Heroic fantasies are most often structured around the hero's or heroine's quest. This frequently turns out to be a quest for identity, although the hero or heroine usually does not realize this at first. "The journey of the upper-class white male is identified as the generic type for the normal human condition; and other members of society - racial minorities, the poor and women - are seen as secondary characters (Pearson 4)." "In the traditional, the quest hero is assumed to be a male who is separated from his known world, is initiated into a new consciousness, and then returns to his community (Russell 197)." However, when the hero of a story is a woman, her quest is essentially different from the male pattern. This was especially true in the second half of the nineteenth century. At that time, males were dominant over females and social conventions reinforced the submissive...