both, as well as great compassion.
The Wife of Bath, The Canterbury Tales
Chaucer didn’t mean to make the Wife of Bath as big of a character as he did—it was a happy accident.
Early drafts show that her role was meant to be much smaller and more one-dimensional. But somewhere along the line, Chaucer became enamored of his female creation. He eventually made her prologue twice as long as her tale.
The Wife of Bath is lewd and lascivious — but behind all the dirty jokes, she’s making an argument for female dominance and a woman’s right to control her body, using her considerable rhetorical skill to simultaneously underscore and attack the anti-feminist traditions of that time. This is some awesome 14th century literature.
Hester Prynne, The Scarlet Letter
Though Hester Prynne, condemned by her Puritan neighbors for having a child out of wedlock, is sometimes seen as a victim, she manages to survive with dignity and faith throughout this work.
She has been described as being “among the first and most important female protagonists in American literature. She’s the embodiment of deep contradictions: bad and beautiful, holy and sinful, conventional and radical… [she] can be seen as Hawthorne’s literary contemplation of what happens when women break cultural bounds and gain personal power.”
Jo from Little Women is smart, impulsive, argumentative, and willing to do anything for her family. Even cut all of her hair off to raise some cash! And obviously, she’s a writer, so that’s awesome. Casting Winona Ryder in the part was just the icing on the cake, don´t you think?
Lisbeth has one of the fiercest moral codes seen in books or film. She lives by her own rules and sticks to what she believes in; she’s flawed but uses it to push herself to be who she wants to be (not who others want her to be). She understands herself in a way very few people do, and she isn’t afraid to take charge and is the definition of “BOSS not bossy.”
This powerful female protagonist of the hour is also one of the strongest women on this list. A world class computer hacker with a photographic memory, she’s also the survivor of an abusive childhood, making her a fiercely anti-social heroine with a violent streak.
Characterized by many as a “feminist avenging angel,” Lisbeth’s brutality is nothing to aspire to — but she certainly gets the job done.
Éowyn, The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Tolkien’s novels aren’t exactly known for their female protagonists, but who could be more powerful than the woman who killed the Witch-king of Angmar?
A shieldmaiden who is itching to defend her countrymen from the first minute we see her, Éowyn disguises herself as a man to follow her friends into battle.
Bad guys should be careful making statements like “No living man can kill me” when they’re fighting females.
Lyra Silvertongue, His Dark Materials trilogy
Not only is she the instrumental piece in a literally cosmic war, the unruly and headstrong Lyra, who is twelve years old at the beginning of the trilogy, can do something no one else can: read the alethiometer. It tells her the truth of the present and future.
She wins the hearts of those around her through her strong convictions, and earns the name “Silvertongue” after using her wits to fool the unfoolable—after all, words are the most powerful weapons of all, right?
Writing is an art, a craft, and has the power to change the world. Are you a writer? Have you created powerful, unique and inspiring women in your work?
