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Matthew Gregory Lewis�s The Monk is a quintessential novel within the Gothic genre. It relies on traditional male and female gender roles and then obscures and deconstructs those gender roles in order to facilitate the idea of horror. During this time period, a traditional female gender role would be filled by a passive, weak, subservient, and sexually reactive woman. Matthew Lewis revolutionizes Gothic literature by crafting powerful women characters that deviate from traditional female gender roles. Although readers often address gender in discussions of The Monk, the issue of how Lewis empowers women characters who exhibit traditionally masculine characteristics has not been fully dealt with. My analysis of Lewis�s gender defying characters focuses on three important women from the novel: Marguerite, the Bleeding Nun, and the primary villain, Matilda. Each of these characters plays a different role in The Monk, but they are similar in that they all achieve their ultimate goals by adopting traditionally masculine traits. It is showed how these women achieve their remarkably different goals by ignoring the societal constraints of their gender and leaving behind the traditional ideals of feminine virtue. By presenting female characters in The Monk who ultimately achieve their desires through traditionally masculine actions, Matthew Lewis creates a space for women characters to explore gender deviance within Gothic literature.