Help me think of a happily single (female) fictional character?

[HuckingFellHire]

I can't think of one? 🤔

Another Chalet School one - Lucia Gordon, Katharine Gordon's 'Aunt Luce'. An independent woman with a successful career.

Clarice Starling.

Mary Poppins?

Charlie Cale from Poker Face.

Faith from Buffy

Smilla in 'Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow'.
There's also another character in the book who's name I can't remember who was quite a senior administrative person in the cryolite corporation and seems to lead a wonderful calm, ordered life.

And many of the Cranford ladies.

Saga Noren from “the bridge”

Yennifer in the Witcher.

Anne Shirley happily living her life, fulfilling her dreams then gets married to Gilbert Blythe - she takes her time until she's ready

Dana Scully for most of the X Files.

Can't BELIEVE none has said Eleanor oliphant. Who is COMPLETELY fine

Any matey in the chalet school books.

@IfeellikeaJoan I like your buffy reference. as i recall, neither buffy nor willow nor cordiala went down the aisle...

It’s like with childfree women - there are the ones who are happily single & then get married / partnered, like Emma Woodhouse or Anne Shirley, and then there are the ones who stay happily single.

Detective novels often feature strong women sleuths, especially when written by women.

My favourite is Cordelia Gray from P D James's 'An Unsuitable Job for a Woman' - I always think of her as the model for Robin in the Strike novels, except there is no Strike character for the 'will they/won't they' frisson.

@LaMarschallin You're right that McGonagall being a widow isn't in the books, so you don't have to accept it as canon if you don't want to. (I don't! I imagine her as always having been single.) Rowling wrote McGonagall's life story online here, where she mentions not only her marriage but also her Muggle first lover: https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/professor-mcgonagall

In Greek mythology, the goddesses Athena, Artemis and Hestia are all single. There are also other single minor characters like Daphne (nymph) and Penthesilea (Amazon warrior).

@HelenaRavenclaw

Many thanks, Helena, I've never come across that site before.
Gosh! That's a lot of new information to take in - here I go:

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^^ Me falling down the rabbit hole

Sonia in War and Peace. I like her better than Natasha who turns bovine and tedious in the Epilogue.

@LaMarschallin
Yes you can read all of Rowling's supplementary writings here: https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling

Frankly speaking, while I find some of them entertaining, I do wish she hadn't filled in details and backstories on nearly everything/everyone. As a reader, I like being able to fill in the gaps with my own imagination and enjoy wondering about unspecified things! I don't like the Tolkien-like encyclopaedic detail overload where the author is simply showing off and not contributing to the main story.

Mary Richards.

Kay Scarpetta is the main character in the Judy Cornwall books.

Hilary Green in the books by Faith Martin.

Connie Sachs in 2 of the 3 Karla Trilogy. – not a main character but I bloody love her.

by book 3 she’s shacked up and madly in love with a younger woman.

Think all the ones that immediately came to my mind have already been said -
Elsa (Frozen)
Vera Stanhope
Ariadne Oliver
Miss Marple

Julie from the 2021 film The Worst Person in the World is THE most positive single female role model I've recently seen. I saw it with my then DD15 who thought the same: