The femme fatale thrived in romance in the works of John Keats, particularly “The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy” and “Lamia.” With them, he wrote the Gothic novel The Monk with Mathilde, a very powerful femme fatale. This led her to appear in the work of Edgar Allan Poe and as a vampire, especially in Carmilla and Brides of Dracula. The monk was greatly admired by the Marquis de Sade, for whom the femme fatale symbolized not evil, but the best qualities of women; his novel Juliette is perhaps the first in which the femme fatale triumphs. Pre-Raphaelite painters often used the classical personifications of the femme fatale as a theme. The archetype of the femme fatale exists in the culture, folklore and myths of many cultures. [5] Ancient mythical or legendary examples include Inanna, Lilith, Circe, Medea, Clytemnestra, Lesbia, Tamamo no Mae and Visha Kanyas. Historical examples of the classical period are Cleopatra and Messaline as well as the biblical figures Delilah, Jezebel and Salome. [6] An example of Chinese literature and traditional history is Daji. The femme fatale was a frequent figure of the European Middle Ages and often depicted the dangers of unbridled female sexuality. The biblical figure Eve, inherited from the pre-Middle Ages, offers an example, as does the wicked and seductive witch played by Morgan le Fay. The Queen of the Night in Mozart`s The Magic Flute shows her more discreet presence in the Age of Enlightenment.

[7] The archetype is also abundant on American television. One of the most famous femme fatales on American television is Sherilyn Fenn`s Audrey Horne from David Lynch`s cult series Twin Peaks. In the television series Femme Fatales, actress Tanit Phoenix played Lilith, the presenter who introduced each episode in Rod Serling style and occasionally appeared in the narrative. In the Netflix TV series Orange Is the New Black, actress Laura Prepon played Alex Vause, a modern-day femme fatale who led men and women to its destruction. No film noir, crime film or detective novel is truly complete without the inclusion of a femme fatale. The always elusive and incredibly magnetic character of the femme fatale is an integral part of detective novels, especially noir detective novels. The name “femme fatale”, when translated directly from French, means “catastrophic or fatal woman”. And yet, while this is a pretty negative description for a character, the femme fatale has probably been a compelling part of history and literature for much longer than you can imagine. But what is the story of the femme fatale and how did she become such a standard trope of crime movies and books? A femme fatale asks for punishment if she kills her lover with the help of another lover. Among the well-known women who made this often fatal mistake were Marie Manning, Alice Arden, Katharine Nairn, Bathsheba Spooner, Ruth Snyder, Ann Bilansky, Ada LeBoeuf, Edith Thompson and countless lesser-known women such as Madame Lescombat and Grete Beier. Hiring thugs for work brought Anna Antonio from New York to the electric chair in 1934. As evil and fascinating as these legendary women have always been, the most frightening examples of the “fairer sex” are not found in ancient stories, but in jurisprudence.

Our collective legal history is full of larger-than-life women who have committed outrageous acts and whose beauty is the only explanation for the illogical outcome of their affairs. Traditionally, a femme fatale is a woman who uses her sexuality as a way to gain power over men, often destroying them in the process. According to this definition, many characters like these have appeared in stories, folklore and mythology throughout history. For example, even biblical characters such as Delilah, Jezebel, and Salome could be considered femme fatales. The spread of this type of character probably has a lot to do with the fear and mystery surrounding female sexuality in many cultures. According to a centuries-old lex non scripta, beauty alone is an affirmative defense against any criminal charge, even premeditated murder. An attractive woman, aware of her privilege, is dangerous for her lovers. We know their genre from legend, the Bible, fiction, real crime and cinema. For four hundred years, we called her a femme fatale. Some ancients believed that beautiful women are toxic, and the early stories of the femme fatales who live and kill among us describe them as literally toxic. The Greek philosopher Socrates is said to have warned that the kiss of a beauty is more deadly than the venom of a spider.

“What do you think you would suffer after kissing a beautiful person? Wouldn`t you immediately be a slave and not free?” asked Socrates. “I advise you. Whenever you see someone beautiful, run away without looking back. It goes without saying that a femme fatale needs a champion of forensic combat, a powerful defender who takes an oath for her phryne. More than a good argument, a virgin in legal distress needs good legal advice. Under the guidance of a lawyer who understands the intricacies of unwritten laws, a guilty woman, with special help, can make a joke about all legislative statements. The best defense lawyers are drawn to attractive killers, drawn to the prospect of a dramatic acquittal and all the glory that comes from bringing an avowed killer back to the streets to pose another threat to humanity. Of course, the lawyer is best served if she stays at a healthy emotional distance, as many have fallen in love with dangerous clients.

During the murder investigation against Countess Tarnowska, it was a prosecutor who ruined himself with his infatuation with her, and he was not the first lawyer to fall madly in love with the Countess. Something similar happened in the case of femme fatale Madalynne Obenchain. It probably happened to countless other prosecutors and defense lawyers who could hide it better than she could. A femme fatale (/ˌfɛm fəˈtæl/ or /ˌfɛm fəˈtɑːl/; English: [fam fatal]), sometimes called Maneater[1] or Vamp, is a standard figure of a mysterious, beautiful and seductive woman whose charms trap her lovers and often lead them into compromising and deadly traps. It is an archetype of literature and art. His ability to enchant, seduce and hypnotize his victim with a spell was considered supernatural in early stories; Therefore, the femme fatale is still often described today as a power that resembles a witch, a seductress, a witch and has power over men. Femme fatales are usually rogue or at least morally ambiguous and always associated with a sense of mystification and discomfort. [2] The femme fatale has continued to this day, in films such as Body Heat (1981) and Prizzi`s Honor (1985) – both with Kathleen Turner, Blade Runner (1982) with Sean Young, Blue Velvet (1986) with Isabella Rossellini, Fatal Attraction (1987) with Glenn Close, The Witches with Anjelica Huston, Basic Instinct (1992) with Sharon Stone, Damage (1992) with Juliette Binoche, The Last Seduction (1994) with Linda Fiorentino, To Die For (1995) with Nicole Kidman, Lost Highway (1997) with Patricia Arquette, Devil in the Flesh (1998) and Jawbreaker (1999), both with Rose McGowan, Original Sin (2001) with Angelina Jolie, Femme Fatale (2002) with Rebecca Romijn and Jennifer`s Body (2009) with Megan Fox. In 2013, Tania Raymonde played the title role in Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret. In 2014, Eva Green played a femme fatale in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and Rosamund Pike starred in Gone Girl.