People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria

‫الجمهورية الجزائرية الشعبية الديمقراطية‬

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
‫وزارة التعليم العالي والبحث العلمي‬
University of 20 August 1955 - Skikda
‫ سكيكدة‬1955 ‫ أوث‬20 ‫جامعة‬
Department of Lettres and Foreign Languages
‫قسم اآلداب واللغات األجنبية‬
Section of English

Gender Segregation in Paula Hawkins' novel

The Girl on the Train

A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Foreign Languages in Partial Fulfillment

of The Requirements for Master's Degree in Civilization and Literature.

Candidate: Supervisor:
Drici Rym Dr. Leila Bellour

Board of Examiners

Chairperson: Dr.Bouchra Bouterra University of 20 August 1955 Skikda

Supervisor: Dr.Leila Bellour Abdelhafid Boussouf University Center of Mila

Examiner: Dr.Mohamed Ben Ali Chaker University of 20 August 1955 Skikda

June 2022

1
2
 Dedication

This master dissertation is dedicated to Krissy Cela, who saved me during my bleakest year

2020, and to the EvolveYou famillia, who have shown me the best of their love and support.

I would like to express my gratitude to my beloved closest friend Mohamed, who was always

there for me and provided me with the strongest support throughout my process of writing. He

is the only one who believed in me when nobody else did. I am glad to mention him in this

work.

It would be unforgivable not to mention my best friend Imen, with whom I shared a seat, food,

adventure, and a bed for the past five years. She is both my sister and my protective angel.

Not every chapter of the paper was written without the help of my father, who motivated me to

write every day and my mother who stood for me.

I dedicate this work also to my beloved grandparents who died before they could see me

graduate.

I
 Acknowledgments

I thank God, my savior, the light of my darkness, and the companion in my loneliness. I thank

Him for providing me with resilience and knowledge, for His guidance and help to overcome

all of the hurdles and for captivating to continue this dissertation and to make this piece of

knowledge available for others.

I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Leila Bellour, for her kindness,

ambition, enthusiasm, and vast knowledge in monitoring my work and making it possible. Her

advice was invaluable throughout the research and the writing of this dissertation. For my study

project, I could not have hoped for a better advisor and mentor.

My deepest thanks to the examiners for taking the time to read and go over my written lines in

order to evaluate the work that I had worked tirelessly on, reassessing it over and over in order

to create a master piece that an audience would thoroughly enjoy reading.

Leaving the best for last, I'd like to express my sincere thanks to my absolute favorite woman,

the one who stood by me when the odds were stacked against me; the woman I believe to be

the best teacher and advisor, full of potentials and cheerfulness; Dr. Hana Boughrira, my

beloved and respected teacher of three years. There are not enough words to describe her

adequately.

II
 Table of Contents

Dedication ................................................................................................................................... I

Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................................... II

Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... V

Résumé ..................................................................................................................................... VI

‫ الملخص‬......................................................................................................................................VII

General Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1

Chapter One : Divulging Gender Roles ................................................................................. 7

Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 7

1. Feminism ............................................................................................................................ 7

2. Waves of Feminism ............................................................................................................ 8

First Wave Feminism: late 19th C-early 20th C .......................................................... 8

Second Wave Feminism: 1960s-1970s........................................................................ 9

Third Wave Feminism: 1990- the present day ............................................................ 9

3. Gender Roles Theory ........................................................................................................ 10

3.1 Defining Gender Roles .......................................................................................... 11

3.2 Doing Gender ......................................................................................................... 12

3.3 Dominant Gender Ideology.................................................................................... 14

4. The feminist perception on Gender Roles ........................................................................ 16

Conclusion:............................................................................................................................... 25

III
Chapter Two : Women’s growing pains in a male-dominated society .............................. 27

Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 27

1. Character analysis ............................................................................................................. 27

1.1 Rachel Watson ........................................................................................................... 27

1.2 Megan Hipwell .......................................................................................................... 36

2. Gender stereotype and Female Objectification ................................................................. 45

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 47

Chapter Three : The Deliverance from the Shackles of Oppression ................................. 48

Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 48

1. A quest of becoming reliable ............................................................................................ 48

2. Female Rivalry and male Glorification ............................................................................ 53

1. Anna Boyd ..................................................................................................................... 54

3. Women’s empowerment ................................................................................................... 60

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 65

General conclusion ................................................................................................................... 66

Works Cited.............................................................................................................................. 70

IV
 Abstract

Society fails its most vulnerable women by restricting them to moral uprightness notions of

femininity, only to disenfranchise them when they do not adhere strictly. This research work

examines the female protagonists’ depiction in Paula Hawkins' novel The Girl On The Train

under the influence of the male characters' oppression. This dissertation revolves around women

who have tough lives and are susceptible to physical and psychological abuse as a result of a

failure, or choice, to deviate from society's female expectations. Megan, Rachel, and Anna show

how society fails to provide equality to those who are unable to obtain it for themselves. The

focus of this study is to shed more light on the matter of gender segregation in patriarchal

society, portraying the female protagonists' challenges of hegemonic masculinity and

manipulation. It drastically influences the feminist concerns about misogyny and gender

violence by displaying how marriage and motherhood continue to be sources of pain and

torment for women. As a result, the society may have conflicting views and understanding of

the concept of gender roles.

Keywords: Femininity, Gender roles, Motherhood, Gender segregation, Patriarchal society.

V
 Résumé

La société échouée ses femmes les plus vulnérables en les limitant aux notions morales de

droiture de la féminité, seulement pour les priver de leurs droits lorsqu'elles n'y adhèrent pas

strictement. Cette recherche examine la représentation des protagonistes féminins dans le roman

de Paula Hawkins The Girl On The Train sous l'influence de l'oppression des personnages

masculins. Cette thèse porte sur les femmes qui ont des vies difficiles et qui sont susceptibles

de subir des abus physiques et psychologiques en raison d'un échec (ou d'un choix) de s'écarter

des attentes féminines de la société. Megan, Rachel et Anna montrent comment la société ne

parvient pas à offrir l'égalité à ceux qui ne peuvent pas l'obtenir par eux-mêmes. L'objectif de

cette étude est d’appeler l'attention sur la problématique de la ségrégation sexuelle dans la

société patriarcale, en décrivant les défis des protagonistes féminins contre la masculinité

hégémonique et la manipulation. Il influence radicalement les préoccupations féministes

concernant la misogynie et la violence sexiste en montrant comment le mariage et la maternité

continuent d'être des sources de douleur et de tourment pour les femmes. En conséquence, la

société peut avoir des opinions et une compréhension contradictoires du concept de la

ségrégation sexuelle.

Mots clés : La féminité, la ségrégation sexuelle, La maternité, L’oppression, La société

patriarcale.

VI
 ‫الملخص‬

‫يخذل المجتمع أضعف نسائه من خالل تقييدهن بمعايير االستقامة االخالقية االنثوية‪ ،‬فقط لحرمانهم من الحقوق عندما ال‬

‫يلتزمن بصرامة المعايير المتعارف عليها‪ .‬هذه االطروحة تدرس صورة البطالت في رواية بوال هوكينز " فتاة القطار "‬

‫تحت تأثير االستبداد الذكوري للمرأة‪ .‬تدور هاته المذكرة حول النساء اللواتي يعشن حياة قاسية والمعرضين للعنف الجسدي‬

‫والنفسي نتيجة اخفاق (او خيار) لالنحراف عن توقعات المجتمع للمرأة‪ .‬تبدي كل من راشيل ومغين وآنا كيف يعجز المجتمع‬

‫في توفير المساواة ألولئك النساء اآلتي ال يستعطون الحصول عليها بأنفسهن ‪ .‬تهدف هذه الدراسة الى تسليط المزيد من‬

‫الضوء حول مسألة التمييز بين الجنسين في المجتمع األبوسي‪ ،‬وتصوير التحديات التي تواجه البطالت في مواجهة الرجولة‬

‫المهيمنة والتالعب العقلي‪ .‬هذا األخير يثير شاغل النسوية حول مسالة كراهية المرأة والعنف بين الجنسين من خالل إظهار‬

‫كيف أن الزواج واألمومة ال يزاالن مصدرين لل َجشى والعذاب للنساء‪ .‬وعليه‪ ،‬قد يكون لدى المجتمع آراء متضاربة وفهم غير‬

‫لمفهوم التمييز الجنسي ‪.‬‬

‫الكلمات المفتاحية‪ :‬االنثوية‪ ،‬التمييز الجنسي‪ ،‬األمومة‪ ،‬االستبداد‪ ،‬المجتمع األبوسي‪.‬‬

‫‪VII‬‬
 General Introduction

Over the history, the concepts of feminism and sexism have been major issues. The discussion

of these topics begins at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 with the problem of suffrage right

for women and employment. Feminism became a key term in the United States by 1913.

Suffrage, women's partisan involvement, economy and jobs, sexualities and families, war and

peace, and a constitutional amendment for equality were all major concerns in the 1910s and

1920s. Cultural and religious false beliefs led to the creation of the ideal submissive / oppressed

woman. It is stated in the Bible that women are pious, and this had been taken for granted from

the early ages until today. Christine de Pisan, the first feminist philosopher challenged the

traditional attitudes towards women with a bold appeal for female education, in late 14th and

early15th century France.

Feminism is a movement, which fights for equal opportunities between Men and

women. It is a body of philosophies, political movements, and social movements with the

objective of defining, achieving, and maintaining gender equality. It aspires to save women

from the patriarchal system that has long oppressed them. To discuss this hotly debated theme,

it requires a comprehensive understanding of it. Nowadays, it is the subject on social media

platforms, but many people avoid discussing the issue of feminism to avoid any possible

backlash caused by it. It is important, at the outset, to understand the conceptual umbrella term

“Feminism” in order to understand how society views genders. Gender roles are the anticipated

codes of behavior for one gender or the other in a culture; in fact, gender roles and feminism in

literature share a correlation.

The Girl On The Train, the crime thriller novel written by Paula Hawkins, is good

example of novels that tackle the issue of gender roles in nowadays society and how society’s

1
expectations of women push them to the breaking point, leading them to fall victims to

dangerous situations. Rachel Watson takes the train daily to work. On her way, she watches

from the train window a seemingly perfect couple, Scott and Megan, just for few seconds. One

day, she witnesses another man on the patio with Megan who was not his wife. Megan was

missing, and she was found dead later. Rachel tells the authorities what she believes she saw.

Due to her untrusted memory from alcoholism, she begins her own investigation, while police

suspect that Rachel may have crossed a dangerous line, and she might have been the one who

killed Megan.

The novel of Paula Hawkins is narrated by the three protagonist narrators Rachel,

Megan, and Anna. At the beginning, it may seem to be about three strong female characters

who got their life together, but not until the small interference of the male characters. This

imperfection stems from the male characters' oppression, which only becomes apparent in the

novel's last chapters. Megan and Rachel, two female protagonists, evince how the society fails

to secure justice for those who are unable to secure it for themselves.

Tom convinces Rachel that she is the reason for his suffering and more importantly, she

is the reason why he cheats on her with the woman he ends up marrying and having a baby

with; however, none of it is true. At the very end, his ex-coworkers find her devastated in the

train, and they tell her the real reason behind his employment, which has nothing to do with

her. Rachel illustrates how society flagrantly violates women with the concept of traditional

femininity and maternity responsibilities while failing to help them when they are at their most

vulnerable. In one of the chapters, Rachel says, “Let’s be honest: women are still only really

valued for two things — their looks and their role as mothers. I am not beautiful, and I can’t

have kids, so what does that make me? Worthless” (85).

Anna, Tom's new wife and the novel's third narrator, shows how society pushes women

against one another, compelling them to choose male praise and companionship above female
2
friendships. Women may be put in risk and have little support in such circumstances. In the

early days of her romance with Tom, Anna recalls how exhilarating it was to be "the other

woman" Despite the fact that she knew he was married, she is enthralled by his attention and

began to regard Rachel as a foe.

The male characters rationalize their mistakes by blaming women for problems they are

not responsible for. The broader problem is that society fails its most desperate women by

confining them to propriety-based notions of femininity. This is meant to disenfranchise them

when they do not conform to these stereotypes.

This study addresses the following questions which serve the research problem and that

require answers: Are men and women assigned a fair division of gender roles? Where does the

society stand when it comes to gender viewpoints? More importantly, is it possible for women

to break free from the shackles of the patriarchal system?

These feminism-related insecurities prompted the writing of this dissertation. It is

significant to address it in order to shed additional light on it and to portray the female

protagonists’ struggle under male dominance and manipulation. Given that, society may have

opposed perspectives and knowledge of the concept of “gender roles”.

Prior dissertations and research works on the novel in relation to the tackled topic are

meager. This novel by Paula Hawkins is mainly approached from a psychoanalytical standpoint

and in one single thesis from a comparative literary approach. In a research work entitled

Narcissism in Paula Hawkins' Novel The Girl On The Train, the emphasis was on Megan

Hipwell, one of the protagonists in the novel. The analysis is carried out using psychoanalytic

theory with an emphasis on the theme of narcissism, which is the most frequent mental ailment

among society's members according to the thesis. Its focus was on the psychological state of

mind of a single character. Another study, which is a Ph.D. thesis, is titled Women’s empathy

3
reflected in The Girl On The Train. This thesis uncovers the love affair depicted in the novel.

The study explores the psychological state of the three major characters as well as the love

affair depicted. The research uses a qualitative method in which the researcher employs

psychoanalytic analysis in his investigation of this work. The study demonstrates the three

major female characters' various psychological states. Lastly, there is a study entitled Views on

gender in Paula Hawkins’s The Girl On The Train and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl - A feminist

analysis of two novels .The research work aims to discover general societal interpretations of

gender in the two novels. The objective of this research is to demonstrate the relationship

between contemporary literature and gender and to get an idea about the society’s views

regarding gender. The thesis is comparative study between two novels of two different writers;

it compares between characters in term of male-female relations. With further illustrations,

substantiated evidence, and examples, this study tethers a slew of others on the topic of female

gender roles.

Previous researches have not profoundly tackled the situation of the female characters

and the issue of gender roles in the novel. This dissertation will address it by studying each

character's behavior throughout the chapters in order to reveal gender inequality and the

society's inability to provide justice for women who are unable to obtain it for themselves.

Precisely, it tackles the division of gender roles in the novel. It uses vivid illustrations from the

novel to fill in the gaps in the previous studies that did not cover thoroughly this topic. The

study attempts to offer further information and insight into the struggle against gender

inequality in the novel The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins and the societal tyranny that

forces women to submit to suffocating stereotypes.

This research is theoretical, analytical, and critical, as it examines Paula Hawkins' novel

in the frame of the concept of gender roles as articulated by the two theorists selected for this

study, Simon De Beauvoir and Betty Friedan. The study incorporates a wide range of different

4
critical studies related to the subject. There have been several prior studies on gender roles in

literature. One of the most famous works on the subject is De Beauvoir's The Second Sex (1949).

In it, De Beauvoir claims that women, according to the patriarchal system, are not completely

human. Men consider women as an "other" in a society where humanity is defined largely in

terms of man's identity. De Beauvoir focuses on how women are constructed as the Other in

society. She claims that society’s gender stereotypes have rendered women the second sex. The

female body, according to Beauvoir, should be the foundation upon which female emancipation

is formed. It should not be the cause of her lack of sovereignty; “Not every female human being

is necessarily a woman; and in order to be a woman, one must participate in the mysterious and

threatened reality which is femininity” (Beauvoir 267).

People prefer to disregard the reality that there is no evidence to substantiate

preconceptions about our sexes since what is expected of people based on their gender is based

on the society’ subjective views and gender roles have been an acknowledged truth for the

majority of people throughout history. One might say that most of the inequalities that can be

observed in today's society are the product of constructed stereotypes about gender roles.

This research work is organized into three chapters, each one deals with a different

component of the research topic. The first chapter is entitled “Divulging gender roles “It

investigates the contextual and theoretical framework, delving into the subtleties of the theme

gender roles as discussed by Simone De Beauvoir and Betty Friedan. The second chapter, which

is entitled “Women’s growing pains in a male-dominated society“, explores and reveals the

novel's female protagonists' challenges and haunting miseries , as well as the impact of the

developing events caused by the involvement of the male characters in the female protagonists’

lives. Finally, the last chapter, “Deliverance from the Shackles of Oppression”, analyzes how

Rachel, the novel's protagonist, breaks the chains that her ex-husband has placed on her, and

how she uncovers the truth that lays beneath. The moment she gathered her memories, she

5
realizes her self-worth to prove that she can be her genuine self in the absence of male

dominance and manipulation.

In its essence, this study draws attention to the issue of gender roles, in Paula Hawkins'

novel The Girl On The Train, which requires a systematic solution. It lays forth the objectives

and methodology for deciphering the ambiguities that surround it.

6
 Chapter One

Divulging Gender Roles

Introduction

Women’s rights, motherhood, gender equality, violence, oppression, and patriarchy are

some of the subjects that are discussed through different lenses and from numerous perspectives

by feminism. This chapter offers a clear insight into the theoretical framework of Simone De

Beauvoir's and Betty Friedan's concept of “Gender Roles”. It draws attention to this issue by

depicting women's struggles in patriarchal societies that are marked by male dominance and

manipulation. To delve deeper into society's views and understandings of gender, it is important

to use illustrations from Beauvoir's The Second Sex (1949) and Freidan’s The Feminine

Mystique (1963). Attempting to determine whether gender roles are an oppressive tool or a

harsh necessity, and it gives a flash of insight into women’s perception of gender stereotypes.

1. Feminism

Feminism is a movement, which contributes significantly to female empowerment. It

focuses on the idea that women should have the same rights, power, and opportunities as men.

First, the main issue was granting women the right to vote, which provoked a revolt by women

against other issues relevant to their domestic realm or social standing. It was established to

combat longstanding social gender stereotypes that had damaged both women and society

overall. Feminism aims at promoting the freedom and the empowerment of women. This

empowerment is workable if it addresses power imbalances between women and men and allow

women to exert control over their own life. One of the most significant and fascinating aspects

of feminism in a social context is gender. Motherhood, equality, and subjugation of women are

some of the most discussed topics that are always tackled from multiple angles and from

7
numerous perspectives. Traditional gender roles, masculine and feminine representations are

seen as attempts to organize society and establish stable social systems.

In short, feminism is a set of sociopolitical movements and ideologies aimed at defining

and establishing gender equality in political, economic, personal, and social terms. It is a

response to patriarchy, which is deemed responsible for each of the following problems: lower

income which is likely to result in women’s poverty, men’s violence against women, and sexual

assaults.

2. Waves of Feminism

Feminism is among the oldest continuous social movements. There is no single

definition of feminism, but it ultimately comes down to the eradication of gender discrimination

and the creation of gender equality. There are numerous types of feminism within this

movement. Feminism can be separated into "waves" rather than being described in isolation

from one another, and there are three waves of feminism.

First Wave Feminism: late 19th C-early 20th C

In the beginning of its emergence feminism agenda started as a political

movement for giving women the right to vote. It all started at the Seneca Falls

Convention, it was the first serious political movement in the Western world. It

advertised itself as an assembling to discuss women's social, civil, and religious

circumstances and rights. It took place over two days: on July 19 and 20, 1848, in the

Wesleyan Chapel of the town of Seneca Falls, New York. Around 200 women gathered

in a church in 1848. They proposed 12 agreements, including one requesting specific

rights, such as the right to vote. Early feminists were also concerned about reproductive

rights. In 1920, after years of feminist activism, The Congress approved the 19th

amendment, giving women the right to vote and own a property. The main objective of

8
first-wave feminism was to have the society actually recognize that women are beings,

not a property. The founders of first-wave feminism were abolitionists; they focused on

the rights of white women. The main female thinkers of the wave are Susan B. Anthony,

Alice Stone Blackwell, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Second Wave Feminism: 1960s-1970s

In the 1960s and 1970s, second-wave feminism emerged. It is based on first-

wave feminism and questions the role of women in society. The Civil Rights Movement

of 1950s and 1960s inspired the latter. This necessitates a closer examination of the

reasons behind women's oppression. Traditional gender and family roles have been

brought into question. Second-wave feminism is also referred to as radical feminism,

which is a subset of feminism that fights for a radical reorganization of society in which

male hegemony is abolished in all social and economic settings, while also

acknowledging that other social divisions such as class, race, and sexual orientation

have an impact on women's experiences.

Radical feminism strives to remove gender discrimination by allowing women

access to male-dominated interiors and promoting equality. It sought to transform

society, claiming that the system is essentially patriarchal and that only a total

restructuring would bring liberation. It criticizes the idea that men and women are

fundamentally the same. Radical feminism instructs that there is a "female essence" that

is markedly different from men. The main female thinkers of the movement are Betty

Freidan, Simone De Beauvoir, and Alice Walker.

Third Wave Feminism: 1990- the present day

Race became more prominent in third-wave feminism. Going into the 1990s,

women had more rights and power. They were able to consider other forms of identity,

9
 and they welcomed individuality and revolution. This was a period of reclamation.

Many women were more open about their sexuality in their speech, clothing, and

behavior. This perplexed many 2nd-wave feminists who had previously opposed

traditional femininity. During this period, many concepts and mini-movements began

circulating, but there was only one "rule": there were no other rules. A woman should

have the freedom to choose how she lives her life. Women of color were denied the

same rights white women celebrated. The third wave paid closer attention to racial

inequality within gender, which feminism had widely overlooked or pushed aside. They

focused on micro politics mainly issues concerning; working class, blacks, ethics

minorities , abortion…etc. Third wave feminism’s main leaders are Rebecca Walker,

Judith Butler, and Carol Gilligan.

It is believed that there is a fourth wave of feminism that continues to wrestle with the

concept of intersectionality. Non-white feminists and ideas have been – and continue to be –

suppressed, according to opponents of "white feminism," which ignores the unique struggles of

women of color. Social media activism has promoted the movement into the digital era. It

builds on the third wave's emphasis on inclusion and diversity by asking difficult questions

about what empowerment, justice, and freedom genuinely mean.

3. Gender Roles Theory

Gender role theory is a branch of role theory. According to Gilbert Herdt, in Eagly,

Wood & Diekman’s Social Role Theory of Sex Differences and Similarities , “gender roles

treats these differing distributions of women and men into roles as the primary origin of sex-

differentiated social behavior, their impact on behavior is mediated by psychological and social

processes”(145). Gender Roles Theory is based on the idea that people who are socially

recognized as males and females conquer different socially prescribed roles within social

structures and are judged according to different standards of behavior.

10
3.1 Defining Gender Roles

Historically, gender inequality has always existed but never discussed because

women, back in history, were not brave or allowed to speak up for themselves. Men are

intelligent, heroic, and ascertained as the stronger sex. Women, on the other hand, are

expected to be ruled by their emotions, fidelity, modesty, sympathy, and piety.

Starting in the 1960s, second-wave feminism directed its focus on workplace

and legal inequality. Gender roles are the duties that men and women are predicted to

hold depending on their gender. Several Western societies have traditionally believed

that women are more nurturing than men are. As a result, the conventional view of the

feminine gender role dictates that women should act in nurturing ways. One way for a

woman to fulfill the traditional feminine gender role is to foster her family by working

full-time inside the household rather than seeking work outside of it. Men, on the other

hand, are the figureheads by gender stereotypes.

Gender Role Theory is based on the idea that people who are socially identified

as males and females are evaluated according to different standards of behavior. It arose

as a mechanism for controlling male-female relationships at the dawn of humankind,

when resources were meager and dangers were prevalent. By the age of three, most

children learn to categories themselves into gender identities. Children are taught gender

stereotypes and roles from their parents and the environment beginning at birth as part

of their gender socialization. Males learn to manipulate their social and physical

environments through physical power and dexterity, while females acquire to reveal

themselves as objects to be interpreted, according to the traditional view. Gender roles,

on the other hand, are harmful to people especially women in a variety of ways, because

they force girls and women to be weak and vulnerable even if they are not which strips

them from their character and identity. Men and women are prevented from openly

11
expressing their emotions and being themselves due to gender stereotypes, which

contributes to mental health issues, violence, and substance abuse.

Evolution, according to one theory, is responsible for differences in gender roles.

According to the sociobiological viewpoint, men's fitness is enhanced by being

aggressive, which allows them to compete with other men for female availability, as

well as being sexually promiscuous and attempting to father a large number of children

as possible. From patriarchy’s view, bonding with infants and raising children benefits

women. Socio-biologists contend that these roles evolved and resulted in the

establishment of traditional gender roles, with women dominating in the domestic

sphere and men dominating in all other areas, which is the worst image of creating an

unproductive society.

3.2 Doing Gender

Doing Gender stands for gender performance that is the thought that gender is

something ingrained in daily practices, something that is taught and played depending

on cultural standards of femininity and masculinity. It is not who a person is, but it is

what he or she does when engaging with others. It is regarded as a social construction.

For instance, when a male opens a door for a female, he is regarded as a polite and

respectful “gentleman”. The male was "doing gender" by strengthening a concept of

gender through his actions in a specific social setting. It denotes a gender distinction

because the gesture was either a sign of respect or a presumption that women are the

weaker sex and require assistance from men. After a while, these gender differences

become typical and a part of people's everyday life.

John Money is a sexologist and psychologist who studied gender identity and

sexual preferences. He coined the terms "gender identity" and "gender role." He

12
concluded that gonads, hormones, and chromosomes did not automatically determine a

child's gender role. In fact, gender roles are learned and not innate. Everyone is born as

a human being with no specific roles pre-programmed in their brains; instead, people

adopt them from their social environment. For example, if a man is born into a balanced

household where his father assists his mother with the dishes, he automatically adopts

the act as a basic role that is not specifically assigned to women or men and is not forced

upon him, but is a regular activity of his everyday life.

Such things are mostly shaped by patriarchal ideologies, which specify such

roles for each sex, forcing men to be tough and women to be tender, rather than allowing

each gender to fully embrace what is appropriate for them. Of utmost importance,

women should be given the choice to be flexibly themselves. Not every woman is a

cook; in fact, the world's best chefs are men. Statistically speaking, 70.3% of chefs in

the USA are men; this demonstrates that patriarchy is a non-sense and that gender roles

are deceptive to human nature. Such behaviors and emotions are illogically assigned to

either man or woman. According to West and Zimmerman, the primary objective of

doing gender is "to advance a new understanding of gender as a routine accomplishment

embedded in everyday interaction"(125). Gender is more than just what a person is; it

is also something that a person does when interacting with others. It is the result of social

interaction. It is a production and a social structure. Another evidence is that Football

and ballet, as well as the color pink, are typically associated with a specific gender.

Gender concepts are not stable; they differ across cultures and throughout

history. Football, for example, is viewed as a girl’s sport in the United States but a boy’s

sport in Europe. Gender is socially constructed in some instances. According to

Haslanger, it means that the reason women are feminine and men are masculine is

13
socially determined rather than biologically determined. Gender does not remain

constant over time, and it varies according to race, class, and region.

3.3 Dominant Gender Ideology

Throughout history, spouses have been assigned specific societal functions.

With the upsurge of the New World came the expectation that each spouse would play

a specific role. Husbands were generally working farmers who provided for their

families. Wives were responsible for their children and the household. However, roles

are shifting and even overturning.

Patriarchy is an institutionalized social system in which men dominate over

others, but it also relate to dominance over women in particular; it can also relate to a

wide range of manifestations wherein men have social privileges over women. This

leads to exploitation or subjugation, such as male dominance of moral standing and

property control. Many patriarchal societies are patrilineal. This means that the male

lineage inherits property and titles. According to the sociologist Andrew Cherlin, in his

Public and private families, the term patriarchy is, “a social order based on the

domination of women by men, especially in agricultural societies” (93).

Being born into a woman has become a curse rather than a blessing for many

women who wish to live like a man, not physically but in terms of the privileges, a man

has been given since his first hours of existence. In fact, most victims of sexual abuse

hide the incident for a variety of reasons; a survivor may be worried that others will

judge them negatively at times. “No one is going to believe me”. Such thoughts come

out of fear of judgment, insult, and even worse like the fear of being banished or killed.

These facts are what led to the establishment of male dominance in society. Men are

allowed to abuse, rape, judge, and assault women, which leads to male dominance.

14
Furthermore, women develop fear because of a lack of support and confidence, and most

importantly, a lack of safety.

In the developing countries where families are poor, women tend to be worthless

and life limited. Such countries provide schooling for boys only. Boys are more

"valuable" and deserving of investment there. For example, the belief that those girls

will eventually get married fuels a preference for sending boys to school. Investing in

women's education, therefore, yields little return because a girl who stays at home and

learns how to care for a family is worthy to a future husband. Even those who have

received education may forego their career opportunities in order to please a man’s

dominance. According to Eagly, Wood, & Diekman, in their book The Developmental

Social Psychology of Gender, the prevailing perception that men are functionally

suitable for power and dominance roles in relationships and establishments ensures that

the male gender role incorporates the attitudinal aspect of superiority. Furthermore, the

idea that women are more likely to be emotionally open and interpersonally sensitive

because they are seen as better at tasks that require caregiving.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a group of scientists,

influenced by Darwinian theories, began looking into the evolutionary origins of what

they believed was universal: male dominance. Certainly, scientists see the world via

their own cultural lenses along with a gendered version, the same as anyone else.

Women and gender relations were virtually invisible in the research literature prior to

the 1970s, and the majority of researchers were male. So, 1960s theories mirrored

predominate male-oriented folk views and beliefs. Gender roles and male dominance

were meant to be part of the evolutionary heritage. Males evolved to be food suppliers,

to become stronger, more aggressive, and much more effective leaders with

collaborative and socializing abilities, organizing skills, and technological

15
 innovativeness. Females never developed those capacities in this story of creation

because they were weighed down by their reproductive roles—pregnancy, childbirth,

lactation, and affordable childcare thus became reliant on males for food and protection.

Over time, the gender disparity extended. Women stayed at home, fostered, and totally

absorbed themselves in domestic life while men conducted, discovered, and invented.

Men are operative, while women are passive; men lead, while women follow; men are

dominant, while women are completely subservient.

The presumption that physiological sex differences among males and females

are linked to the differences in their character, behavior, and capacity is at the heart of

patriarchy. These distinctions are used to justify a gendered division of social roles as

well as unfairness in access to payouts, power, and privilege.

4. The feminist perception on Gender Roles

Feminists are divided into four main waves: liberal, radical, and cultural, each of which

defends a different set of rights and actions. In the 60s and 70s, the so-called "Second Wave"

of feminism displayed a seemingly drastic break with the idyllic suburban life pictured in

popular culture. Simone De Beauvoir is indeed the main proponent of the second wave and

thanks to her work, Betty Friedan's writings and perceptions were greatly influenced by

Beauvoir’s—indeed, it was made possible by her. In the United States, Friedan became known

as the prophet of women's emancipation.

4.1 Pariarchy’s subjection of women

The Second Sex is credited with bringing the second wave of feminism around

the world. Beauvoir argued in her most influential book, The Second Sex (1949), that

men has always defined women and that attempting to break free, risks alienating

themselves. In her book, she speaks about the notion of women being signified as the

Other. They are seen like an object, and they are classified as second-class citizens.

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Femininity, otherness, womanhood, sexuality, perfectibility, and womanhood are major

terms in her definition of the woman. Beauvoir claims, “So not every female human

being is necessarily a woman; she must take part in this mysterious and endangered

reality known as femininity. Is femininity secreted by the ovaries? Is it enshrined in a

Platonic heaven?” (23). She challenges all of the institutions that aim to carry women

down, such as sexuality, marriage, and the domestic realm.

The Second Sex discusses the idea that women are framed as "The Other" while

men are the self and subject. Men construct women's concepts based on their own

experiences rather than what women are in reality, she is incidental, the unimportant

rather than the essential. Man is the Absolute, the Subject; she is the "Other". Beauvoir

claims, “Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they

describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with absolute truth” (143).

The irony lies in the fact that men identify themselves as perfect and complete

while women are merely objects, yet men appear to be unable to live without women in

their lives. Man has played the roles of self, subject, absolute, and free being throughout

human history. Woman is the object, the deviation, the inessential in his eyes. She is

valuable as a sexual partner, but not as a separate person. Woman is dependent, deviant,

and inessential in the male framework. She completes him, but she is still incomplete.

Because living only with the role of an object is fundamentally abnormal,

Woman struggles to choose between the historical role offered to her and an assertion

of her freedom. She must give up a huge part of her humanity, including his right of

freedom in order to accept her role as the Other. Beauvoir in The Second Sex says, “No

one is more arrogant toward women, more aggressive or scornful, than the man who is

anxious about his virility” (34). The discrimination and classification of woman as the

Other, which signifies that she is useless and worthless as a servant or a salve to man
17
stems from Man's insecurities and fears that woman can be successful and powerful if

she is not suppressed. According to Beauvoir, “Woman is shut up in a kitchen or in a

boudoir, and astonishment is expressed that her horizon is limited. Her wings are cut,

and then she is blamed for not knowing how to fly. Let a future be open to her and she

will no longer be obliged to settle in the present” (731). Even if she was forced to be

born this way, Woman is always blamed for being broken, weak, and incapable of

obtaining her own freedom. The Man’s manipulation causes Woman to follow his lead

in order to please him and fit in with what he considers perfect in his eyes. If she cooks

and cleans, she is appealing to society; if she is strong and in charge of her life, she is a

rebellious or even worse, given the humiliating insults she will receive, simply for

wanting to live as any human being should.

She will be criticized by man because she is not perfect or appealing to his

demands if she does all the housework and serves the feminine mystic of being a mother

with several children, unemployed, and poorly educated. In The Second Sex, Beauvoir

states the following: “...counselling man to treat her as a slave while persuading her that

she is a queen” (852).

A woman should be beautiful but not attractive, smart but not brilliant, a mother

but not in the body of a mother with a flabby stomach and stretch marks. She is expected

to be strong but not so powerful that she can stand for her own but only to serve the

domestic sphere. In this sense, Beauvoir claims, “If they want to flirt or initiate a

friendship, they should carefully avoid giving the impression they are taking the

initiative; men do not like tomboys, nor bluestockings, nor thinking women; too much

audacity, culture, intelligence, or character frightens them” (402). She believes that

bodies create meaning for themselves, and that subjugating the body would result in a

murky ambiguity in self-realization. Beauvoir attempts to portray a unique phenomenon

18
in her own words. "The woman" is the title given to this phenomenon. She tries to deal

with the various definitions and meanings that are associated with this fact.

In The Second Sex, Beauvoir argues that sexism and oppression persist despite

equal rights since women's voices are silenced due to their classification as the Other.

Since examples that refute this perception pass in the face of what deeply embedded,

societal norms insist it is true. Both men and women assume that men's perception of

women is the entire and unbiased objective fact of what women truly are. Beauvoir says:

This means that woman is necessary as long as she remains an Idea into which

man projects his own transcendence; but she is detrimental as objective reality,

existing for herself and limited to herself…Because she is faux Infinite, Ideal

without truth, she is revealed as finitude and mediocrity and thus as

falsehood.(203)

Simone De Beauvoir draws a link between a woman's feelings of Otherness and

her underlying alienation from her body, particularly her reproductive ability.

Menstruation, childbirth, and childbearing are all physically draining events that bind

women to their bodies and to ultimate reality. The male, on the other hand, is

unrestricted by such inherently physical events. Beauvoir claims, “To be feminine is to

show oneself as weak, futile, passive, and docile” (402). She urges women to develop

their "masculine" intellectual faculties and critical abilities so that they could exist as a

Pour-soi, or a sublime subject who shapes her own future through creative projects.

Men seem to forget that they came from a woman, were created by a woman, and were

fed and raised by a woman who cared for and shaped into the person he is today. To

define the source that brought men to this world as the Other, indicates insecurities and

how imbalanced is their self-esteem.

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 According to Beauvoir, Woman is not born as a woman but she rather become

one. Despite biological differences between men and women, women only become

women because of their social circumstances, this leads her to the conclusion that

biological facts take on the values of social standards. The societal definition of a

woman does not accurately reflect her worth as a woman. Differences in biology,

psychology, or intellect have nothing to do with femininity. Another instrument of

oppression is patriarchy. In reality, not every woman enjoys cooking; some prefer to

work in fields such as artwork or engineering. Beauvoir claims:

One is not born, but rather becomes, woman. No biological, psychic, or

economic destiny defines the figure that the human female takes on in

society; it is civilization as a whole that elaborates this intermediary

product between the male and the eunuch that is called feminine. (283)

Society limits women's abilities in order to make them servile vulnerable beings

but this is not the case in reality, it is a form of oppression and subjugation. In fact,

everyone is born as an empty board, each fill it with their standards. This auto filling

system that applied to woman is meaningless and unfair. From Beauvoir’s view, nature

does not define woman; she defines herself by interacting with nature in her emotional

life on her own terms. There is no medical or scientific rule that says a woman must be

born in a certain manner or that all women around the world must be naturally identical.

In fact, comparing women to one another proves that this presumption is not valid.

What is becoming clear is that man will never be satisfied because he does not

know what he wants or needs. Most men in this category are just empty-headed, insecure

beings with unhappy lives and no genuine objectives. Their interest is to burry Woman

alive to become voiceless with the absence of her minimal rights.

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4.2 Deinking the myth of Femininity

Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique (1963) is widely credited with

fueling second-wave feminism in the United States. Gender roles were restricted, which

sparked widespread public activism for gender equality. Friedan invented the term

"feminine mystique" to describe the expectations of a full woman using her marriage,

sexual lives, housework, and children. Women should not have chosen working, get an

education, or have political views because this is not feminine. Betty Friedan promoted

the idea that women should seek fulfillment outside of the home because traditional

constraints limited women's ability to find themselves. Friedan describes the widespread

unhappiness of many housewives who were trying to fit this feminine mystique

impression as “the problem that has no name” (28). The idea behind feminine mystique

is to romanticize women's domestic roles. They are expected to be mothers, wives, and

daughters. They do not play the part of a politician or a career-oriented character.

She rejects the feminine mystique of women being compelled to play the perfect

role in order to fit into the patriarchal system's definition of a woman. She liberates

women from the domestic chains that have robbed them of their ability to exist

genuinely, addressing the oppression of women in marriage, childbirth, and housing.

Betty also claims that chosen motherhood is the real liberation because a woman who

enacts her fundamental rights and chooses to become a mother is a woman who knows

what she wanted to do in life and that motherhood was not imposed on her to restrict

her ambition as a woman. According to Betty, “The key to the trap is, of course,

education. The feminine mystique has made higher education for women seem suspect,

unnecessary and even dangerous. But I think that education, and only education, has

saved, and can continue to save, American women from the greater dangers of the

feminine mystique” (44). She claims that education liberates women from patriarchy.

21
But men view education as a sin and educated women are considered threatening.

Women in the past were educated under the “feminine mystique” which educated them

that the “greatest value” and commitment for them as housewives and mothers is the

“fulfillment of their own femininity.” Girls were raised with this goal in mind. Instead

of exploring the world and competing, women performed sacrificial care and love for

others. They instilled dignity, faith, and sincerity in their children, created beautiful

homes, and prioritized family concerns in their daily lives. They were passive

romantically and sexually, allowing men to lead the way. Society has instilled the belief

that a woman's worth diminishes as she rises in status, but Friedan claims that she stands

to lose nothing but her vacuum cleaners. In her book, Friedan writes, “We can no longer

ignore that voice within women that says, “I want something more than my husband,

my children, and my home “” (27). To her women who 'adjust' as housewives, who

grow up wanting to be 'just a housewife,' as Friedan popularly alerted, are in the same

danger as the millions who walked to their deaths in prison camps and the millions of

others who refused to admit the camps existed.

Friedan believes that women must find their identity because it is the core of

solving the problem. “Who knows what women can be when they are finally free to

become themselves? Who knows what women's intelligence will contribute when it can

be nourished without denying love?” (364). Genuine struggle is fostered by creative

work, and genuine struggle nurtures self - growth. Women have the potential to achieve

the highest human achievement by struggle and growth. Woman participation in society

feeds her true role as a woman and lead to her self-actualization and identity

development because in reality, society needs the effective role of women in serving the

economy and politics. Friedan states, in the feminine mystique: “The only kind of work,

which permits an able woman to realize her abilities, fully, to achieve identity in society

22
in a life plan that can encompass marriage and motherhood, is the kind that was

forbidden by the feminine mystique, the lifelong commitment to an art or science, to

politics or profession” (336). A woman who is aware of her rights and needs is in control

of her life and future. Education that was meant to encourage girls to become mothers

and wives was a part of the feminine mystique, and as a result, it created an artificial,

crippling identity for women who were raised under it. Healthy, selected, career-

oriented identities would be cultivated through female education. Women must have the

courage to pursue their alleged need for independence rather than living as dependents,

affectionate mothers, or obeying nature's calls to reproduce. Women could still marry

and have children under this system as long as their domestic responsibilities were

subordinated to their careers.

Patriarchy clearly disempowers women, but Friedan sees man as a victim. This

might be possible because patriarchy engendered all the wrong ideas about man and

woman by limiting each sex to specific responsibilities. Men, in fact, are victims of

patriarchy because most of them are forced to behave in a certain way. Patriarchy harms

men by depriving them of their feelings and by considering seeking help as a sign of

weakness. It is a never-ending pressure on men to conform to a narrow definition of

masculinity, compete with one another, and prove their masculinity by denying their

humanity and giving up their individuality. According to Friedan, “Men weren't really

the enemy — they were fellow victims suffering from an outmoded masculine mystique

that made them feel unnecessarily inadequate when there were no bears to kill”(372).

Friedan claims that men, too, have enormous capacities that they must repress fear in

themselves in order to live up to this outdated and brutal man-eating, bear killing.

Patriarchy ruins the vision of what is meant to be normal to normalize emotional,

physical, and mental abuse by confining Man and Woman in categories against which

23
they must rebel to be free. Telling boys to "man up" when they are upset or justifying

abusive and unacceptable behavior with the phrase "boys will be boys" are just a few

illustrations. Toxic masculinity can be defined as the necessity of fierce competition and

dominance over others, and it includes many of men's most problematic tendencies. In

essence, Woman suffers the most because of patriarchal Woman and Man antagonizing

her. Friedan claims, “A woman is handicapped by her sex, and handicaps society, either

by slavishly copying the pattern of man's advance in the professions, or by refusing to

compete with man at all” (361-362). She considers men and women to be equal

partners, rather than one against the other and this is the main objective of

gender equality.

The bitter view of society geared women more than men because they did not

benefit from patriarchal ideology in the workplace, domestic sphere, or sociocultural

liberties, whereas men did. Betty asks, “Why should women accept this picture of a

half-life, instead of a share in the whole of human destiny?” (60). Women are human

beings, not teddy bears or squished dolls. Man has known throughout history that his

mind's ability to have an idea, a foresight, and secure the future to that vision has set

him apart from other living creatures. He has the same needs as other animals for food

and sex, but when he loves, he loves as a man, and when he invents, produces, and forms

a future that is diverse from his past, he is a man, a human being.

To Friedan, the women's movement is not to blame for the thousand percent

increase in divorce. The outdated sex roles on which marriages were founded are to

blame because the feminine mystique is the myth that a woman's "role" in society is

limited. The mystique is a crafted concept of femininity, which claims that having a

career and/or realizing one's full potential go against a woman's pre-determined role.

24
 Society expects plenty from women. They are expected to age gracefully but

never let themselves go. They must work as if they do not have children and parent as

if they do not have a job. They label stay-at-home mothers as unfulfilled, and working

mothers as selfish. Women without children are viewed as incomplete. They advise

women to pursue their careers, but not at the expense of their families. If they want to

be successful, they should think like a man, but they should not act like one in order to

be liked. They are supposed to mother their husbands, but never treat them as children.

It is preferable to be married and unhappy than to be single and happy. It is better to

stay with an abusive man than to break up a family. Women should not marry a moron

for the sake of love, but they should not stay with a successful man for the sake of

security. They should not be financially reliant on a man, but they are told to not

emasculate him by earning more. They advise women to embrace their sexuality while

maintaining self-respect and then caring for their appearances without looking for

attention. Society tells women to be conscious of their surroundings but refrain from

being overly dramatic. They are told to practice self-love but not excessive self-love,

and to dream big but remain small.

The tension between the requirements of the feminine ‘mystique'—the idea that

a woman's identity is centered on her biology, her childbearing purpose, and her familial

roles—and the demands of individual human growth is what Freidan work is all about.

Conclusion:

The overall societal perceptions and understandings of "gender roles" may differ. In

most societies, women and men are assigned different responsibilities, engage in different

activities, have different access to and control over resources, and have different decision-

making possibilities. Men and women do not possess an equal access to gender roles, and

society continues to play a marginal role in conditions where women are prejudiced. Feminism

25
benefits everybody by stripping away the burdens of gender roles, intimidating stereotypes, and

breaking the binary... It also entails treating everyone with the respect and kindness that

one deserves. It has benefitted greatly both women and men as a movement.

26
 Chapter Two

Women’s growing pains in a male-dominated society

Introduction

This analytical chapter will discuss and unveil the female protagonists' obstacles as well

as the impact of the male protagonists' interference in their life in the unfolding events.

Exposing the sorrowful despondency of Rachel and Megan by offering a backstory of each

individual and how they are linked to the novel's male protagonist Tom, Scott, and psychiatrist

Dr. Kamal Abdic. Laying a strong emphasis on Rachel as the novel's central figure, that suffered

from physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her husband Tom.

1. Character analysis
Society’s expectations of women frequently nudge them to the snapping point,

contributing them to seek out or become victims of precarious situations. As Rachel Watson

fails to grasp her role in the vanishing of Megan Hipwell, Hawkins suggests that society is

designed to overload, overburden, and eventually abandon women in their most painful time.

1.1 Rachel Watson

Hawkins utilizes Rachel, the first of her three protagonists and narrators, to show

how society harshly punishes women with expectations of traditional femininity and

motherly duty while failing to support them when they are most fragile and prone.

Rachel is a complex and, at instances, untrustworthy character. In her own words, she

is a divorcee who is intensely depressed because of her infertility and broken marriage.

“Let’s be honest: women are still only really valued for two things—their looks and

their role as mothers” (85). She yearns for what she perceives to be a happy suburban

family life, desperate to make a difference and be helpful to others. Others, on the other

hand, see her as a creepy stalker with a violent streak. When she is drunk, she is self-

27
destructive, but when she is sober, she is unrelenting in her quest for truth about the

events of that drunken Saturday night, transforming her into the novel's driving force.

Rachel claims, “I am not the girl I used to be. I am no longer desirable; I’m off-putting

in some way. It’s not just that I’ve put on weight, or that my face is puffy from the

drinking and the lack of sleep; it’s as if people can see the damage written all over me,

can see it in my face, the way I hold myself, the way I move”(20).

Rachel thinks she is worthless and empty because of society, as if she has no

purpose because she blames herself for her divorce, her husband's new marriage, and

even his job loss due to what he alleges she did in front of his coworkers and boss at the

job ceremony. Rachel has low self-esteem as a direct consequence of being a victim of

manipulation. She drinks to get through the day because she is locked in her past and

the life she once had, notably since the memory of her old life keeps repeating to her

every time she passes by her old house. Worse, she sees Megan and Scott, whom she

refers to as Jess and Jason, through the carriage glass desiring to live their life. “They’re

a match, they’re a set. They’re happy, I can tell. They’re what I used to be, they’re Tom

and me five years ago. They’re what I lost; they’re everything I want to be” (19).

Rachel yearns for a child, and her incapability to conceive has led her to believe

that not only is motherhood unachievable, but that a truthful encounter of womanhood

is inadequate without children. All she wanted when she was a wife to her now-ex-

husband, Tom, was to have a child. Nevertheless, Rachel's infertility issues and the

couple's precarious financial situation indicated that after only one trial of In Vitro

Fertilization (IVF), she had no possibilities for becoming the mother she had always

wanted to be. Rachel struggled to get over her obsession of having children,

I’m better now, about the children thing; I’ve got better since I’ve been on my

own. I’ve had to. I’ve read books and articles, I’ve realized that I must come to

28
 terms with it. There are strategies, there is hope. If I straightened myself out and

sobered up, there’s a possibility that I could adopt. And I’m not thirty-four yet—

it isn’t over. I am better than I was a few years ago, when I used to abandon my

trolley and leave the supermarket if the place was packed with mums and kids; I

wouldn’t have been able to come to a park like this, to sit near the playground

and watch chubby toddlers rolling down the slide. There were times, at my

lowest, when the hunger was at its worst, when I thought I was going to lose my

mind. (85)

Rachel feels guilty for her own infertility due to Tom's insufficiency of financial and

emotional support, which also led her to binge drink in order to mitigate the pain. She

falls a victim to society's expectations to become a mother, engaged in abusive behavior

that would undoubtedly jeopardize any attempts at pregnancy or foster a conducive

emotional environment for a child in the future. Rachel says,

In another life, I woke early, too, the sound of the 8:04 rumbling past; I opened

my eyes…I felt him behind me, sleepy, warm, hard. Afterwards, he went to get

the papers and I made scrambled eggs, we sat in the kitchen drinking tea, we

went to the pub for a late lunch, we fell asleep, tangled up together in front of

the TV. I imagine it’s different for him now, no lazy Saturday or scrambled eggs,

instead a different sort of joy, a little girl tucked up between him and his wife,

babbling away. She’ll be just learning to talk now, all “Dada” and “Mama” and

a secret language incomprehensible to anyone but a parent. (44)

The matter of fertility and motherhood extends beyond the desire to have children or the

need to be a mother. Society's perception of these women has made them feel unworthy

and shallow, causing them to become outraged and aggressive by stripping them from

29
their role as women because they do not meet the inquiries of a perfect woman in the

eyes of society.

Megan and Scott's lives serve, as a distraction to Rachel's stalking of her Tom

and his wife. She is not a spy out to endanger his life, but she is a victim of deception

and lies, and a target of the gender expectations that society has imposed on women,

making them feel inadequate for not being formed flawlessly. When Rachel is drunk,

she constantly calls her ex, which irritates his wife Anna, who tells him to cut all ties

with Rachel. She even visits Tom and Anna's residence. She attempted to take their

child when Anna was asleep but in fact, Rachel only wanted to hold the baby and not

harm her. Tom is fiercely protective of his new family and frequently threatens to call

the police if Rachel attempts to contact him and his family. Drunk Rachel is disoriented

and dependent on Tom. She eventually wakes up to Tom scolding her each time over

the phone,

Leave us alone. Stop calling me, stop hanging around, just leave us alone. I

don’t want to speak to you. Do you understand me? I don’t want to speak to you,

I don’t want to see you, I don’t want you anywhere near my family. You can

ruin your own life if you want to, but you’re not ruining mine. Not anymore. I’m

not going to protect you any longer, understand? Just stay away from us. (48)

Rachel depends heavily on Tom to remember what she did when her memory fails her.

He invents stories to deceive her, from her demeaning him at a coworker's summer

barbeque to Rachel whacking a golf stick at his head. His lies are countless. Despite the

fact that she believes Tom's stories to be true, she is displeased because violent behavior

is not in her nature. This type of abuse is known as gaslighting, which occurs when one

partner repeatedly lies to the other about their behavior, causing the other to doubt

themselves and, in Rachel's case, to not know what to believe. This casts their
30
relationship in a new light, exposing Tom's manipulative behavior, and encouraging

Rachel to trust her own judgment once more. She dismisses her suspicions and confronts

the "anguish of shame" she feels for destroying her marriage. She appears to be an

emotionally needy woman who is enamored with her ex-husband and her past. She has

a poor self-esteem, but it is not her fault because she was duped by him and continues

to be duped even after their divorce, she is in a vulnerable and lonely state. He

manipulates her to conceal his negative behaviors by claiming to care about her while

she is drunk. In her words,

I play the message a second time, listening to the kindness in his voice, and the

tears come. It’s a long time before I stop crying, before I’m able to compose a

text message to him saying I’m very sorry, I’m at home now. I can’t say anything

else because I don’t know what exactly it is I’m sorry for. I don’t know what I

did to Anna, how I frightened her. I don’t honestly care that much, but I do care

about making Tom unhappy. After everything he’s been through, he deserves to

be happy. I will never begrudge him happiness—I only wish it could be with

me. (50)

Rachel's romanticizing of men made it easy on Tom to persuade her to hold responsible

for a slew of horrible things she did not do. Rachel adopted her role, as the inebriated

villain who demolishes everything and everyone around her but then apologizes

following morning for things she is not even aware of them. Rachel’s problems stem

from a lack of options. She recognizes that if she wants to appear socially acceptable,

she must follow society's given script. She is well aware that society assesses her worth

in terms of her ability to meet feminine standards of beauty as well as her ability to bear

children. She also understands that no matter what she does, nobody will ever find her

31
beautiful. Her lack of self-esteem makes Tom's manipulation easier. In a conversation

with detective Riley, she asked her,

“You still use your husband’s name. Why is that? If a man left me for another

woman, I think I’d want to get rid of that name. I certainly wouldn’t want to

share my name with my replacement…” I am that petty. I hate that she’s Anna

Watson. “Right. And the ring—the one on a chain around your neck. Is that your

wedding band?” “No,” I lied. “It’s a… it was my grandmother’s.” “Is that right?

(88)

Obviously, she still does have feelings for her Tom. His emotional manipulation of

Rachel represents the way patriarchal society as whole gaslights contemporary women

leaving them with no option falling in deeper issues. Tom did cheat on Rachel with

Anna but she does not think he did anything false; instead, she blames Anna for

everything. Rachel’s obsession with her ex-husband makes her a victim to reality that

she is not even able to admit that he is the reason why they are divorced, drunk, broken,

sad, and anxious all these years. She uses Anna to justify his acts. Rachel expresses her

hatred for Anna and claims that everything she owns is a secondhand version of what

she used to own. Rachel says,

I’m going to tell her that the line he used with her—don’t expect me to be sane—

he used it with me, too, when we were first together; he wrote it in a letter to me,

declaring his undying passion. It’s not even his line: he stole it from Henry

Miller. Everything she has is secondhand. I want to know how that makes her

feel. (42)

She clearly envies Anna for stealing her life, her home, her husband, and her happiness.

In Rachel's eyes, Anna is the foe not Tom, despite the fact that he has attempted to

32
contact her and cheated on her behind her back, causing Rachel's downfall. Her fear of

loneliness and the social expectations that women must fit in, makes her susceptible,

because patriarchy blames women over everything, including self-defense and ego

recognition. She then surrenders to such standards that she states, “I want to call her

back and ask her, What does it feel like, Anna, to live in my house, surrounded by the

furniture I bought, to sleep in the bed that I shared with him for years” (42).

While on the train one morning, Rachel notices Megan on the porch with a man

who is not her husband. She becomes infuriated and shocked because Megan is such a

traitor. Recalling her traumatic past of how her husband cheated on her and destroyed

a beautiful marriage. “I feel a real sense of disappointment, I feel as though I have been

cheated on. A familiar ache fills my chest. I have felt this way before. On a larger scale,

to a more intense degree, of course, but I remember the quality of the pain. You don’t

forget it” (37). She recalls discovering his emails with his current wife Anna. She was

looking over Tom's work schedule in terms of planning a surprise vacation when she

discovered scandalous e-mails from another woman on his laptop. Rachel was a faithful

wife that Tom found an easy target to manipulate, she tells, “I answered his phone when

he was in the shower and he got quite upset and accused me of not trusting him. I felt

awful because he seemed so hurt” (39). She is more concerned with his feelings than

with her own, despite the fact that she is the one hurting. Rachel is disappointed in

Megan without even knowing her because it immediately reminded her of the image

when Tom cheated on her and how fast he got married as if he could not wait to be with

Anna. She begins to savor bottles of gin and tonic to alleviate the pain. “Hatred floods

me. If I saw that woman now, if I saw Jess, I would spit in her face. I would scratch her

eyes out” (39). She is deeply desperate for marital bliss that she imagines these people

living in an ideal world, despite the fact that hers is far from it. This obsession with

33
Megan and Scott's lives that she had conjured up in her imagination shocked her

anticipations; triggering her trauma to recall how Anna had moved into the house, she

had only left.

Every event has precipitated in Rachel's downward spiral and it is highly

unlikely that she would have become an alcoholic if they had not occurred. “I felt

isolated in my misery. I became lonely, so I drank a bit, and then a bit more, and then I

became lonelier, because no one likes being around a drunk. I lost and I drank and I

drank and I lost. I liked my job, but I didn’t have a glittering career” (85). Rachel is not

flawless. She is obnoxious, impulsive, and belligerent, avoids taking responsibility for

herself, and prefers to take the easy way out when things get too much for her. She has

some stereotypes up her sleeve when it is about gender roles. On the surface, she appears

to be the bitter alcoholic ex-wife who detests her husband for moving on but cannot

quite bring herself to do the same. She appears to believe that she has been the issue the

entire time, “I was wrong to suggest that we should share the blame; it was all down to

me” (111). Since her psychological issues are never settled, all of these occurrences

leave a traumatic indelible impression on her personality. She says, “I had to beg him

to tell me what it was that I'd done... if you can't remember what you've done, your mind

just fills in all the blanks and you think the worst possible things” (297). Rachel's

vulnerability is thought to be linked to her past trauma.

Rachel goes to visit "Jason" to inform him that she witnessed his wife with

another man but she has no recollection of what happened because she got drunk again

since she kept thinking about her past and places she would like to visit with Tom. The

next day Megan is reported missing, and the authorities believe that Rachel is involved

because she has no memory on where she was on Friday night and she was seen near

34
Megan's house. . Rachel awoke covered in vomit, bruises all over her body, and her

head bleeding. Undoubtedly, she had no recollection of anything. She says,

I want to know what happened; …I try desperately to make sense of an elusive

fragment of memory. I feel certain that I was in an argument, or that I witnessed

an argument. Was that with Anna? My fingers go to the wound on my head, to

the cut on my lip. I can almost see it, I can almost hear the words, but it shifts

away from me again. I just can’t get a handle on it. Every time I think I’m about

to seize the moment, it drifts back into the shadow, just beyond my reach. (51)

Her untrustworthy memory has placed her in the position of a suspect. Only then, Rachel

decides to stop her beverage to clear her name because the odds were against her. She

has to discover what happened that night and why she woke up in blood. Her world has

crumbled around her, and she tries to make sense of her bleak existence. Her

involvement in Megan’s disappearance investigation is exactly what she needs in order

to find a purpose. Rachel is an out-of-the-box detective searching for clues in her

fragmented memories. Envisioning the officers' surprise and delight when they meet a

blurry, inebriated witness whose memories are hazy and hardly reliable. She is much

more than just a drunk girl on a train.

Hawking indicates that Rachel's self-destructive heavy drinking is an indicative

of a bigger symptomatic reaction to society's ridiculous expectations of motherly

obligation. In other words, it is the societal pressure to become the best mother, rather

than Rachel's fertility problems, which is destroying her opportunities of becoming one.

She imagines a life for "Jess and Jason" relying on her own broken marriage. She comes

to realize that she cannot have her wonderful marriage back, primarily because it was

never ideal in the first place.

35
1.2 Megan Hipwell

Hawkins utilizes Megan, the second narrator and protagonist, to demonstrate

how society fails to ensure justice for women who are unable to obtain it for themselves.

She is hardly anything at all like the woman Rachel imagined. She is having an affair

with her therapist and is agitated with Scott. She is a lone wolf who despises married

life. “I can’t do this, I can’t just be a wife. I don’t understand how anyone does it—there

is literally nothing to do but wait. Wait for a man to come home and love you. Either

that or look around for something to distract you” (31). In addition, she does not relate

on this quiet suburban street; she used to work in an art gallery and was completely

stranded when she lost her job. Megan Hipwell does not fulfill society's expectations of

motherhood and femininity. She appears to be a self-assured, confident woman at first

sight, but her past is wracked with trauma, damage, and painful secrets. She has been

on her own since she was 16 years old, and society never has shielded her. She is a

beautiful blonde woman that is married to Scott Hipwell, they live near Tom’s house,

and she happens to be his nanny. Megan is distracted, restless, and dissatisfied until she

vanishes forever.

Megan's life appears to be ideal in the novel, and she is pleasantly in love with

her husband Scott, she appeared to be the ideal wife. However, she occasionally feels

uneasy because Scott is overprotective. She deviates from other women, she is not an

emotionally attached woman who is a victim of her emotional needs to men, but she has

managed to learn to use men for her own personal benefit and to a certain large extend

control them. She is continuously cheating on Scott while he remains to adore her. He

seems to be the one in their marriage who desires children. Megan says, “Scott

encouraged me—he was over the moon when I suggested it. He thinks spending time

around babies will make me broody. In fact, it’s doing exactly the opposite; when I

36
leave their house I run home, can’t wait to strip my clothes off and get into the shower

and wash the baby smell off me” (28). She clearly does not want to have kids or to be

around them. Unlike the other two female protagonists, she is solid and battles for what

she aspires. She quickly grows unsatisfied with suburban life and the expectations of

domestic sphere and clearly not into the nanny’s lifestyle.

Nothing at all would be a step up from my conversations with Anna. God, she’s

dull! You get the feeling that she probably had something to say for herself once

upon a time, but now everything is about the child: Is she warm enough? Is she

too warm? How much milk did she take? And she’s always there, so most of the

time I feel like a spare part. My job is to watch the child while Anna rests, to

give her a break. A break from what, exactly? She’s weirdly nervous, too. I’m

constantly aware of her, hovering, twitching. She flinches every time a train

passes jumps when the phone rings. (28)

Megan despises the traditional life that society imposes on women in order for them to

be as immaculate and strictly adhere to patriarchal guidelines. She finds it lame,

controlling, and moronic, and she deems it as a waste of time. Therefore, she is unable

to evaluate motherhood despite her husband's desire to be a father. Megan's inability to

sleep was caused by domestic issues. Megan believes she has disappointed her husband,

who desires the presence of a child, but Megan is unable to fulfill his wish due to her

trauma with a baby.

Women and gender roles, as well as Megan's struggles with her self-identity,

makes her feel helpless in the life she has to live as a wife, despite her decision to quit

her job and become completely reliant on her husband. However, her preferred method

of coping with her restlessness is to seek further affirmation of her womanhood

throughout an affair, which not only makes her "just a wife" but also makes her unhappy,
37
throwing her in mortal peril. Megan is not into the stable life style where everything

becomes a routine she claims,

There was a time when I thought he could be everything, he could be enough…

I loved him completely. I still do. But I don’t want this any longer. The only

time I feel like me is on those secret, febrile afternoons like yesterday. Maybe

I’ll want to run again, and again, and eventually I’ll end up back by those old

tracks, because there’s nowhere left to go. Maybe. Maybe not. You have to take

the risk, don’t you? (100)

Megan has had apprehensions about pushing her husband. She was plagued by guilt for

making her husband unhappy all of the time. Her disagreement with her husband is not

just about having a child; it is also about her feelings for her psychiatrist. It bothered her

as well. She eventually realized that she had disappointed her husband, but she had also

added to his suffering. She starts delving into the profundities of her childhood trauma

in therapy sessions with the delicate, attentive Dr. Kamal Abdic. Talking about her past

and her current life, Kamal advised her to keep a diary but she is concerned that her

husband, Scott, will discover it because frequently goes through her belongings. Megan

appears to have started having an affair eleven days later. She tells Scott she is going

out with her friend Tara, but she ends up meeting a man after all. Megan is a free bird

but Scott seems to have betrayed her at times. He is a more controlling husband in her

relationship, checking her email or browsing history on the web. In her first session, she

told Dr. Kamal,

I had a teacher at school who told me once that I was a mistress of self-

reinvention. I didn’t know what he was on about at the time, I thought he was

putting me on, but I’ve since come to like the idea. Runaway, lover, wife,

38
 waitress, gallery manager, nanny, and a few more in between. So who do I want

to be tomorrow? (29)

For a split second, she appears to be unsure of what she wants as long as she is not doing

the same thing or spending time with the same people. Kamal appears to be the only

person who can see her broken soul, which her husband is unaware of. Even if Megan

is secretive about her life, she is able to confront it with another man rather than Scott,

implying that her marriage is not happy due to Megan's communication problems, which

prevent her from fully opening up to her husband about her past, emotional states, and

traumas. Her neurotic anxiety has been bothering her for a long time, and she wishes

she could forget about it.

Megan is a complicated character in the novel, a woman who appears to be

strong but is totally broken, lost, and unfulfilled because society fails her. The societal

expectations compelled her to behave differently from other women and from her

authentic self. She claims that, “Hollowness: that I understand. I’m starting to believe

that there isn’t anything you can do to fix it. That’s what I’ve taken from the therapy

sessions: the holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree

roots around concrete; you mold yourself through the gaps” (99). Her panic attack

largely stems from her dissatisfaction with being abandoned by her brother, who died

in a motorcycle accident. Because she has lost her beloved ones, it causes her to

encounter reality anxiety. She keeps thinking about her brother Ben , speaking about

him makes her feel warm and takes her back to the happy days probably the days when

Megan was her genuine self she says ,

I miss him every day. More than anyone, I think. He’s the big hole in my life, in

the middle of my soul. Or maybe he was just the beginning of it. I don’t know.

I don’t even know whether all this is really about Ben, or whether it’s about
39
 everything that happened after that, and everything that’s happened since. All I

know is, one minute I’m ticking along fine and life is sweet and I want for

nothing, and the next I can’t wait to get away, I’m all over the place, slipping

and sliding again. (30)

Ben pays Megan a lot of attention and protects her particularly from the men. According

to her, the accident caused her a huge traumatic stress. Megan is overcome with grief

because she never expected her brother to die, and she witnessed firsthand how the tragic

accident occurred. She fills her pain using affairs with men because she is beyond

damaged on the inside to mask the pain of losing the two men she loved most in her life:

her brother Ben and her ex Mac. Megan is the Other. She represents the worst kind of

treatment society gives to women who refuse to admit the rules of femininity, as she

quotes a teacher who called her a runaway, whore, and terrible wife. She undergoes

many different stages in her life. To handle Ben’s death, she first runs away from home

and strives refuge with Mac who lives in a wooded area. When she is abandoned, she

must leave the house and return to reality. She is never at ease, even after she marries

Scott and begins a new life. She seeks refuge in two men in different ways, as she strives

to be irresistible.

The night before she disappeared, she went to Kamal Abdic and told him the

truth about her past and why she is this way, because he eventually pushed her away

after he came to her house where they were on the patio together, which Rachel

witnessed. Kamal wanted to console her, but Megan's neediness caused him to stay

away, since she is a married woman and he is a therapist who can get his license taken

away for such behaviors. She goes to his house ready to tell him her story,

“We called her Elizabeth. Libby.” She was just a few months old. The roof was

leaking. It was freezing cold, the wind driving off the sea; it had been raining
40
 for days. I lit a fire in the living room, but it kept going out…So I decided to get

into the bath. I took Libby in with me, put her on my chest, her head just under

my chin.” I’m exhausted. I’m cold. Really cold, my teeth chattering in my head,

my whole body shaking. “I fell asleep,” I say, and then I can’t say any more,

because I can feel her again, no longer on my chest, her body wedged between

my arm and the edge of the tub, her face in the water. We were both so cold.

(209)

Megan had no idea what she was doing when she was pregnant with Libby—she did

not see a doctor, and did not remain healthy. Libby was even born at home rather than

in a hospital. Megan confesses that she fell asleep in the bath one day while trying to

keep herself and Libby warm, and Libby drowned. In fact, Megan does not hate children

but she despises the memory of losing hers, which is why she hates her job as a nanny

“Nothing in it says “nanny.” God, even the word makes me want to gag. I put on jeans

and a T-shirt, scrape my hair back. I don’t even bother putting on an makeup. There’s

no point, is there, prettying myself up to spend all day with a baby?”(27). Her restless

nights are the result of her distress over the death of Libby and the immediate aftermath.

Megan demonstrates her panic disorder, which causes her to sense the existence of her

baby next to her body, listening to her cry, and smelling her. In her mind, if she could

travel back in time, she would like to meet Libby in a different situation. She says,

The thing that keeps me awake: the feeling of being alone in that house. I was

so frightened – too frightened to go to sleep. I’d just walk around those dark

rooms and I’d hear her crying, I’d smell her skin. I saw things. I’d wake in the

night and be sure that there was someone else – something else – in the house

with me. I thought I was going mad. I thought I was going to die. I thought that

41
 maybe I would just stay there, and that one day someone would find me. At least

that way I wouldn’t have left her. (115)

She feels obligated to pay for her baby's loss so that she can look forward more to seeing

her again and ensure that she is properly cared for. Her inability to forgive herself for

Libby’s accidental death makes her who she is today. She cannot conform to the

expectations of traditional femininity because Megan is well aware that she has already

been labeled as a morally undesirable woman, so she has no qualms about engaging in

other socially inappropriate behaviors. Megan lives in pain every night because she is

still attached to her dark past, where her secrets and land of wishes remain. She is

looking for someone who can help her peel away the layers of fear that she constructed

up over the years. She needs someone who is compassionate to grasp her trauma.

Her wildness seems to have been exacerbated by the death of her brother, Ben,

to whom she was very close. He was killed in a motorcycle accident when he

was nineteen and she fifteen. She ran away from home three days after his

funeral. She was arrested twice—once for theft and once for soliciting. Her

relationship with her parents, the Mail informs me, broken down completely.

Both her parents died a few years ago, without ever being reconciled with their

daughter. (50)

Megan is "Unfeminine" according to society. She has another special

relationship outside of her marriage, which she forms with Tom and with her

psychiatrist. She is compelled to persuade her psychiatrist to date her because she

refuses to accept her psychiatrist's rejection. She became an uncontrollable person

because of her affair with Rachel's ex-husband, Tom. She was depressed at the time

because her husband had demanded that he instantly want to start a family. Therefore,

Megan requires a lot of attention, and she eventually seeks it from her psychiatrist, with
42
whom she has developed a close relationship and with Tom to enhance her mundane

life. Despite knowing that cheating on Scott with Tom is wrong, she chooses to delight

herself and continue the affair. Megan acknowledges that Men who cheat on their wives

are not retained to the same standards of morality as women who cheat on their spouses;

she readily admits that this affair is the only outlet of excitement in her life and that she

will not give it up.

Megan falls through the fractures of society when she most needs help because

of the personality she is wearing and the violations and experiences she conceals

complicate the investigation into her disappearance in unexpected ways. As

investigators dig deeper into Megan's life and uncover more evidence of her departure

from the feminine spotlight, they continue to demonize her for her decisions. She

resolved to do the right thing for her new baby and not repeat the mistake, blaming

herself. She decides to confront Tom that she is pregnant, her request for Tom to take

responsibility for her pregnancy shows only when Megan caused Tom's problem.

“I thought you should know, because—” “Have an abortion,” he says. “I mean,

if it’s your husband’s, do what you want. But if it’s mine, get rid of it. Seriously,

let’s not be stupid about this. “…I don’t think you’re really motherhood material,

are you, Megs?” “You can be as involved as you like—” he snaps, turning his

back on me. I go after him, walking quickly at first and then running. I’m yelling

at him, screaming, trying to scratch his fucking smug face, and he’s laughing. I

start saying the worst things I can think of. I insult his manhood, his boring wife,

his ugly child. (299)

Despite the fact that the child is not Scott's, Megan decides to take responsibility for her

actions, she decides to become a mature mother. Her marriage to Scott has become

hollow and empty especially after his abusive behavior towards her they are a long way
43
apart. Megan finds herself insulted by Tom, who represents patriarchy's treatment of

women in times of need. He, like Megan, cheats on his wife Anna, but he sees himself

as flawless and superior to place the blame on Megan. He has the audacity to regard her

a less of a woman because of his male supremacy over women regardless of the

circumstances. He considers her a physical intimacy object. In fact, a woman's worth is

not accurately represented by society's description of her. Megan addresses,

He’s coming towards me. He has something in his hand. I’ve fallen. I must have

slipped. Hit my head on something. I think I’m going to be sick. Everything is

red. I can’t get up. One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl… Three for a

girl. I’m stuck on three, I just can’t get any further. My head is thick with sounds,

my mouth thick with blood... I can hear the magpies—they’re laughing, mocking

me, a raucous cackling. A tiding. Bad tidings. I can see them now, black against

the sun. Not the birds, something else. Someone’s coming. Someone is speaking

to me. Now look what you made me do. (299)

Megan is the first to speak up for herself, which results in her death because Tom is

unprepared for such situation. She is ultimately inclined to abandon her past behind,

admit the truth to the men in her life, and begin moving on for the sake of her unborn

child once she learns she is pregnant. Regrettably, just as she is about to do the right

thing, Tom does his evil deeds and murder her in order to keep their affair hidden,

making her the victim. As Megan's gloomy past emerges during the investigation into

her vanishing, the investigators working the case fail eventually to prioritize Megan and

imply that her death may have been her fault—that is, her disobedient, promiscuous life

choices brought about her horrible end. Hawkins demonstrates how society fails to

provide Megan with justice in her life and death.

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2. Gender stereotype and Female Objectification

Gender stereotyping is the discipline of assigning particular characteristics, character

traits, or roles to an individual woman solely based on her membership in a social group of

women or men. The concept of objectification is core to feminist theory. It can be defined

broadly as treating, usually a woman, as an object and/or seeing her as such. Others see

objectified women as less than fully human, as having less of a mind for thoughts or choices,

or as less deserving of moral treatment. The refusal of mental ability and moral prestige has

been shown to have negative consequences for objectified women, such as increasing men's

willingness to engage in sexually aggressive behavior toward them. Further to that, some

women are subjected to more objectification than others are: Women, who appear sexualized,

such as Megan, are objectified more than non-sexualized women are, such as Rachel but at the

same time she was insulted for her basic appearance.

Megan's plot differs from Rachel's and Anna's, but there are some parallels to be found,

and she, like Rachel, begins helpless and ends up challenging the social order of her relationship

with men. This grim truth of the kind of oppression that women face on a daily basis Anna and

Rachel simply try to be good wives while the husband does remarkably much, whatever he

desires. It depicts women’s objectification as well as some discriminatory behavior, such as

how men are often anticipated to put their own needs first. Women simply must accept their

roles in relationships rather than demanding further respect. The novel attempt to demonstrate,

when a woman does not vote in a manner that is advantageous for the man, he becomes weary

of her and seeks to be rid of her. Tom abandons Rachel when she no longer meets his needs of

motherhood, he cheats on Anna when she begins to overwhelm him, and he ends his affair with

Megan when she learns of her unintended pregnancy and then kills her. People slavishly follow

gender norms, so it is comprehensible that when it comes to feminism and gender equality,

some people find it provocative.

45
 Scott and Tom appear to believe that they can use or treat women the way they want.

The novel begin on an uneven footing between the sexes. Although Tom is the worst character

in the novel, he never feels terrible because he is a narcissist since he does not feel guilt, he

continues to abuse people. He tells Rachel, “Do you have any idea how boring you became,

Rachel? How ugly? Too sad to get out of bed in the morning, too tired to take a shower or wash

your fucking hair? Jesus. It’s no wonder I lost patience, is it? It’s no wonder I had to look for

ways to amuse myself. You’ve no one to blame but yourself.”(249). Man blame woman for a

variety of reasons, one of which is to distance themselves from an unpleasant event and thus

verify their own invincibility to the peril.

Women are depicted as victims of sexist relationships where their freedom is tied to

their societal reputation. In its most basic form, patriarchy is defined as men's oppression and

objectification of women. In such a society, women have roles that are solely for the benefit of

men. Due to gender roles, women’s capacities are limited to bear children and serve physical

pleasure, which imposes a cruel reality on them. Men's heinous nature to use women as objects

to satisfy their desires suppresses and silence women's centers of thinking to prevent them from

reaching self-worth and self-empowerment. The way Tom treats Rachel identifies it, “” You’re

just like that, aren’t you, Rach? You’re a dog”” (310). Because of men's desires and beliefs,

women become submissive and object-like. Men want women to be this manner, and if they

have the strength, they will force them to do so. Men come to believe that women are in fact

submissive and object-like, and that this is their natural state. As a result, when it relates to the

objectification of women, the world bends to the will of men. Men's ideologies, on the other

hand, are inverted because they arrange the world to accommodate their subjective values about

women being subservient and object-like.

46
Conclusion

The Girl On The Train reintroduces feminist concern regarding about gender based

violence and institutional misogyny. By portraying the ways in which marriage and

motherhood, continue to cause women pain and suffering. It intertwines all of these lies, threats,

and innuendoes throughout the novel, frightening and undermining each of her characters. The

novel also shows how these institutions are introduced to women as obligations rather than

choices if they want to be recognized as genuinely feminine beings. Rachel, Anna, and Megan

are firm believers in the importance of marriage and motherhood in a woman's quest for

happiness and fulfillment. However, they are unable to enjoy pure marital and maternal delight

because they are dissatisfied with their roles as mothers and wives. To write a short, it is obvious

that women and men do not have equal access to gender roles. When it comes to gender

viewpoints, society strongly favors the masculine side and fails women. The irony of the

situation is that society fails its most vulnerable women by restricting them to moral uprightness

and ideals of feminine gender roles, just to dehumanize them when they do not strictly adhere.

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 Chapter Three

The Deliverance from the Shackles of Oppression

Introduction

This chapter analyzes how Rachel, the novel's protagonist, breaks free from the shackles

that her ex-husband has pinned around her and reveals the truth that lies beneath. She realizes

her self-worth the moment she gathers her memories, proving that she can be her authentic self

in the absence of male supremacy and manipulation. This chapter reveals that women can

acquire their freedom even if society does not protect it. Rachel, for the first time, chooses

herself and sees life through a magnifying glass, ensuring her and Anna's freedom despite being

her enemy, as well as Megan's revenge.

1. A quest of becoming reliable

Rachel's dependability was shattered by alcoholism and the heart-wrenching struggles.

Her words were not considered credible as she was treated mostly as worthless, damaged

person. Rachel's desire to know the truth ended up driving her to endorse herself because society

had failed her severely. It diminishes her as a woman first, then her husband, who made her

insecure due to her infertility, and Anna, who considers her a crazy woman who is unable to

join womanhood because she does not fulfill patriarchy's criteria. Rachel craves to know the

truth for herself after waking up covered in blood and seeing glimpses of faded memories. She

began to doubt everyone, including herself, after being accused in the case of Megan's death.

Rachel tries to help Scott by pretending to be Megan's friend, but he discovers that she is lying.

Scott physically abuses Rachel, curses and degrades her, and then locks her in a room. Megan's

situation eventually dawns on her, and she realizes that her husband Scott is an abusive man

with an anger management problem and an out-of-control person who rejoices in Rachel's fear.

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 One memory led to the next, and Rachel began to recall old memories, allowing her to

decrypt what Tom had keyed with lies. She realizes that she is not a violent inebriated woman

after all, and that her belief is correct. It was the suitable time for Rachel to remember what is

legitimate rather than hallucinating about her past, which was built on lies and manipulations.

It was cruel that after all the years of alcoholism and delusion, she came to realize that she was

right about what she felt at a certain point of her life, that the identity Tom created for her was

falsifiable to prevent her from recognizing her self-worth.

Tom, showing me the bruises on his arm, on his chest, where I’d hit him. “I don’t

believe it, Tom. I’d never hit you. I’ve never hit anyone in my life.” “You were

blind drunk, Rachel. Do you remember anything you did last night? Anything

you said?” And then he’d tell me, and I still couldn’t believe it, because nothing

he said sounded like me, none of it. And the thing with the golf club, that hole

in the plaster, grey and blank like a blinded eye trained on me every time I passed

it, and I couldn’t reconcile the violence that he talked about with the fear that I

remembered. (257)

Memories began to resurface in fragments, motivating her to stand up for herself and find a life

purpose by giving up drinking. Clara, Tom's ex-boss, later confirms the truth about what

happened at the barbeque party to Rachel. Claiming that Rachel was fortunate to avoid a man

like Tom and that he was fired due to sexual harassment at his workplace. This reassured Rachel

that her feelings were valid and that what she remembers is true. She was not the reason as Tom

accused her. She begins to recall her fragmented memories. She says,

I heard Tom’s voice in my head, as clear as if he were right there, right next to

me, his lips against my ear—You were blind drunk. Filthy, stinking drunk—and

I jolted awake, shame washing over me like a wave. Shame, but also the

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 strongest sense of déjà vu, because I’ve heard those words before, those exact

words. (257)

Rachel begins to see Tom's true colors and she began to realize the abuse he has done to her

over the years. Her love for him is what has caused her to lose herself in order to please the

wrong man. He misled her into loving her by claiming things she never does and pretending

that despite her flaws, he will always help her and sympathize with her. Rachel fell for it

effortlessly as a less fortunate lonely woman since society never fostered her to embrace herself.

She was capable of remembering because she is no longer shutting her flashbacks with illusions

and low self-esteem thoughts, but she observes reality when she fought back for herself,

knowing that Tom is the guilty party.

Rachel finally recovers her Friday night fragmented memory, she acknowledges, “The

ground is rushing up at me and I jerk upright, my heart in my throat. I saw it. I saw it. I was in

the underpass and he was coming towards me, one slap across the mouth and then his fist raised,

keys in his hand, searing pain as the serrated metal smashed down against my skull” (258). She

remembered that the reason why she found herself a mess that morning was that she saw Tom

with Megan on Friday night and eventually he ended up beating her in the tunnel and left her

on the ground pretending the next morning that he was the one who helped her. Rachel

eventually recalls one further memory that led her to confront Tom. She declares,

Everything is a lie. I didn’t imagine him hitting me. I didn’t imagine him walking

away from me quickly, his fists clenched. I saw him turn, shout. I saw him

walking down the road with a woman, I saw him getting into the car with her…I

do remember, it’s just that I had confused two memories. I’d inserted the image

of Anna, walking away from me in her blue dress, into another scenario: Tom

and a woman getting into a car. Because of course that woman wasn’t wearing

a blue dress, she was wearing jeans and a red T-shirt. She was Megan. (267)
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Megan, not Anna, was the one who got into the car with Tom. Rachel goes to Tom's house,

Anna is standing on the patio, and she does not seem surprised to see Rachel. Rachel informs

Tom that she is aware that he attacked her in the underground tunnel. However, he denies it,

so she goes on to say that she knows he then got into the car with Megan. She tries to persuade

Anna to assist her, but she refuses to help her because she would rather stay with him than be

alone. Rachel shouts that he killed Megan, and she recalls everything about that cryptic night,

including Megan getting into his car. This appears to wake Anna up finally, as she confronts

Tom about Megan, sleeping with him, he admits it but because he is a narcissist eventually put

the blame on Anna saying,

You were so tired all the time” and he does not feel guilty about it. Anna admits

that she found Megan's phone in his bag. Tom’s reaction of not feeling guilty

somehow made Anna realize that she should believe Rachel and stand by her.

Tom uses Rachel’s past to humiliate her and defend himself when he got caught

by telling her, “Jesus. It’s no wonder I lost patience, is it? It’s no wonder I had

to look for ways to amuse myself. You’ve no one to blame but yourself. You’ve

no one to blame but yourself. (294)

Tom ends up trying to commit his second murder while Anna was there watching, he

drags her backwards, pulling her hair, clawing at her face, spitting curses through blood , he

puts his hands around her neck trying to suffocate her. Rachel realizes that everything was an

illusion her feelings, her dreams, herself blame, her marriage, and her image on Tom. The

narration demonstrates yet another level of unreliability: the "good" husband is suddenly not so

good. Rachel could not tell he was abusing her because his emotional abuse was so subtle. This

novel's lifelike side is unbelievably persuasive.

Two women viciously avenged their humiliation after overcoming mutual loathing and

attaining dignity. They had to collaborate. Sure, a woman is vulnerable and reliant according to
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society, but her inner strength should not be underestimated. As the phrase goes, "Every action

has an equal and opposite reaction." Rachel defends herself by stabbing Tom in the throat with

a corkscrew. Instead of saving Tom, Anna eventually joins them, twisting the corkscrew even

more. Anna decided to call the police and take care of everything by telling them the truth that

it was a self-defense. Eventually, Rachel comes to realization about Tom’s innate. She

concludes,

Tom’s truth came too light, “I found out that he was never in the army. He tried

to get in, but he was rejected twice. The story about his father was a lie, too—

he’d twisted it all round. He took his parents’ savings and lost it all... He lied all

the time, about everything. Even when he didn’t need to, even when there was

no point. (313)

Tom's entire life was built on lies—falsehoods and obfuscations told to make him appear better,

tougher, and more intriguing than he was. Rachel brought Megan's justice after she died, despite

the fact that she had been treated unfairly both during her life and after she died. Rachel laments,

“The headstone marker bears her name and the dates of her life—no “loving memory,” no

“beloved wife,” or “daughter,” or “mother.” Her child’s stone just says Libby. At least now her

grave is properly marked; she’s not all alone by the train tracks” (314).

Rachel conquers her emotional reliance, rejects victimhood, and reclaims control of her

life, revealing herself the novel's most powerful female character. She is driven by a strong

moral compass and empathy, even with her flaws. Rachel reveals the truth about her own life

as she learns about Megan's damages, a dead baby, and a Megan who attempted to keep herself

as numb with sex as she does with beverage. That Tom's bizarre tournaments convinced her

that she had done terrible things to him and was to blame for their divorce. She gradually recalls

that he had abused her. In addition, she understands that it is not her fault. More often than not

that is all it carries for a domestic abuse survivor to remember. To reminisce about how it felt
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 to be believed. She recalls the first time she sensed something was not quite right. To reminisce

about life before the abuse. Because, unfortunately, everyone else is probably telling her

otherwise. They only see the alcoholic, adulterer, and mistress who deserved to be punished.

The truth is harrowing and upsetting at first, but it set her free.

2. Female Rivalry and male Glorification

The Girl On The Train exemplifies how society can turn women against each other for

the sake of social stereotypes and man gratification by criticizing women for minor infractions

and forgiving men for major ones, as well as judging other women for choices another

woman wouldn't make and justifying men's behavior. Another prevalent attitude and mindset

in culture is that finding a man is essential to finding meaning in one's life otherwise woman's

life has a gaping hole and she is not good enough. A woman faces the risk of being slandered,

stereotyped, victimized, harassed, or exploited at any point in her life.' Male glorification refers

to lavishing praise or dignity on a man, even if he only does the bare minimum. Taking it a step

further than simply liking a man would be glorifying him. When he is glorified, he is lauded to

the highest degree possible by being over appreciated to the point where women will bend their

standards to gain his approval as the ideal woman.

Women find themselves competing rather than cooperating, which leads them to idolize

men and eventually succumb to female rivalry. To please Man, society pits women against each

other. Patriarchy and how it has manifested, and proceeds to manifest, has long been a source

of analytical issue, and it remains so. It flourishes by being a divisive force under the guise of

competition, or by establishing a comparison that ends up being unfair in the sense that it creates

the illusion that there can only be 'one adequate woman' for whatever aspect or space it strives

to compare women in.

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 Female rivalry occurs when a woman utilizes her power to put another woman down,

whether through mistreatment or unfair competition. The character of Anna exemplifies the

perfect image for such kind of women.

1. Anna Boyd

The novel's third narrator, Anna, exemplifies how society stumps women

against one another, pressuring them to appreciate constant validation and

companionship over female support. Women may be put in danger and have no support

in such a scenario. In the early days of her affair with Tom, Anna recounts how thrilling

it was to be "the other woman." Deny the reality that she happened to know he was

married; she was captivated by his attention and began to regard Rachel as a foe. Anna

was a charming mistress, who became Tom's wife and the mother of their baby

daughter; she has become much more stubborn. She dislikes seeing Rachel lurking

outside the window. Rachel, on the other hand, lurks, phones, and pesters, only to forget

about it the next day.

For her husband's pleasure, she submits to societal requests about womanhood

and motherhood. She is pleased with herself for being able to have a child and for being

a wife, both of which boost her ego in front of Rachel. She believes that she is precisely

what a man demands and that she possesses all of the characteristics of a perfect woman

in a patriarchal society. Despite the fact that she is unemployed, she considers

motherhood to be a job. She says,

I was an estate agent, not a neurosurgeon, it’s not exactly a job you dream about

as a child—but I did like being able to wander around the really expensive

houses when the owners weren’t there, running my fingers over the marble

worktops, sneaking a peek into the walk-in wardrobes. I used to imagine what

my life would be like if I lived like that, the kind of person I would be. I’m well
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 aware there is no job more important than that of raising a child, but the problem

is that it isn’t valued. Not in the sense that counts to me at the moment, which is

financial. (230)

When motherhood is healthy and desired, it can be a fantastic experience. In front of

Rachel, motherhood is a wonderland and a safe haven for Anna, but she knows she is

not pleased with it. Anna agreed to become a mother in order to please Tom and the

societal view of women. However, she is dissatisfied with her motherly responsibilities

and the fact that she is unemployed and confined to her home to cook, clean, and change

diapers. Clearly, she is not in the midst of a happy and stable motherhood. Anna is aware

of her situation as a mother, but she is too insecure to admit it, so she hides it by

pretending to be in a relaxed state. Anna admits, “It was when I was washing my face

afterwards, when I saw how tired I looked, how blotchy and bedraggled and bloody

awful, that I felt it again—that need to put on a dress and high heels, to blow-dry my

hair and put on some makeup and walk down the street and have men turn and look at

me “(230). In reality she cherishes being the one for whom men abandon their

wives. She misses being the center on interest to married men, even after settling into

the domestic chores. She come to a point when she realizes that she is not happy with

the lifestyle she forced herself into including motherhood. She thrives freedom and

employment. As she confesses,

I miss work, but I also miss what work meant to me in my last year of gainful

employment, when I met Tom. I miss being a mistress. I enjoyed it. I loved it,

in fact. I never felt guilty. I pretended I did. I had to, with my married girlfriends,

the ones who live in terror of the pert au pair or the pretty, funny girl in the office

who can talk about football and spends half her life in the gym. I had to tell them

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 that of course I felt terrible about it, of course I felt bad for his wife, I never

meant for any of this to happen, we fell in love, what could we do? (231)

Anna took on the role of the other woman accepting the concept of being an object of

amusement to Tom and then she broke a home and a marriage. She is a toxic woman

who represents female fatales. Rachel is frustrated because Anna was aware that Tom

was married, she is the plot's villain and woman’s enemy because she wants to be the

mistress even though she is married with a child. Rachel's mere presence is her challenge

and she loathes her, as she maliciously declares,

The truth is, I never felt bad for Rachel, even before I found out about her

drinking and how difficult she was, how she was making his life a misery. She

just wasn’t real to me, and anyway, I was enjoying myself too much. Being the

other woman is a huge turn-on, there’s no point denying it: you’re the one he

can’t help but betray his wife for, even though he loves her. That’s just how

irresistible you are. (231)

She has no contrition for what she has committed. Rachel's life is already falling apart

but still Anna abhors her. In some ways, she is Tom's puppet in order for him to have a

baby, and he uses all kinds of boundaries on her to make her feel important. Anna's

character demonstrates how women frequently integrate a hatred and resentment of

other women whom they perceive as rivals or opponents, and how this behavior can

exacerbate women's isolation, frailty, and peril. Anna shames Rachel to foster her ego

when she started doubting Tom, “I’ve seen pictures: all huge dark eyes and generous

curves—but now she’s just run to fat. And in any case, he would never go back to her,

not after everything she did to him, to us— all the harassment, all those late-night phone

calls, hang-ups, text messages”(237-238). Women become even more susceptible of

society's frequent pitting of women against each other. They generally fail to reach out
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for help, even when they frantically need it, to conceal their perceived "competitors'"

security flaws created by the world around them. Rachel's feelings were unimportant to

her. She was only thinking about how delighted she was to have Tom as her husband.

Anna is extremely self-centered.

Anna simply ignores her own emotional responses and gut feelings in favor of

seeing Rachel as the only threat and enemy in her life. She denies the darker truths about

her life and marriage, partly to protect herself and Evie, and mainly to avoid

jeopardizing her "perfect" status as a wife and mother. Anna, like Megan and Rachel,

is a profoundly complicated and often unreliable narrator. She is supercilious, a little

self-obsessed, and obsessed with her image. Her fear of not living up to society's ideals

of femininity has hampered her mental capacity to understand and care for herself. She

tries to fill the traditional roles of wife and mother, but she is unable to do so in a

balanced manner, believing that she must despise and compete with other women. She

copes with her suffering by burying her head in the sand. She considers,

I think I’ve always known that Tom lies. It’s just that in the past, his lies tended

to suit me. “He is a good liar,” I say to her. “You were totally clueless for ages,

weren’t you? All those months we were meeting up… in that house on Cranham

Road and you never suspected a thing.” She swallows, bites her lip hard.

“Megan,” she says. “What about Megan?” “I know. They had an affair.” The

words sound strange to me—this is the first time that I’ve said them out loud.

He cheated on me. He cheated on me. “I’m sure that amuses you,” I say to her,

“but she’s gone now, so it doesn’t matter, does it?” (274)

Anna is not a decent woman; she is married to Tom, who is vicious,

manipulative, devious, and even aggressive. She ignores his hostility and lies in order

to keep up the illusion of a perfect family. Anna realizes that he is a liar when Rachel
57
tries to warn her that she is married to a murderer but she does not care if he is a liar; all

she cares about is that he is lying to her but not the fact that he killed Megan. When

Anna learns that Tom had an affair with Megan, she admits to herself, “It’s odd, because

I know now that all this time I’ve been hating the wrong woman, and yet knowing this

doesn’t make me dislike Rachel any less” (275). She is bothered not by the fact that he

murdered Megan, but by the fact that he has not always sincere with her. Anna has a

hard time directing her rage at Tom. She appears to be far more at ease directing her

rage at other women than at her husband because she is not strong enough to accept the

truth of her situation.

She is spitefully obsessed with Rachel; in fact, it is Rachel who designates

Anna's behavioral patterns, not the other way around, because she is solely focused on

Rachel throughout all of these events. Anna begrudgingly states, “If anything, seeing

her like this, calm, concerned, sober, I’m starting to see what she once was and I resent

her more, because I’m starting to see what he must have seen in her. What he must have

loved” (275). Anna is helpless and lacks self-esteem because she would rather be with

Tom than approach the grim reality that he is a cheater and a liar. As long as she is with

him, she accepts those facts. She tells Rachel,” “I’m not leaving him, Rachel. He had

an affair, he… It’s not the first time, is it?” I start to laugh and Evie laughs, too. Rachel

sighs and gets to her feet. “You know this isn’t just about an affair, Anna. I know that

you know” (276). She obviously goes beyond and beyond just to please him.

In fact, beauty, motherhood, sex, commitment, and perfection are not what

requires winning a man. Women can totally alter themselves and become slaves to

gender roles, only to lose themselves and their fantasized lives. To make herself feel

higher about her pathetic existence, Anna would rather utterly despise Rachel repeatedly

than admit the truth. She is her only drawback despite the fact that she has damaged her;

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 she is not willing to withdraw. This hatred stems from Anna’s jealousy and envy of

Rachel, as she is anxious to reap what she sow. She insultingly says,

I mean, if you look at the two of us, side by side, there isn’t a man on earth who

would pick her over me. And that’s without even going into all her issues. But

then I think, this happens sometimes, doesn’t it? People you have a history with,

they won’t let you go, and as hard as you might try, you can’t disentangle

yourself, can’t set yourself free. (259)

Hawkins demonstrates through Anna how even mothers who are held up in society as

prime examples of motherly duty, concern, and culpability can fail. Anna is so fixated on a

predetermined definition of maternal love that she ignores her own errors, desperate to maintain

an idealized façade without taking the tough, harsh steps that a genuinely good mother must

take in the basis. She becomes the female foe to submit to patriarchy. She uses her ability to

have children as a weapon against Rachel because of her inability to get pregnant.

Patriarchy tells that women are not as strong, competent, or capable as women

internalize men. Women unconsciously acquire messages about their proper place, which

appears in how they judge one another. In some cases, it seems that female characters do not

value themselves unless they are useful to a man. They may victimize, underrate, and distance

themselves from other women in order to boost their power and status among men. With the

continued insidious stress and message that looks are the worth, and with the nonsensical

message, that finding a partner is life’s entire meaning, society pits women against one another.

The significance of the role of women in The Girl On The Train is among the main

themes. Rachel, Megan, and Anna are the three women who narrate the entire novel. Their

narration is the center of the story. Being attractive and having the ability to have children were

given more weight. The female characters in the novels are cognizant of how they are regarded

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 and that they are surrendering their liberty to sustain their husbands pleased, as aforementioned.

This is how all protagonists begin their plot lines.

3. Women’s empowerment

Women's empowerment is defined as the ability to make decisions and the right to

influence social change in their own and others' lives. Women's empowerment entails a sense

of self-worth, the ability to obtain and make decisions, access to resources and opportunities,

and the power to control their own lifestyles both in and out of home. It is the very first issue

that is brought up. The concrete interests that women as a gender share are one of the

foundations for women's solidarity. Male violence and authoritarian forms of heterosexuality

that result in violence, sexual abuse, and wife-battering, as well as issues concerning procreation

and motherhood provide women with an overt basis for gender unity. In regards to patriarchy,

women may meet along the way.

Rachel had previously worked for a business. She was earning money and able to

support herself without difficulty, but she was fired from her job shortly after. Her

circumstances had deteriorated to the point where she could not afford a home of her own and

was forced to live with a friend. At that point, Rachel was in the deepest level of weakness.

The female protagonists in the novel are portrayed as weak and reliant on their husbands

or male characters in general, each female character struggles with her own internal conflicts,

such as alcoholism, insecurity, abuse, and loneliness. Tom takes advantage of Rachel's

alcoholism and her situation. Megan lacked the courage to tell Scott about her past because he

is an unstable and dangerous person. He abuses Megan, “his grip tightens on my shoulders”

(95). It explains this in a saddening manner, demonstrating his desire for control. Megan is

unlike the other characters she is self-empowered that she really is strong and resilient, never

accepting no for an answer and never allowing herself to be abused by a man. When Scott

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abused her, she skipped her home that day. Megan claims, “Then he leaned in, his forearm

across my throat, he leaned harder, harder, saying nothing. He closed his eyes so that he didn’t

have to watch me choke” (285). Even if society as a whole is against her, she has an empowered

self despite her excruciating past and living situation. Megan defended herself until her last

breath, and Tom killed her; she may have been unfortunate, she received no support, but she

spoke out for herself and refused to submit to the societal system of gender roles.

Rachel is able to move on from her formal life and the horrendous treatment she

received. She optimistically says, “Eventually, I suppose, the nightmares will stop and I'll stop

replaying it over and over in my head...I have to get up early tomorrow morning to catch the

train” (323). Rachel eventually decided to move on at the end, catching the train the next

morning defines her leaving the past behind. Due to Tom's emotional and physical abuse,

Rachel reached a point of self-empowerment on her own. She had to learn to say no. Another

significant mental shift is from victim to warrior. Rachel became weak, lonely, drunk, and a

victim because of gender roles that prevents her from flourishing and celebrating herself. It is

not her fault; rather, it is the fault of society for forcing women to obey the orders of what is

restrictive and abusive. Rachel affirms, “I’m too afraid to let myself slip, because that’s when I

make myself vulnerable. I’m going to have to be strong, that’s all there is to it” (258). Her

complete arc is rough but eventually empowering as she moves forward, tries to change her

life, and not only restores some of her lacking memories but also faces a different understanding

of them, giving her a purer sense of self.

Rachel plays the role of woman’s empowerment in the absence of social support,

despite her poor memory and tragic situation. She says, “And I can feel at least that I may have

helped, because I cannot believe it could be a coincidence that Megan disappeared the day after

I saw her with that man” (105). Megan had Rachel’s support in finding and protecting her

reputation after she died, Rachel went through a lot, trying to find out the truth of her own

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existence to save a woman that she had never met in person. She defines the image of women’s

support in the chaos. She has been sober for three weeks at the end of the story. This

demonstrates that she is not a total wreck and can manage her life. Women have their peaks and

troughs, but they are just as capable as men at accomplishing their dreams are.

Rachel has a generous heart, and despite Anna's hatred and disrespect for her by

breaking her marriage and looking down on her, she saved her life out of good will. After all,

even if they were once enemies, Anna and Rachel work together to kill the man who has hurt

them both, and they work as a team when the cops come to investigate. Rachel thinks back, “I

realized she wasn’t trying to stop the bleeding. She was making sure. Twisting the corkscrew

in, farther and farther, ripping into his throat, and all the time she was talking to him softly,

softly. I couldn’t hear what she was saying” (316). Anna would not have killed Tom if Rachel

had not stabbed him in the first place, but maybe a small amount of influence swayed her in the

end.

In present era, self-defense is a necessity for womanhood. Rachel overcomes the

difficulties of being a single woman in a male-dominated society, despite her nostalgia for her

previous life. She tries to fit in with society while avoiding upsetting her ex-husband. Despite

her loneliness, she does not want to intrude with Tom's family because she is aware of the

importance of family bonding. Rachel reveals, “I feel like myself the myself I used to be” (134).

Instead of seeking revenge for Tom's physical and psychological vulnerability he caused during

their marriage, she tries to approach and assist who, in her opinion, is now in the most

vulnerable position: Anna. However, in the end, they are both apt to have a moral encounter

and see how comparable they are in reality. They can ultimately see each other's "face" and

realize that working together against the root of their emotional stress gives them more power.

Rachel declares, “We are tied together, forever bound by stories we told” (409). They are close

and powerful because of the secret they keep.

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 This is unsurprising; indeed, women who stay with abusive men still enrage and perplex

the world. They do not care if they do not understand it. Women stay with abusive men for a

plethora of reasons; however, it is not their fault that they are abused. To keep blaming women

for getting out of abusive situations, it would then miss the real issue: controlling and abusive

men. So while society fumble around with the subject, clicking their tongues in mock

sympathy, women are dying at the hands of their abusers on a regular basis. Man's helpmate,

companion, and mate is a woman. She foregoes her personal desires and ambitions, establishes

moral standards, relieves stress and pressure on her husband, and retains peace and order in the

home. As a result, she provides the needed environment. She is a source of motivation for men

to work hard and achieve great things in life still society regards her as a less. The fact of the

matter is that women can rise up for themselves at some point, no matter how long it takes, and

it is vital for women to endorse one another in order to break free from gender roles.

Rachel moved from a woman who believed in the lies told by Tom rather than her own

mind, to a survivor warrior of victimhood. She poorly says , “After a while, I learned that when

you wake up like that, you don’t ask what happened, you just say that you’re sorry: you’re sorry

for what you did and who you are and you’re never, ever going to behave like that again ” (257).

Many women are victims of abusive marriages because divorce is still a stigma in society. They

are frightened to stand up for their rights because they lack power, which leads to self-blame as

Rachel used to do. Victimhood is used to reestablish patriarchal authority. For example, in this

novel, all three female characters, Rachel, Megan, and Anna, keep blaming themselves for the

abusive behavior they receive from Tom in general and from other males in particular. As a

result, they are accepting the victim role that society has assigned to them because they lack

female empowerment since society does not support them. Tom's abuse exemplifies how

society shames rather than supports women who face fertility issues, violence, self-hatred, and

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substance abuse while failing to meet social standards. Domestic violence must be destroyed at

all costs if women are to be empowered.

Women must be empowered in terms of social standards because patriarchy's definition

of femininity is the source of female oppression, allowing Man to abuse and dishonor women

because of his inherent superiority. For example, motherhood must be understood as a unique

situation. Fertility is not something that can be monitored; a woman cannot choose how her

ovaries and hormones function, and society must be barred from interfering with woman's

anatomy. At the same time, women must develop a sense of acceptance in order to embrace

their bodies and its function in life. Women's inability to have children is not the only hindrance

they face; they will also be judged for their postpartum life quality. It implies that women are

supposed to be an ideal creature that adapts to the needs of men. Clearly, women do not receive

sufficient support. In fact, stretch marks, hyperpigmentation, breast ptosis, apron belly, and

muscle stiffness are all part of the human experience of motherhood. Instead of being hostile

and attempting to change human nature by criticizing themselves and falling prey to society's

flaws, women should embrace and love themselves for who they are.

Motherhood is such a common topic in society that it is often treated as a public issue,

despite the fact that it is essentially personal. This can have serious consequences for a person's

sense of advancement and gratification, especially for women who are unable or unwilling to

become pregnant. Second, silence has emerged as a useful tool for exploitation. It is an ally of

perpetrators to dominate a victim's vulnerability.

The novel shows the importance for women to stand for themselves and to be self-reliant

rather than wait for society to secure justice to them. Rachel, Megan, and Anna are victims of

patriarchy and they fell in the fracture of society. Each of them payed a price in a different form.

Megan died , Rachel was abused physically and mentally, whereas Anna could not be her own

self and stood against Rachel just to serve the patriarchal system. Rachel was turned into a
64
forgotten nobody on a train seat by patriarchy, but her circumstances forced her to wake up and

create a life and a personality for herself in order to promote a sense of self-worth and the ability

to make their own decisions. Hawkins attempts to give a voice to women who have been labeled

as different, who have struggled to play the role of woman in a particular social moment.

Conclusion

Women are still seen as weak and only useful for patriarchal oppression or Man in

particular. Rachel demonstrates that no matter how weak, emotionally attached, or desperate a

woman is, she can conquer any obstacles once she sides away her emotions and her

consciousness returns to its senses. Such occurrences are the fault of society. Gender roles pit

women against one another in order to conform into the roles that society assigns to them,

robbing them of their most basic rights and turning them against one another. Hawkins appears

to be trying to imply, with this spectrum of vulnerable women, that there is still far more to

fight for in terms of women's rights, and that a revised version of the core principle of

vulnerability is required. Rachel is eventually able to move toward doing some good by

exploiting her vulnerable state. Clearly, women require empowerment in order to break free

from the societal system that confines women and labels them according to what they deem

appropriate. Rachel reshapes her life in a myriad ways in the novel The Girl On The Train,

despite her problematic conditions. She went from being a victim to being a warrior.

65
 General Conclusion

Jealousy, controlling behavior, and gaslighting, which is man’s psychological abuse of

woman that makes her doubt her sanity, affect all three women in the novel. It exposes the dark

side of domestic life in all of its hideousness. The Girl On The Train is a suspense novel, a

mystery, and a story about loneliness, alcoholism, and exhibitionism. It represents the society’s

view of women as flawed, wrong, and weak.

Paula Hawkins has demonstrated her feminist views through the plot, the characters

and their dialogue. Women have a lower sense of aggressiveness than men do, as they are more

likely to express their aggression in a sensible and verbal manner. Through its portrayal of Tom

as a cold, unsympathetic perpetrator and Rachel, Megan, and Anna as his victims, Hawkins'

novel The Girl On The Train reasserts stereotypes of female victimhood and male villainy. It

also demonstrates how these institutions are presented to women as obligations rather than

choices if they want to be recognized as truly feminine individuals.

This master dissertation approaches the subject of gender segregation using two

theories coined by well-known feminists. The first is Simone De Beauvoir, who is very critical

of the society’s view of women as an “Other” in her book The Second Sex. The second is Betty

Freidan who coined the term “The Feminine Mystique”. The first chapter provides a theoretical

framework for the current study. The aforementioned theories, discussed in it, serve the

research's theme and help provide an answer for the research questions. Both theories address

the fundamental theme by demonstrating how society reduces women to minor roles that

maximize their power and ability to motherhood and domestic sphere. Clearly, society values

motherhood as a female institution, which is grossly unfair to those who are unable to have

children due to infertility or even other circumstances. Society intrudes so much on women's

privacy that it has the audacity to meddle with their anatomy and bodily functions. It is

66
completely irrational to confine women to a given role that induces them to be victimized and

deemed as the "Other" by allowing men to perceive women as second-class citizens who can

cut her vocal cords when she needs to speak up giving her the cold shoulder. In the halfway

point, both theories serve the theme of inquiry, answering the broad concerns and revealing

society's lurking reality in the midst of women's distress. Women’s role is limited to that of a

baby making machine, a housekeeper, and the Other of man.

This master dissertation breathes life into the characters and their struggles, using

quotations to create a vivid portrait image of oppression in patriarchal society. It shows that

women and men do not have equitable access to gender roles. It is clearly emphasized in the

second chapter that when it comes to portraying oppression, it is important to note how Paula

Hawkins not only focuses on the male exploiter, but she also illustrates the ethical stance that

arises among women. Rachel's chances of becoming a mother are being shattered by society's

expectations to be the perfect mother, rather than by her fertility issues. Society lowers her

value, making her responsible for her infertility, and this built the solid foundation for male

oppression and manipulation due to her unfortunate situation. Megan embodies the definition

of "damaged goods". She demonstrates how Megan was denied justice even after death. She

falls through the cavities of society at a time when she most needs support. This chapter comes

to the conclusion that society continuously betrays women in the middle of their severe struggle

by turning its back on them. It considers women as the source of problems and glorify man as

the flawless sex using the disguised concept of gender roles. The latter causes them to end up

self-blaming for things they have no responsibility over that suffocates them until their breaking

point.

Those female victims of domestic violence can survive misogyny and build a genuine

sense of self-worth, demonstrating that motherhood is not a source of accomplishment and self-

discovery as the patriarchy believes, but rather another form of oppression used by society to

67
prevent women from being their authentic selves. The third and final chapters evince the

conflicts that result from social expectations that have been placed on women. These

expectations often result in toxic relationships or unwarranted rivalry. It demonstrate how

women's relations are socially constructed in terms of competence in order to suit the

requirements of patriarchy and the necessity for women to cooperate rather than shatter one

another for the sake of pleasing men. For instance, Anna’s unjustified hatred of Rachel for the

sake of male pleasure. Surely, society is a great failure to shield such women, at the same time,

women find it an obligation to secure justice for themselves and reject victimhood in order to

reach the chores of peace. Rachel broke the chains of gender roles prison that turns women

against each other in their attempt to submit to the roles that society allocates to them, depriving

them of their most fundamental rights and turning into enemies. She uses her genuine heart to

protect and empower Anna, to prove that patriarchy reduced her worth to a neglected no one

on a busy train, and yet her situations forced her to return to reality and start a life and a character

by herself in fostering a sense of worth and the potential to make rational decisions. The further

outcome is that Hawkins tries to give a voice to women who have been categorized as different

and who have continued to struggle to perform the role of woman in a particular social setting.

The Girl On The Train might be read as a canonical work in contemporary feminism

as well as a masterpiece in suspense thrillers. Paula Hawkins uses three fragmented and

powerful women who, through their persistence, tenacity, and strength of character, end abuse.

She has avoided stereotypes of women such as the femme fatale or the oversexualized

seductress. Rachel claims that a woman is judged on two factors: her appearance and her ability

to conceive, both of which she lacks. On the other hand, no man has been handed power over

his own narrative because women are in need to speak up for themselves and tell their struggle.

The novel portrays a realistic view of what feminism entails and what is required to achieve

gender equality. These frequently proven stereotypes in the book clearly illustrate gender issues

68
in both literature and real life society. Finally, the portrayal of men and women in The Girl On

The Train can be considered to represent specific stages in the evolution of feminism in real

life, thus providing an overview of the feminism concern. As a result, the novel portrays a

realistic view of what feminism encompasses and what is required to reach women's rights, and

society's standpoint on gender roles.

69
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