The Unicorn - Feminist

In The Unicorn, men are represented as naturally dominant. Backhaus is shown to have a controlling and persistent personality, demanding ‘Say you’ll come!’, rather than asking. His default assumption of her virginity also shows his dominance. The way Backhaus takes charge and runs the search for the unicorn, with a team of assumed male ‘natives’, also demonstrates the standard male dominance, even for those who are weird and a bit eccentric.

The Unicorn does question traditional gender roles and social structures, as the protagonist is not ‘virgo intacta’, single and alone drinking in a bar while she ‘staved off a brief respite in a meshing of the flesh’. The protagonist was the one to leave her husband, when men generally left the relationships, but also the fact that she was the one to leave because, ‘it wasn’t his fault, I was too bitchy,’ questions gender roles through the uncommon relationship dynamic. The fact that after the hunt for the unicorn was over and she went home but not back to her husband challenges the social structure that a woman requires a husband to live. She (protagonist) was also open and so cavalier to ‘admitting’ to be a virgin, when it was and is looked down upon to be an older woman and still intact and pure.

Stivens portrayed women as independent and powerful, through having her (protagonist) in control of the situation whilst first talking to Backhaus, ‘I hadn’t wanted to drink with him at first … For laughs, I suppose,’ and through her leading him along. When she was being charged at by the Unicorn, and being yelled at by Backhaus to run she still had control of herself and her actions, even if she didn’t speak up about her disagreeing with the cage. Stivens had her as alone in a bar, but comfortable with her situation, even though she felt uneasy about talking to Backhaus at first, she had the power to walk away.

The one female character that was in this story didn’t accept or resist her places in family and society. While she was the one to leave her husband, she also didn’t stand up to Backhaus when he insisted she went on the unicorn hunt, she rather sat on the fence, ‘And I don’t know why I agreed to go on his unicorn hunt.’ The protagonist more resists social roles rather than accept them, which Stivens illustrated through ‘I went back to London. Not to my husband – I wasn’t as magnanimous as the unicorn’, defying societal marriage roles.

The Unicorn doesn’t silence the voices of women by telling predominantly the experiences of men. Even though it was written by a man, the story accurately follows the female protagonist’s thoughts, feelings and journey, even though the journey was accompanied by men exclusively. Stivens successfully and accurately made the female character the main focal point, even in a story full of men. Though it could be said that Stivens did silence the voices of women by having the protagonist follow Backhaus, it is more plausible to agree that it is not the case.