Femininity and the Female Protagonist

In my Gothic Horror class, we have discussed how there is a slight change from the male to female protagonist in some more modern films.  For example in Rebecca directed by Alfred Hitchcock, also in The Innocents by Jack Clayton, and in Northanger Abbey by Jon Jones.  All three of these films have a woman as the main protagonist.  In my previous post, I discussed the male dominance in many gothic horror films.  This dominance is part of the major discussion in seeing if gothic horror can stay a gothic horror with a female as a protagonist.  In the article that we read for class, "At Last I Can Tell It to Someone!: Feminine Point of View and Subjectivity in the Gothic," it focuses on the gothic romances.  This right here is an example as to why a gothic horror automatically changes as soon as the female becomes the protagonist.  The woman, in film, is known to be a weaker character.  This only can change if the woman is shown as having masculine tendencies and features.

In the article stated above, it says "the central feature of the Gothic is ambiguity, the hesitation between two possible interpretations of events by the protagonist... Yet in Gothic this hesitation is experienced by a character who is female."  Which shows that the female character in gothic films always has a sense of hesitation which in turn makes them a weaker character.  Most protagonists in gothic films, are dominant and have a patriarchial role.  It is harder for females to take on this role, because woman, in film, do not usually dominate over men.  They are the weaker of the two, and because of their "hesitation" and fears, it always makes them look more of a victim than a "villain" so to speak.