Hunters of Girls

Although the rakish hero is a stock prototype in theromantic novel he is usually in the background: theplot is dominated by the heroine whom he pursues; shemonopolizes the attention of readers and invites themto identify with her. However the sexuallypredatory male character is more than just a handsomeplace-filler: he represents a reflection of what theheroine secretly aspires to - in the terms of KarenHorney her idealized image. By recognizing thedestructiveness of this image and rejecting it for aless rebellious and more self-effacing idealizedimage the heroine can complete her education thekey enterprise of the coming-of-age novel. This makesthe male sexual predator vital to the plot since hemakes the education and vindication patterns of thenovels possible. Ay?egül Kuglin's study on JaneAusten's Sense and Sensibility Charlotte Brontë'sJane Eyre Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Halland Elisabeth Gaskell's Ruth and Mary Barton basedon the psychoanalytical theory of Karen Horney andthe reader-response theory of Wolfgang Iser shedslight on the role of an easily underestimatedcharacter type in nineteenth-century novel.