In Victorian times, the female subject, as embodiment of domestic morality, contributed to the construction of middle-class ideology. In Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s novel Lucretia (1846), the female protagonist apparently incarnates the ideal Victorian heroine. Nonetheless, through her coming-of-age, Lucretia’s privileged mind and lack of affection lead her to pursue ambitious aims in a men’s world. Edgar Allan Poe also referred to the incipient power women began to achieve. This article aims to analyse in which ways Victorian women’s awakening power is demonised through their comingof- age, thus pursuing a transatlantic comparative analysis between Bulwer-Lytton’s Lucretia and Edgar Allan Poe’s women’s tales.