In Light in August, each female character introduced by William Faulkner is negatively portrayed. Faulkner presents the women as either married and connected to men, or unconnected with unruly independence. The women who are in relationships lack feminine qualities. Both Mrs. Armstid and Mrs. Hines are controlling and dominant wives without a trace of sexual appeal. Mrs. McEachern, who is also ugly and unfeminine, is dissimilarly submissive and secretive. Lena Grove, however, is an unmarried pregnant woman who is completely dependent on men. Bobbie, a prostitute, is both submissive and independent at the same time, but she is ugly and also unfeminine. Finally, Ms. Joanna Burden is an older woman whose affair with Joe Christmas brings her through each of these stages: first she is independent and somewhat masculine, then she becomes sexual and secretive, and finally she is made unfeminine again through her old age. The women...