Gender Stereotypes In Stephen King's Misery

Misery: Challenging Gender Stereotype Misery is the most thematically satisfying of all Stephen King’s novels. The theme this paper will explore further is that of King’s disturbing interpretation of gender roles. Gender stereotypes are what is thought of as societal norms dictating types of behaviour based on whether a person is a male or female. In popular literature gender stereotypes often see women as good, pure and innocent, whereas men are seen as strong and at times the evil beings, most often being the villain. King implies in Misery that having or taking control of others is a woman’s quality while weakness and passiveness is a man’s quality, therefore challenging the way in which the reader can related to its characters.

King uses these descriptions but challenges them with the female character of Annie Wilkes, even down to the description of lumpy and “…seemed to have no feminine curves at all…” (p.7). Annie is a recluse, living far away from town on a farm, where she spends her days “feeding the animals, cleaning the stalls…” (p.24). Dirty jobs that are usually associated with men’s work. She appears throughout the novel to not only have the strength: “it was a struggle getting you to the truck, but I’m a big woman…” (p.14), but the aggressiveness seen by Paul as “she stabled him with it half a dozen times” (p.242) and felt by Paul when “she rushed across the room at him, thick legs pumping…it was like to tread of Goliath striding into the Valley of Bones” and “brought her fist down on the bunched salt-dome that had been Paul Sheldon’s left knee” (p.69). King characterizes Annie as cunning, brutal and devious, with a paranoid and obsessive mind, who often has moments of mental health breakdowns and violent mood swings. This is seen when she spills the soup and blames Paul for making her do it, then throwing the bowl against the wall. Annie, continues her anger towards Paul by making him drink the water from the wash bucket in order to take the medication she provides

The final girl appears in most popular horror novels and films, has given power to many generations of women. She is often seen as the last woman standing, the sole survivor and the damsel in distress. The final girl is often chased or tortured but is a feisty character who gets the final battle with the villain. Does this sound like anyone? King has made Paul the new version of the final girl. As we’ve already covered, Paul was tortured by Annie throughout the novel, and although initially had no way to protect himself, he was secretly lifting his typewriter “…like some weird barbell…” (p.217) to gain physical strength. While “…another part of him, more calculating and less cowed, which reminded him that he could not play the part of Scheherazade if he grew frightened and placatory when ever she stormed” (p.64), reminding him to keep his mind strong. Paul did make an attempt to get help when he saw the Police car in Annie’s driveway by throwing an ashtray out the window, where King provided perfect imagery of Paul as the damsel in distress. And although further tortured for his actions, he keep “…thinking: I’m going to kill her” (p.44). In the end, as with most final girls, Paul believes himself to be victorious when he uses the very method to kill Annie that she used to kill the novel Fast Cars. Paul was able to control his pain, driven by what can only be described as