To be hypersexual as a man is the norm, to do so as a women is crime. The standards for both genders have gradually changed overtime, subtly alleviating the more extreme ones while at the same time continuing the tradition of others. Beasts by Joyce Carol Oates evaluates these conditions in the American sixties under the lens of a female. Gillian, a teen of seventeen in her academic lifestyle at Catamount College, soon finds that she is attracted to her professor, Mr. Harrow, a situation that leads to her being taken advantage of. Throughout the course of the plot, fires are mysteriously started and culminate with the fire Gillian starts to kill Mr. Harrow and his wife in order to avenge their diluted relationship.The critical essay “Oates’s …show more content…
After hearing a siren go off, Cassie, one of the Catamount girls rushes to the scene of a fire realizing that it is the house of their friend Marisa. In this moment, Cassie among with the other girls, realize that Marisa was trying to commit suicide, and they suspect that she had been used by Harrows in a pornographical magazine. Cassie shows her fear for the future of her friend, “...Catamount firemen had been summoned and would arrive within minutes. “To save Marisa’s life”. Cassie said, “Yes. I guess. What’s left of Marisa’s life.””(Oates 89). At this point, even rescue from a near death experience will not be enough to save the girl who once lived. All hope of a sane life is lost for Marisa after her realization that she was was being exploited in her relationship with the Harrows. As a girl in Mr. Harrow’s poetry class, Marisa was fueled by her passions to pursue a sexual relationship with Mr. Harrow. Having not rationalized the possibility that the relationship could be threatening, Marisa lead to her own downfall by failing to set her boundaries. Being young and innocent, it is often that women learn through experience that uncapped sexualism can have repercussions. In this way, the girls at Catamount college became victims due to their sexual vulnerabilities. The criticism “Oates Beasts” explores these sexual vulnerabilities, “...the girls never discuss or reveal the common secret that both fascinates and frightens them, lest they incur the wrath of the Harrows”(Chatterjee 226). By following their sexual passion for the Harrows’, it became a competition between the girls to obtain their love. Failing to communicate the abusive relationships, the silence created a cycle for the girls to ultimately become victimized. Chatterjee fails to mention the idea of boundaries in her interpretation of sexual vulnerability which is instead based on the idea of socially