This essay explores how the novel The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell depicts and criticises behaviours derived from deeply rooted patriarchal ideologies, traditional gender roles and sexist oppression. It aims to determine whether the novel encourages feminist values by examining the three main characters, Kitty, Esme and Iris, and how they relate to each other as well as to patriarchal structures and sexist oppression. Using feminist theory, the essay discusses what behaviours depicted in the novel are harmful towards or among women and what behaviours should be, and are, encouraged to strengthen sisterhood. It also discusses how the novel demonstrates how destructive patriarchy has been towards women through history and how acknowledging sexist and patriarchal structures can improve understanding of and solidarity between women. Essential findings include how Kitty assists in the oppression of her own sister in favour of patriarchy, and that the granddaughter Iris represents a liberated woman exhibiting positive solidary acts that reinforce feminist values. The essay concludes that O’Farrell’s The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox is a feminist novel that depicts what is at cause when women harm other women and provides hope to its readers that change is in process.

In this essay, I illustrate how the third-person present tense narrative perspective can be used as stylistic allusion to theatre, by studying Maggie O’Farrell 2020 historical fiction novel Hamnet. Previous studies conclude that present-tense narration has the effect of blurring the lines between narration and experience. However, while a first-person perspective lets the reader enter the consciousness of an experiencing “I”, the third-person perspective, although inhabiting the same spatiotemporal level as the characters, maintains an outside perspective, observing the events as they unfold. Conclusively, as the study will show, third-person present tense narration has the potential to function as stylistic allusion to theatre as it seemingly challenges reader perception, letting the reader into the experiencing level of the story, assuming the role of the observer, thus mimicking the experience of watching a stage performance at a theatre.