Hunters of Girls

Although the rakish hero is a stock prototype in the§romantic novel, he is usually in the background: the§plot is dominated by the heroine whom he pursues; she§monopolizes the attention of readers and invites them§to identify with her. However, the sexually§predatory male character is more than just a handsome§place-filler: he represents a reflection of what the§heroine secretly aspires to in the terms of Karen§Horney, her idealized image. By recognizing the§destructiveness of this image and rejecting it for a§less rebellious and more self-effacing idealized§image, the heroine can complete her education, the§key enterprise of the coming-of-age novel. This makes§the male sexual predator vital to the plot, since he§makes the education and vindication patterns of the§novels possible. Ay egül Kuglin s study on Jane§Austen s Sense and Sensibility, Charlotte Brontë s§Jane Eyre, Anne Brontë s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall§and Elisabeth Gaskell s Ruth and Mary Barton, based§on the psychoanalytical theory of Karen Horney and§the reader-response theory of Wolfgang Iser, sheds§light on the role of an easily underestimated§character type in nineteenth-century novel.