Margaret Atwood says that she identifies most with Zenia, the eponymous Robber Bride.
Identifying with and being are different things; but she must see some similarities between her and this leonine woman. Margaret Atwood, who always writes the same bookish decisive ethereal heroines, has gone for the seductress.
I do believe she's wrong. She is Tony Freemont, or the girl in Cat's Eye, or Grace, Alias Grace, but she is not Zenia. She cannot be, really Margaret, consider your aptitude for research and the diligence with which you write your novels, you're an armchair necrophiliac, or something akin.
That's just my anonymous opinion. Robber Bride is interesting, because all of the women believe they're punished, but really, who is worse off? None of their men are loyal, or particularly loveable. Zenia, in my view, does well to remove them. But then there's the vengeance, it seems, for making such silly choices- the money, the chicken neck slitting (though she says she wasn't part of it). Is it revenge, for not being wise, or retribution for the future? For not appreciating that life would have been worse had those men stayed. And why would you want anyone back, always knowing that you were the worst? The men in the tale didn't love completely, but then, neither did the women, or they would realise that to love someone completely, you let them go off and pursue what they want. Which was Zenia.
I would like to select characteristics and formulate myself from those characters; I know Maggie A's probably doing something far more sophisticated with her Zenia identification.
I'd like to have Tony's dedication and general intelligence, her decisive nature, her ability. I'd like to have Zenia's control and power over everyone, and her capacity for expressing rage, and her perspicacity. And something of Roz. Nothing of Charis. In reality, I'm probably most like Roz. A depressing thought. And secretive, so a little like Zenia.
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