Online Assignment: Literature Authors

When we analyzed Jane Austen's "Atonement", we got to know that she never wrote the internal life of a male, but she reduced her writing for women. In this mood, I can ask myself if authors may write the feelings and thoughts of someone of the opposite gender, and why would they do it!

After a quick research in the internet, I found some famous writers who managed to create highly developed characters from the opposite sex in their books.

In this list, I must name some men who wrote female characters' interior life, including Daniel Defoe with "The Fortunate Mistress", Samuel Richardson's novel "Pamela", John Cleland with "Memories of a Woman of Pleasure", the famous Charles Dickens' "Bleak House".

Now, if we search for women who wrote men characters, we can also find a good list. Charlotte Bronte presents her "The Professor", Edith Wharton adds "Ethan Frome" and "The Black Prince" was written by Iris Murdoch.

Although we can find a big lot of authors who write characters from the other sex, why do they do it? What benefits does this type of writing have? I think that they take this option because it gives the author a chance to go deeper and express what she or he knows about the opposite sex. Obviously, a writer will never base his book in stereotypes, so they'll have the chance to investigate about the other sex behavior. Also, I think that writers are always exploring different ways to express what they want, and using an opposite gender character may be a good option.

However, we still have a lot of authors, like Jane Austen, that'll stick to their sex in terms of writing. This may be because they want to keep the feelings and writing "true", as when you write something about the other's sex view you can never be sure that what you're writing is wise or correct.