Gender roles

The majority of the novel focuses on criticizing the gender roles within this fictional world. The main character who finds fault with these gender roles would be Beatrice. Beatrice is passionate about women’s rights and longs for a world where men and women are treated equally.

Right off the bat, the novel opens with Beatrice musing about how much she hates her role as a woman in society. The narrator says, “Just thinking of her exclusion made Beatrice’s scalp heat. For women, magic was the solitary pursuit of widows and crones, not for the woman whose most noble usefulness was still intact. The inner doors of the chapterhouse were barred to her, while a man with the right connections could elevate himself through admittance and education among his fellow magicians” (9). The “novel usefulness” Beatrice speaks of refers to producing heirs for men’s...