The "Modern Woman" and Her Irrationality

In The Type-Writer Girl, Grant Allen assumes not only a female voice for narration but a female persona for author as well. Instead of a man writing as a woman, Allen presents the novel as a woman writing as a woman. Since the protagonist’s concerns are those of what the Introduction calls “Modern Woman” –financial independence, freedom from male-oriented social constraints, et al. – it would be hard to accept as genuine if attributed to a man: the author would be emasculating himself.

Through the use of a female pseudonym Allen is able to skirt this problem for the most part, but his true identity, at points, shines through. The natural equality of the sexes that Juliet purports to believe in is contradicted by her own actions. When she goes to the auction house she bids on a piece of art even though she has no money to her name simply because she “could not bear to think that that coarse-looking dealer with the vulgar laugh” should own her favorite piece (72). From there, she is quickly overcome by her emotions – “I could no longer contain myself…. With an effort I gasped out”(72).

She has now, through her impetuousness, put herself in an irreconcilable position. Thank God, then, for “the young man with the sweet voice” who approaches her and offers to buy the Fra Angelico from her – and for more than she bid in the first place (73). The “Modern Woman” was saved from her irrational behavior by the benevolent and levelheaded male.