The Sickly Female Body in Edvard Munch's The Dance of Life (1899-1900)

Abstract

In interpretations of The Dance of Life (1899-1900) by Edvard Munch, the femme fragile and the femme fatale have been considered jointly (i.e. as allusions to the cyclicality of life) or as individuals. Their unique characteristics have been recognized as such: whereas the femme fragile dons white to signify her prepubescent state and thus her innocence, the femme fatale wears red to suggest her sexuality and even her availability. Yet, scholars have failed to probe their iconographical complexities. Doing so would not only lend greater conviction to Munch’s historical identity as a Symbolist (as his archetypes would be recognized for their multivalence), but it would also reveal the didactic possibilities of the work of art itself. Given this void in the literature, the purpose of this thesis will be to elaborate on the formal and narrative qualities of the femme fragile and femme fatale in this painting. These archetypes ultimately allude to misogynistic anxieties, with the femme fragile in particular representing the sickly female body.