Year of Wonders

Introduction

In the historical novel The Year Of Wonders, Although the author Geraldine Brooks portrays both Anys and Aphra as support characters, both Anys and Aphra play an important role in the novel, this will be explored in three ways, Anys’s view on the patriarchal society and how she effects the town, Aphra’s importance in the town and her influence on Anna, and lastly Anys’s influence on inspiring and teaching Anna.

Anys Gowdie may not have a large acting role in the novel but her presence in the novel compensates for that, Anys plays an important role in the town because of her attitude towards the patriarchal society and her unique views on religion and on the men. In a time where women were living in a society where they were suppressed, uneducated and restricted in their occupations, Anys and Mem demonstrate a new form of women that are emerging among the village of Eyam. They challenge the values of the period in several ways.

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They are highly educated in herbal medicine, independent and non-conforming to the conventions of society. In particular, the Gowdies sense of uniqueness is what allows them to contribute to positively impacting the village. Anys shows how Barber surgeons “knew nothing of women’s body” and how she does, just by being a woman. Brooks verges on an idea of how logic, science and independence (all followed by the Gowdies) allows one to be stronger than those who oblige themselves to superstition and religion, thus showing us the importance of Anys’s character in the novel.

Anys Gowdie doesn’t just have a big impact on the town of Eyam but Anys also plays an important role with her unlikely friendship with Anna. Anys inspires Anna to be a strong, independent woman. For it is “Truculent Anys” that Anna hears “whispering impatiently” in her ear as she tries to deliver the Daniels baby. Anna admires Anys’s strength (“Why would I marry? I’m not made to be any mans chattel, I have my work, which I love, I have my home- its not much, I grant, yet sufficient for my shelter, but more than these, I ave something very few women can claim: my freedom, I will not lightly surrender it”) and this in turn makes Anna stronger. “she was a rare creature, Anys Gowdie, and I had to own that I admired her for listening to her own heart rather than having her life ruled by other conventions. Without Anys’s “guidance Anna wouldn’t have believed she could deliver the baby alone. Aphra Bont is also considered a minor character but like Anys she still plays an important role in the novel.

Throughout the novel Aphra is seen as a great contrast to Anna she is portrayed as a cold hearted harsh women and Anna’s view was “I was always a pair of hands before I was a person, someone to toil after her babies” None the less Aphra was still an important woman without her we wouldn’t have seen the harsh breakdown of society which is shown in the chapter …… where Aphra’s punishment is carried out by the angry and fragile towns people, Aphra is chucked into a cave filled with pig excrement up to her nose and left there for an entire night, when she emerges from the cave she seems to have gone insane, it is this side of Aphra that signals just how far the town has fallen since the plagues beginning, this scene highlights Aphra’s importance in the novel. However Aphra also plays an important role in the climax of the plot. In a fit of rage (after her decaying daughters head falls off) Aphra stabs and kills Elinor with the very knife that kept Joss Bont stuck to the mine. This is a key scene in the novel, for it is this scene that starts Michael Mompellion down the path of depression, it is after this chapter that Michael Mompellion loses his faith and falls into a pit of despair, which is shown by his comment “untrue in one thing, untrue in everything. This key scene emphasises the importance of Aphra’s character.

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