The Iron Heel

Avis is the wife of the revolutionist Ernest Everhard and the daughter of physicist Dr. John Cunningham. She fulfills the archetypes of wife, revolutionary, and convert and represents conviction, intelligence, fortitude, and subversion. As a dynamic character and first-person narrator, Avis begins the novel as a reader surrogate who is initiated into the world of politics through Ernest’s teachings. By the end of the novel, she transforms into a vital member of the socialist revolution and functions as the author surrogate. Avis takes the place of Ernest and espouses her own socialist beliefs with equal complexity and conviction. 

When the novel begins, Avis is framed within the traditional gender roles of wife and daughter. She describes her bourgeois upbringing and life of privilege in an insulated society. She meets Ernest for the first time when she is 24 years old and notes, “I was a creature of environment, and at that time had strong class instincts” (5). Accustomed to assessing people on their appearances and social status, Avis finds Ernest’s ill-fitting clothes and working-class background unimpressive. The setting of the family’s drawing room further emphasizes her elite status. As expected of her class, the young Avis also represents feminine propriety; when Ernest looks at her directly when they are introduced, she “c[an]not avoid dropping [her] eyes” (5).