The female counterpart of Don Juan sometimes adds the twist of killing her conquest as an expression of her ability to dominate, thereby reversing the conventional sexual stereotypes. As with Don Juan, the Femme Fatale represents highly refined skills at manipulating men without investing personal emotion. The Femme Fatale is both sexual and a financial archetype and either comes from or is drawn to money and power. Seducing men with money and power and for the sake of personal control and survival is a classic part of this archetype, although the Femme Fatale is no looking of r a home in the suburbs and the pleasures of family life.As with the Don Juan archetype, the positive aspect of this pattern is the opening of the heart, which often occurs when the male object reflects the manipulations and dependency of the Femme Fatale, as Rhett Butler rejects Scarlett O’Hara at the end of Gone with the Wind.
Film Reference: Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity
Film Reference: Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity