Shifting Identities in Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve

Abstract

The major thrust of this research is to expose the complexity of shifting identities in The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter. In the novel The Passion of New Eve through the representation of Evelyn’s metamorphosis from a culturally constructed powerful male to a female suffering from gender anxiety and identity crisis. Angela Carter reveals the various cultural and social myths and images which limit and control the social outlook concerning sex and gender related issues. The narrative follows the protagonist, Evelyn on his journey through two binary oppositions: that of male and female. Subject and object, in term of gender and sex, get reversed as Evelyn experiences a transformation from being a misogynistic powerful male, into powerless oppressed female Eve. On his journey he meets various colorful characters who have some bearing on his metamorphosis, and via these characters, the author examine the identity modification that Evelyn undergoes and the gender anxiety that he suffers the result.

This research mainly deals with the complexity of shifting identities of Evelyn and Tristessa. With many references from critics and quotes from the text, this research claims that there is complexity of shifting identities between the characters. Their differences in gender brought themselves in the state of suffering. The research paper demonstrates how the characters face the problem in different gender forms. Evelyn/Eve and Tristessa s/he has been completely disillusioned by different types of prejudice on both sides of the gender spectrum.