When Women Terrorise: The Psychopathic La Femme Fatale in East of Eden by John Steinbeck
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1407.31Keywords:
East of Eden, female antisocial personality disorder, John Steinbeck, la femme fatale, psychopathyAbstract
This study focuses on the issue of female psychopathy and the portrayal of an emotionally and mentally disturbed female character in East of Eden (1952) by the contemporary American author, John Steinbeck. Although female characters are like male characters regarding their psychological complexity, the issues of antisocial personality disorders and psychopathy have only been examined in previous studies concerning male characters. Hence, this study focuses on the issue of psychopathy as an antisocial personality disorder explored through the leading female character based on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) by the American psychiatrist, Robert Hare (1991). A prominent view on the mentally disturbed female characters is that they are not analysed with equal attention as male characters; thus, this presumption that women are disqualified from psychological conductions on account of their gender is a predicament by itself. Accordingly, this study examines the non-traditional la femme fatale personified through the female character, Cathy Trask, and investigates the author’s portrayal of a female character with antisocial personality disorder tendencies. The findings show that, from a young age, Cathy reveals her lethal inclinations, harnessing her beauty and intelligence not only to her advantage but also to exploit those around her. Cathy also embodies the two “Personality Traits” and “Antisocial” factors and experiences many short-term marital relationships based on Hare’s (PCL-R).
References
Aguiar, S. A. (2001). The bitch is back: Wicked women in literature. SIU Press.
Antonio, A. B. (2015). Re-imagining the noir femme fatale on the Renaissance stage. M/C Journal, 18(6). https://doi.org/10.5204/mcj.1039
Atwood, M. (1994). Spotty-handed villainesses: Problems of female bad behaviour in the creation of literature, Transcript of speech. Capra Coaching English Booklet; 2020.
Bragg, R. (2000). The dissolution of the curse of Cain in East of Eden. In M. Meyer (Ed.), The betrayal of brotherhood in the work of John Steinbeck: Cain sign (pp. 435-456). The Edwin Mellon Press.
Broe, D. (2009). Film noir, American workers, and postwar Hollywood. University Press of Florida.
Cale, E. M., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (2002). Sex differences in psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder: A review and integration. Clinical Psychology Review, 22(8), 1179-1207. DOI: 10.1016/s0272-7358(01)00125-8
Cleckley, H. M. (1941). The mask of sanity. Postgraduate Medicine, 9(3), 193-197.
Dashti, S. K., & Bahar, I. B. (2015). Resistance as madness in The catcher in the rye. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 5(3), 457-462. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0503.01
Doane, M. A. (2013). Femmes fatales. Routledge.
Forouzan, E., & Cooke, D. J. (2005). Figuring out la femme fatale: Conceptual and assessment issues concerning psychopathy in females. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 23(6), 765-778. DOI: 10.1002/bsl.669
Forth, A. E., Brown, S. L., Hart, S. D., & Hare, R. D. (1996). The assessment of psychopathy in male and female noncriminals: Reliability and validity. Personality and Individual Differences, 20(5), 531-543. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(95)00221-9
Garcia, N. M. (2016). Steinbeck’s female characters: Environment, confinement, and agency. Harvard University.
Gladstein, M. R. (1986). The indestructible woman in Faulkner, Hemingway, and Steinbeck. UMI Research Press.
Grossman, J. (2007). Film noir’s “femme fatales” hard-boiled women: Moving beyond gender fantasies. Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 24(1), 19-30. https://doi.org/10.1080/10509200500485983
Hanson, H., & O’Rawe, C. (2010). The femme fatale: Images, histories, contexts. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230282018.
Hare, R. D. (2003). Manual for the revised psychopathy checklist (2nd ed.). Multi-Health Systems.
Hare, R. D., & McPherson, L. M. (1984). Violent and aggressive behavior by criminal psychopaths. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 7(1), 35-50. https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-2527(84)90005-0
Hare, R. D., & Neumann, C. S. (2009). Psychopathy: Assessment and forensic implications. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 54(12), 791-802. DOI: 10.1177/070674370905401202
Hare, R. D., Harpur, T. J., Hakstian, A. R., Forth, A. E., Hart, S. D., & Newman, J. P. (1990). The revised psychopathy checklist: Reliability and factor structure. Psychological Assessment: A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2(3), 338-341. DOI:10.1037/1040-3590.2.3.338
Hare, R. D., Hart, S. D., & Harpur, T. J. (1991). Psychopathy and the DSM-IV criteria for antisocial personality disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100(3), 391-388. DOI: 10.1037//0021-843x.100.3.391
Hare, R. D., Neumann, C. S., & Widiger, T. A. (2012). Psychopathy. In T. A. Widiger (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of personality disorders (pp. 478–504). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199735013.013.0022
Harvey, S. (1978). Woman’s place: the absent family of film noir. Women in Film Noir, 22-34. DOI:10.5040/9781838710163.CH-002
Hicks, B. M., Carlson, M. D., Blonigen, D. M., Patrick, C. J., Iacono, W. G., & Gue, M. (2012). Psychopathic personality traits and environmental contexts: Differential correlates, gender differences, and genetic mediation. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 3(3), 209-207. DOI: 10.1037/a0025084
Hicks, B. M., Vaidyanathan, U., & Patrick, C. J. (2010). Validating female psychopathy subtypes: Differences in personality, antisocial and violent behavior, substance abuse, trauma, and mental health. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 1(1), 38-57. DOI: 10.1037/a0018135
Lee, Z., & Salekin, R. T. (2010). Psychopathy in a noninstitutional sample: differences in primary and secondary subtypes. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 1(3), 153-169. https://doi.org/10.1080/14999013.2012.746755
Lehmann, A., & Ittel, A. (2012). Aggressive behavior and measurement of psychopathy in female inmates of German prisons—A preliminary study. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 35(3), 190-197. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijlp.2012.02.007
Lilienfeld, S. O. (1998). Methodological advances and developments in the assessment of psychopathy. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36(1), 99-125. DOI: 10.1016/s0005-7967(97)10021-3
Logan, C. (2011). La femme fatale: The female psychopath in fiction and clinical practice. Mental Health Review Journal, 16(3), 118-127. DOI:10.1108/13619321111178078
Lykken, D. T. (1995). The antisocial personalities. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Mostafaei, S., & Shabanirad, E. (2015). A feminist reading of East of Eden by John Steinbeck. International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, 63, 145-150. https://doi.org/10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.63.145
Naremore, J. (2002). A season in hell or the snows of yesteryear?. A Panorama of American Film Noir, 1941–1953, vii-xxiii, City Lights Books.
Neumann, C. S., & Hare, R. D. (2008). Psychopathic traits in a large community sample: links to violence, alcohol use, and intelligence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76(5), 893.
Porter, S., Woodworth, M., Earle, J., Drugge, J., & Boer, D. (2003). Characteristics of sexual homicides committed by psychopathic and nonpsychopathic offenders. Law and Human Behavior, 27, 459-470. DOI: 10.1023/a:1025461421791
Rogstad, J. E., & Rogers, R. (2008). Gender differences in contributions of emotion to psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder. Clinical Psychology Review, 28(8), 1472-1484. DOI: 10.1016/j.cpr.2008.09.004
Shokri, S., Bahar, I. B., & Noor, R. (2016). Levi’s basic anxiety, conflict and the search for glory in Zadie Smith’s On beauty. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 24(1), 115-130.
Steinbeck, J. (1952). East of Eden. Viking Press.
Steinbeck, J. (1939). The grapes of wrath. Viking Press-John Lloyd.
Steinbeck, J. (1935). Tortilla flat. Covici-Friede.
Tryforos, M. M. (2018). Historicizing the femme fatale: From sensation fiction to film noir [Unpublished Master’s dissertation]. The California State University.
Verona, E., Sprague, J., & Javdani, S. (2012). Gender and factor-level interactions in psychopathy: Implications for self-directed violence risk and borderline personality disorder symptoms. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 3(3), 247-262. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025945
Warnick, C. (2014). Cathy Trask, monstrosity, and gender-based fears in John Steinbeck’s East of eden [Unpublished Master’s dissertation]. Bringham Young University.
Warren, J. I., Burnette, M. L., South, S. C., Chauhan, P., Bale, R., Friend, R., & Van Patten, I. (2003). Psychopathy in women: Structural modeling and comorbidity. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 26(3), 223-242. DOI: 10.1016/S0160-2527(03)00034-7
Weizmann-Henelius, G., Viemerö, V., & Eronen, M. (2003). The violent female perpetrator and her victim. Forensic Science International, 133(3), 197-203. DOI: 10.1016/s0379-0738(03)00068-9
Wynn, R., Høiseth, M. H., & Pettersen, G. (2012). Psychopathy in women: Theoretical and clinical perspectives. International Journal of Women’s Health, 257-263. DOI: 10.2147/IJWH.S25518