Women and the Single Woman Phobia in Louise O’Neill’s Only Ever Yours and After the Silence

Résumé

This study aims to analyse the stigmatisation of female singleness in Louise O’Neill’s Only Ever Yours (2014) and After the Silence (2020). While previous studies have investigated O’Neill’s critique of aesthetic pressure and sexual violence, little attention has been paid to her engagement with the spinster stereotype—a recurrent theme in Irish women’s fiction and an enduring social phenomenon in Western cultures. This analysis is carried out through the application of Anthea Taylor’s theory of postfeminist spinster phobia. The findings show that O’Neill continues a subversive tradition that challenges the societal disparagement of the single woman. While her use of anachronistic settings highlights the persistence of spinster phobia in contemporary Ireland, her characterisation challenges the idealisation of marriage and reframes singleness as a site of resistance and agency.