The first is the tale of how James Hawke lost his arm and Esther pushed herself into a position of power. Obviously being a Victorian era woman, Esther would not normally have such freedoms. Many of the other characters dismiss her for this alone. When she first meets Bryan in "The Knocking Below", he assumes she is a client and that the E. Doyle on his father's note must be a man. Some of the earlier stories show Esther on her own in Europe but her gender causes struggles there as well. This is actually one of the main reasons why she stopped freelancing and applied for the position with the Hawkes. As the assistant to a more liberal hunter, she finds herself having to explain her presence less. On the other hand, that means many people over look her in favor of speaking with either James or Bryan. In this story, she has no one to stand up for her. While Constable Riley Cooper is her friend, he can do little to help. So here, Esther has to prove to everyone in London she is fully capable of doing the job. And of course she is!
Originally, I had Esther completely on her own solving this case. Riley's role has slightly grown, but he doesn't really do any of the heaving lifting. As much as I love him, this isn't his story. It's Esther struggling with finding a way to keep the future she wants in a world where she's told her future has already been determined.
A lot of my inspiration for her comes from the Agent Carter series that was on ABC several months ago. While Peggy is a superior agent, she is stuck taking lunch orders and filing paperwork. This isn't a struggle that only select women are confined to in select time periods. It's all over the world and it's happening right now. I can only hope that my writing has similar effects to the ones Agent Carter had. Also, I hope Agent Carter gets renewed for season two. The world needs more stories of incredible women.
No comments:
Post a Comment