Marked by the growth of the British Empire, the extension of suffrage and scientific advances, the Victorian period is characterized as a period of social and political change. These advances and reforms have proven influential in encouraging debate about societal roles that previously took place unchallenged. This era resolved to determine the nature and proper role of women in British society; or, to use the expression favored by the Victorians, to resolve “the woman question”. A number of prominent writers have used their texts to explore this question, including H. Rider Haggard in his novel She. Throughout this novel, Haggard positions the female personality as someone who is uneducated and should be distrusted. When women, occupying important or minor roles, claim their social or sexual independence in She, they are condemned for their choices and pay the consequences with their lives. For Haggard, the answer to “The Woman's Question” is simple: there is no place for the independent woman. The task of excluding female perspectives from her is evident from the first pages of the text. Although Haggard's use of a frame narrative is not uncommon – it can be seen in texts such as Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness – the emphasis on establishing this play as a credible account of the story is significant. Considerable effort is made by the narrators to ensure that this play is not approached as a novel, but as an autobiographical narrative. In the first paragraph of the text's introduction, the editor describes this story as an "extraordinary story" (11), then states that it "seems to bear the seal of truth on its face" (14). Not only are readers immediately exposed to the editor's point of view, but they also quickly see Holly's. I...... middle of paper ...... lively and good, Ayesha as powerful and mysterious, a woman who has unlocked the secrets of nature. Yet in the misogynistic universe of She, powerful women are only an illusion, the power belongs to men. Any attempt to gain this power is futile and will only lead to death. As John Ruskin states, "Man...must face all perils and trials...he protects woman from all these...unless she has sought him herself, he need not run no danger, no temptation, no cause for error or offense. » (par. 3) By failing to heed the warnings given by individuals such as Ruskin, the New Woman enters a frightening and changing sphere. As she demonstrates, once a female character escapes a man's protection, neither goodness nor immortality will save an independent woman from her fate. In Haggard's vision of Victorian England, there is no role for the independent woman..