My purpose with this essay is to show how the main charachter Elaine in Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye circumvents the patriarchal monologue by gradually developing a visionary sight as an artist. In her paintings she finds a way of communicating with the female world. Due to this she is able to reconstruckt her troublesome relationship with Cordelia, her best friend and the one she is modeling herself on. As a middle-aged woman she finally understands why Cordelia treated her so badly. She realises that the pain she suffered from, was indeed a pain shared by all females in a patriarchal culture, because women exist in a monologic world where language is given to them by the paternal culture. At the end, Elaine is able to develop a dialogue with her female other.

My purpose with this essay is to show how the main charachter Elaine in Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye circumvents the patriarchal monologue by gradually developing a visionary sight as an artist. In her paintings she finds a way of communicating with the female world. Due to this she is able to reconstruckt her troublesome relationship with Cordelia, her best friend and the one she is modeling herself on. As a middle-aged woman she finally understands why Cordelia treated her so badly. She realises that the pain she suffered from, was indeed a pain shared by all females in a patriarchal culture, because women exist in a monologic world where language is given to them by the paternal culture. At the end, Elaine is able to develop a dialogue with her female other.