A few people have said they want to read the thesis I completed last year so I figured I'd put the theory part up here. I haven't formatted it properly for the blog because then I might accidentally read some of it which would be horrifying.
If anyone is interested in reading the creative half, hmu and I can email it to you.
A WOMAN’S WEAPONS: EXAMINING
FEMININITY AS STRENGTH IN POPULAR MEDIEVAL FANTASY FICTION
ABSTRACT
The
purpose of this thesis is to prove that feminine traits can be a source of
strength for female characters in medieval high fantasy fiction. This thesis
examines how femininity and power are constructed in fantasy and history, and
how the two have been connected in the work of fantasy authors. By analysing
examples of female characters from the fantasy genre, I explore how feminine
power can work within existing, male-dominated power structures without having
to compromise the qualities that make it feminine. Ultimately this thesis shows
that there are forms of power available to fantasy characters outside of
‘masculine’ definitions of power.
Following
a bridging document that introduces the creative component of this thesis, a
novella titled A Tower for the Queen,
I then write a character who conforms to ‘feminine’ expectations while
maintaining agency and strength. This work will further disrupt traditional
concepts of femininity within fantasy.
INTRODUCTION: RECOGNISING FEMALE
POWER IN MEDIEVAL FANTASY FICTION
In the introduction to The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir poses a set of questions:
How can a human being in a
woman’s situation attain fulfilment? What roads are open to her? Which are
blocked? How can independence be recovered in a state of dependency? What
circumstances limit woman’s liberty and how can they be overcome? (29)
In this thesis I shall seek to answer these questions
as they apply to female characters in fantasy fiction. This thesis argues that
feminine traits can be a source of strength for female characters. It examines
how femininity and power are constructed in fantasy and history, and how the
two have been connected in the work of fantasy authors. By analysing examples of
female characters from the fantasy genre, I explore how feminine power can work
within existing, male-dominated power structures without having to compromise
the qualities that make it feminine. Ultimately this thesis aims to show that
there are forms of power available to fantasy characters outside of ‘masculine’
definitions of power.
I shall first examine historical definitions of
femininity both in history and in fantasy literature that I shall then seek to apply
to fictional characters. This will reveal commonalities both in terms of a
character’s personality and in their common influences on fantasy plots. I
follow this with a dissection of masculine power structures and how women can
enact traditional hero narratives. Through examining female characters in A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR
Martin, The Lord of the Rings by JRR
Tolkien and especially The Bitterbynde
Trilogy by Cecilia Dart-Thornton, I then show how characters who are
overlooked by their peers because they are feminine are actually powerful and
significant within the texts. Through examining how a female character can be a
strong figure without needing to conform to masculine definitions of power. I
shall finally show that female characters in fantasy can be feminist as well.
Following a bridging document that introduces the creative
component of this thesis, a novella titled A
Tower for the Queen, I then write a character who conforms to ‘feminine’
expectations while maintaining agency and strength. This work will further
disrupt traditional concepts of femininity within fantasy.
CHAPTER ONE: DEFINING THE FEMININE
In this chapter I will introduce some historical
perspectives on femininity and power in order to define characteristics of a
strong feminine female character. I shall explore concepts of femininity from
the medieval period – as defined by modern theorists – as well as more
contemporary feminist thought. I will then look at how female identity is
conceived of by theorists and historians as being made up of a number of
layers. The characteristics uncovered in this chapter will be used to analyse
female characters in popular fantasy texts. In combining these theorists, it
will be possible to identify historical concepts of femininity and of realms
and means of power that are specific to women.
Building the Model for Traditional
Femininity: Historical Feminist Approaches
The examples of medieval fantasy fiction which I shall
be analysing in my second and third chapters take place in societies analogous
to European society in the medieval period. This means that in order to
understand how women in fantasy fiction may attain and wield power, it is
helpful to develop an understanding of how female power may have been conceived
of at this point in time. Contemporary perspectives of femininity put forward
the idea that women are and have always been able to wield power from within
patriarchal structures. Karen Glente and Lisa Winther-Jensen argue in their
introduction to Female Power in the
Middle Ages that due to ‘their very presence’ and status as ‘objects of
power’, women are involved in power (18). Women contribute to shaping and
maintaining power (Glente and Winther-Jensen 18). Female power in the Middle
Ages operated primarily on a local level, in particular within the home. Glente
and Winther-Jensen identify what they term ‘an “own” power of women’, which
they say was ‘exercised vertically in the family and horizontally in the
village’ (18). This is one of three ways the authors identify for women to
wield power in the Middle Ages. The other two ways are both indirect, either as
substitutes for men or ‘in influencing male use of power’ (18). In other words,
according to Glente and Winther-Jensen, women are able to exercise power both
within masculine spheres and from the traditionally feminine sphere of the
home. Even as objects, women are not powerless.
Yet fantasy and science fiction author Ursula Le Guin
argues in her essay “Is Gender Necessary?” that if there is a principle which
defines the female, it is ‘basically anarchic’ (Le Guin 163). Power structures
are built and enforced by the male, whereas the female principle ‘values order
without constraint, rule by custom not by force’ (163). She identifies (non-fictional)
‘female’ traits as ‘the valuing of patience, ripeness, practicality,
livableness’ (164-165). Whereas Glente and Winther-Jensen seek to explore to
role of the feminine in a specific historical period, Le Guin explores
contemporary concepts of femininity and applies them to science fiction and
fantasy. Like Glente and Winther-Jensen, Le Guin also identifies the family –
and by extension the home – as the primary realm of women (164). In other
words, all three theorists are positing theories in which feminine traits can
be viewed as positive in the context of a medieval society, with the potential
to provide female power and agency.
By contrast, in her introduction to The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
argues that woman in history and society ‘represents only the negative, defined
by limiting criteria, without reciprocity’ (15). For de Beauvoir, she (woman)
is defined only in relation to the male and ‘is not regarded as an autonomous
being’ (16). Woman is both object and Other (21). De Beauvoir identifies a
certain level of advantage that can be derived from woman’s status as Other,
both in ‘material protection’ and ‘the moral justification of her existence’
(21). Women who allow men to make them the Other can ‘evade at once both
economic risk and the metaphysical risk of a liberty in which ends and aims
must be contrived without assistance’ (21). This implies a way by which women
can make patriarchal systems work to their advantage by providing them with
security and freedom from personal responsibility. While de Beauvoir condemns
the loss of self that must necessarily come with surrendering to status as an
object, she nevertheless implies that the existence of systems in which women
are othered might be used to the advantage of those women. By extension, women
who choose to symbolically surrender to ‘object’ status could theoretically
exploit and manipulate patriarchal systems. While Le Guin, Glente and
Winther-Jensen all argue for active forms of female power, de Beauvoir’s theory
of surrender to objecthood is an example of how passivity can be a form of
power through freedom from responsibility. Each of these views show ways in
which women might potentially have power in a medieval setting and perhaps by
extension show a model by which women may have power in a fantasy setting which
mirrors medieval structures. They demonstrate how women at different levels of
social standing could find ways to attain fulfilment.
Progressing from women in history to women as fictional
characters, it is important to understand what is meant by ‘feminine traits’. de
Beauvoir identifies feminine traits primarily in the negative; she argues that
the desired traits of an ideally feminine woman include submissiveness,
frivolity, irresponsibility and infantilism (24). For de Beauvoir, the grace
and charm of the feminine woman come at the expense of her spontaneity and
assertiveness; self-control is necessitated by social restrictions and not an
intrinsic trait (358-59). De Beauvoir addresses notions of women’s weakness,
instability and fragility, coupling them with her physical weakness to mean her
internal life is ‘more restricted’ and ‘less rich than a man’s’ (66). However,
she also argues that weakness and biological determinism are flawed concepts in
themselves. Rather than the body presenting traits which are essential and
self-evident, it is instead subject to layers of projection, both from society
and the individual (68-69). The implication from weakness being a flawed
concept is that physical prowess is not the only factor in determining
strength. This suggests that ‘masculine’ definitions of strength are also
flawed, and that in order to find strength in femininity, we must hold both
concepts in question. Hero narratives which focus on male heroes performing
feats of physical strength in order to prove themselves can be redefined with
the introduction of broader concepts of power. While women in the real world
may restrict their natural behaviour for the sake of social restrictions,
fiction has the potential to present women with a broader concept of female
potential while still conforming to historically understood social structures.
Significantly for an analysis of fantasy fiction, femininity
is defined not only by behavioural traits but also aesthetic means of gender
expression. This can include ‘false and dyed hair, make-up and coloured
clothes’ (Tseëlon 35). This, too, is an area in which women are able to wield
influence while still working within patriarchal confines. According to
Marianne Thesander in her work The
Feminine Ideal, ‘women contribute in various ways to producing female
images themselves, both by adjustment to the ideal and by opposition to it’
(1). Thesander argues that self-expression through physical presentation is a
signifier of how a society or period of time views women and ‘the way in which
women themselves understand their position in society and their ability to
influence this position’ (11). However, according to Tseëlon, aesthetic
expressions of femininity are predominantly socially viewed as ‘inauthentic’,
not naturally produced but rather ‘external to the self’ (34). If feminine
aesthetics are assumed to be artificial, this provides a means for women to
transcend boundaries without rejecting the self. This means female characters
in fantasy can use any number of aesthetic means of disguise without impeding
their discovery or maintenance of their true selves.
These identities intersect to provide complex forms of
identity. According to Tseëlon, psychoanalytic approaches to femininity present
it as a masquerade, something without its own intrinsic essence (93). Theology
also sees femininity as ‘fake’ and ‘duplicitous’ (Tseëlon 34). While there is
the question of the ‘female essence’, aesthetic manifestations of femininity,
or the ‘appearance of femininity’, are constructed as ‘external to the self’ (Tseëlon
34). In order to appease men, the feminine woman may use a ‘disguise’ of
desirability (Tseëlon 37). This links back to the notion that femininity is aesthetic
in nature and expression. If aesthetic and desirable femininity is a
duplicitous layer on top of a female essence, then femininity can be seen as a
tool for navigating the world and not as a set of inherent female traits. This
means that female characters that are feminine are not defined by their
femininity. They are not required by inherent femininity to navigate all
situations and scenarios in the same way but can instead adapt the tool of
femininity to their advantage as required. This suggests that when feminine
characters are required to enact ‘masculine’ narratives they are able to
navigate those narratives differently to traditionally masculine heroes. In the
following chapter I will define hero narratives and male concepts of strength
and look at how female characters are able to navigate them.
As illustrated in the definitions provided by de
Beauvoir, Glente and Winther-Jensen, Thessander and Tseëlon, identity, perhaps
particularly feminine identity, cannot be determined by a single factor. Indeed,
it is made of many layers inclusive of but not exclusive to gender, race, class
and sexuality.
CHAPTER TWO: DEFINING MASCULINE
STRENGTH AND THE HERO’S JOURNEY
In this chapter I will define the hero’s journey as it
relates to female characters. I will first explore definitions of masculine
power, both structurally and on the level of the individual. This will be
contrasted to the concepts of female power outlined in the first chapter. I
will then illustrate how feminine female characters are able to adapt female
power to masculine narratives. I will then seek to build an understanding of
how women can embody traditional hero narratives, with an emphasis on the bildungsroman or coming-of-age structure,
focusing on the character of Ashalind from The
Bitterbynde Trilogy. Through explaining the use of cross-dressing and
disguise by female characters in fantasy, I shall then show how female
characters can use the aesthetic assumption of masculinity to navigate their
environments and interactions. This will be done using the case studies of
Éowyn from The Lord of the Rings and
Sansa from A Song of Ice and Fire.
In Opposition: Power and Strength in
the Male Sphere
The societies in the examples of medieval fantasy
fiction used in this thesis – The
Bitterbynde Trilogy, A Song of Ice
and Fire and The Lord of the Rings
– are predominantly patriarchal in nature. This means men are able to determine
what they think the position of women should be. According to Justin
Charlebois, men place themselves in positions of power above women, enacting
the assumption of ‘men’s natural supremacy over women’ as essential to
hegemonic masculinity (24). This is highly visible in The Lord of the Rings, The
Bitterbynde Trilogy and A Song of Ice
and Fire, in which established heads of church and state are male. The
ideal male hero, as defined by Phyllis Betz, is ‘extraordinarily skilled in a
variety of martial arts, more physically imposing (and attractive), and
preferring a life divorced from permanent social or personal relationships’
(23). According to Ursula Le Guin in her essay “Is Gender Necessary?”, ‘men
have reserved the structures of social power for themselves’, and they ‘make
the wars and peaces, men make, enforce and break the laws’ (164). These forms
of power are obvious and explicit, encompassing title, position and legality. Men
are considered positive and neutral (de Beauvoir 15). de Beauvoir discusses man
as being ‘not a natural species’ but ‘a historical idea’ (66). This suggests
man is more readily visible as an idea or concept – such as the ‘hero’ – not
fixed but someone who ‘makes himself what he is’ (66).
According to Phyllis Betz in The Lesbian Fantastic, fantasy heroes fulfil ‘the standard genre
function of some kind of restoration’ (18). This restoration often includes
that of the ‘proper’, generally fairly conservatively defined social order,
which preferences ‘the underlying heterosexual, still predominantly
patriarchal, representations of society’ (19). According to de Beauvoir,
masculinity is placed in opposition to femininity while also being
complimentary to it on the basis of heterosexual desire (29). With the
exception of the occasional passing mention in A Song of Ice and Fire, same-sex attraction is virtually
non-existent within the above examples of fantasy texts. Both the central male
and female characters are all if not explicitly then certainly implicitly
heterosexual. This suggests that the hero is likely to be male, to have or to
value heterosexual romance, and to want to see similarly male and heterosexual
people in positions of power. Heterosexual male characters have a particular
investment in this sort of restoration, as it is within this form of society
that they have the most power and the most to gain. Men are required to ‘decide
on life paths’, while women’s lives are already laid out for them: a suitable
marriage, leading to motherhood (Frankel 73).
In the following section I will show how female
fantasy characters embody the character of the hero and how they are able to
expand and subvert masculine genre functions.
Bildungsroman: Coming of Age and the
Female Hero
In Unsung Heroes
of The Lord of the Rings, Lynnette Porter discusses definitions of ‘hero’
outside of those of the ‘classic literary heroes’ (3). Female characters may
not rank highly in classically conceived conceptions of hero, but in Porter’s
proposed traits for an updated hero definition is a framework within which
female characters can be heroic (20). She identifies the popular understanding
of heroes as being able to ‘rise above their limitations – experientially,
physically, mentally, spiritually, or emotionally – to perform a valiant act’ (21).
As identified by Phyllis Betz in The Lesbian Fantastic, fantasy heroes are typically concerned with
proving themselves worthy of a power which will allow them to restore the
‘harmony and balance of the land and social institutions’ (103-104). As discussed
in relation to male strength, Simone de Beauvoir describes men as being capable
of making themselves, rather than inhabiting a fixed idea (66). She describes
women as also not being complete or fixed, but as ‘a becoming’, who often finds
her possibilities and capabilities are questioned and stymied (66). This
suggests that, given the opportunity, women are just as capable of undergoing a
quest to reach self-fulfilment as men. If women are by nature ‘becoming’ then
they are well suited to coming-of-age narratives typical to heroes.
Archetypal concepts of strength align ‘strong female
characters’ with masculine characteristics and values (Frankel 2). According to
Carina Chocano, as quoted by Frankel, these women are stripped of personality
traits which constitute any sort of weakness and are defined solely by the
quality of ‘strength’ (40-41). This reductive definition of strength is almost
purely physical in nature, conjuring images of shield maiden characters with
swords and armour, fighting alongside their male counterparts. As established
by de Beauvoir, physical prowess-based conceptions of strength are flawed
(68-69). This means reducing heroic women to their physical capabilities is
forcing them into a definition of strength which already marginalises anyone
who is in a position of power that does not inherently rely on physicality,
such as heads of church and state.
In The Masque of
Femininity, Efrat Tseëlon identifies heroines as women ‘trying to survive
in a man’s world by beating them at their own game’ (37). Interpreting this in
a perhaps slightly different way than Tseëlon intended, I will define this
‘game’ as the acquisition and use of power. This also means women must be able
to succeed at typically male-oriented goals, including the hero’s journey or
quest.
Ashalind of The
Bitterbynde Trilogy stands in opposition to Frankel and Betz’s definitions
of masculine heroes, providing an excellent case study for how feminine women
can reshape or subvert the hero archetype. Ashalind’s narrative follows the bildungsroman structure common to
fantasy, with a literal finding of the self as her initial goal. While Betz’s
heroic trait of restoration is not Ashalind’s initial goal at the beginning of The Ill-Made Mute, as her quest gets
more dangerous and she begins to regain memories it is revealed that the
restoration of balance to her world has indeed been her quest all along. When
Ashalind fails at the last moment, giving in to fear in the climactic battle of
The Battle of Evernight, it is not
only herself that suffers great loss; the kingdom of the Faeren is closed off
forever and sildron, the element which drives almost the entirety of her
kingdom’s economy and society, is unmade. While in some ways it seems unfair
for so much to be placed upon Ashalind, it clearly demonstrates how chosen one
narratives which rely on placing enormous stakes on their main character do
have grave consequences – consequences which can seem abstract in narratives
with clean, happy endings. This is also typical of the theme of sacrifice
common to the narratives of female characters. In the introduction to The Representation of Women in Fiction,
Carolyn G Heilbrun and Margaret R Higonnet refer to ‘the sympathetic, even
tragic treatment of many fictional heroines’ as ‘recognition of the social and
personal cost of defying the social order’ (xviii). It follows from this that
being able to enact a hero’s narrative while working within and not outside of
the social order is thereby beneficial to female characters, and femininity is
a tool which can allow them to do this.
Contrasting between male and female concepts of
heroism allows for a more expansive understanding of strength, showing how
women are able to work within the social order while undertaking a hero
narrative. I will now examine more specific examples of female characters in
fantasy and how they are able to use femininity as a source of strength,
focusing on aesthetic femininity.
Like a Boy: Cross-dressing, Disguise
and Mobility
Femininity is often seen as deceptive, as discussed by
de Beauvoir and Tseëlon. This can be used to the advantage of characters who,
while not necessarily duplicitous by nature, are able to use their aesthetic
talent as a disguise. A common trope within fantasy literature is for female
characters to disguise themselves, particularly in ‘male’ clothing, in order to
travel ‘safely’. Frankel notes that this has been common through much of
history as a means by which women can ‘operate in their world with increased
agency’ (72). Disguise is a means of overcoming limiting circumstances, but the
implications of this are that being female is unsafe and being male is safe.
Frequently one of the forces which women want to remain safe from is men and
male desire. This is particularly necessary in a world which Betz has defined
as both ‘heterosexual [and] predominantly patriarchal’, where women are rewards
for male heroes (19). Cross-dressing also allows female characters to adopt a
new identity, one which allows them more social autonomy as well as the
physical autonomy of unhindered travel. To refer back to the questions posed by
de Beauvoir, it is a means by which ‘independence [can] be recovered in a state
of dependency’ (de Beauvoir 29). Disguise is a means of hiding in plain sight.
Éowyn disguises herself under the male pseudonym
Dernhelm in order to go into battle, something forbidden to her by the male
forces in her life. However, in her moment of triumph, when Éowyn defeats the
Witch King, she casts off her male disguise and reveals her true gender. Her
victory does not belong to Dernhelm, but to her alone. Indeed, in this moment
her gender is a literal source of power which places her above the male
Dernhelm.
The use of disguise does not necessarily require
cross-dressing. When Sansa Stark is disguised as Alayne Stone, she uses her new
identity to feign a confidence she does not possess. Unlike her sister Arya who
uses a male disguise and adopts increasingly ‘masculine’ traits, Sansa’s
disguise is one of exaggerated womanhood. She uses what she has been taught by
powerful women such as Cersei Lannister and Catelyn Stark, rejecting Sansa the
girl child to become a more adult version of a feminine woman. In The Heroine in Western Literature,
Meredith Powers identifies the moment that heroines reflect on the lives of
other women (164). In an archetypal reading of these moments in Sansa’s life,
she is reflecting on characters who are ‘versions of the same figure’; she
draws strength and wisdom from other examples of feminine women to fulfil her
own (164). From her mother and septa she has been taught that a woman’s armour
is courtesy, and she uses it well (Martin A
Clash of Kings 45). Sansa has little interest in masculine power; she has
seen the power women can have, from both positive and negative influences, and
she uses that power as part of her disguise.
With the advantage of understanding the importance of
aesthetic presentation and performance of gender, female characters are able to
exaggerate or disguise their strength. This places them at an advantage over
male characters who rely solely on physical prowess and its markers.
CHAPTER THREE: AGENCY AND THE FANTASY
FEMININE
In this chapter I will closely analyse feminine
characters in medieval fantasy who conform to the feminine characteristics explained
in my first chapter – and show how these characters conceive of, acquire, wield
and maintain power, especially in the context of the hero narrative. Specifically
I will be looking at Daenerys Targaryen from A Song of Ice and Fire, Éowyn, Galadriel and Arwen from The Lord of the Rings and Ashalind and
Dianella The Bitterbynde Trilogy. I
shall contrast these characters to women who choose or are required to reject
or suppress their femininity in some way and the context of these decisions,
both narratively and as a genre trope. I shall than closely examine Ashalind as
an example of a female character who exemplifies the feminine female hero.
Realms of Power: Conception,
Acquisition and Use
In The Lesbian
Fantastic, Betz defines power as representing ‘the control of the forces at
play in the particular world in which the fantasy narrative is set, whether it
resides within the individual or is embodied in some kind of receptacle’ (103).
Different roles have different kinds of power assigned to them, including
gender roles; as Ann Howey points out in Rewriting
the Women of Camelot, swapping these roles does not necessarily address
differences in how different forms of power relate to each other (102). In this
way, simply putting a woman into a male position of power does not necessarily
mean she is powerful, nor does it acknowledge other forms of power. As
established by Frankel, this often leads to reductive, flat female characters
(40-41).
Through examining the definitions of the feminine
presented by de Beauvoir, Le Guin, Glente and Winther-Jenkins, I earlier showed
how femininity is intrinsically tied to the aesthetic. In both history and
historical fiction, this characteristic can be leveraged in a number of ways. In
Feminism, Femininity and Popular Culture,
Joanne Hollows emphasises the importance of clothes and the ability to create
certain ‘looks’ as a form of language (152). This ‘language’ is informed by and
can be used in ‘the acquisition of particular cultural knowledge, competences
and codes’ (152). In the introduction to
Female Power in the Middle Ages, Karen Glente and Lisa Winther-Jensen
identify language as one of the three forms of power (17). While they refer
specifically to writing/speech, Hollows’ conception of clothing as language
shows clothing can be a form of power. In fantasy fiction this is particularly
visible due to the use of clothing for world building and characterisation. In
Ashalind’s kingdom of Erith, and in most scenarios, wealth and social standing
are forms of power which are most visibly expressed through clothing. Cersei Lannister
and Daenerys Targaryen both use clothing as a form of language, using jewels
and colour to show wealth and strength and different fashions for different
diplomatic purposes.
The women of The
Lord of the Rings are largely feminine in dress and manner. Lynnette Porter
identifies the two main responses to the character of Éowyn: she is seen as
either ‘a positive role model to represent the strong, assertive woman in a
male-dominated world, or denounced because in the book she dresses as a man...
thus being perceived as having to renounce her femininity in order to be
successful’ (91). The fact that she arguably retakes a feminine role at the end
of the series by becoming a wife is also, somewhat conversely, seen as a strike
against her (91). Rather than setting out in pursuit of opportunities, Éowyn
‘watches and waits until an opportunity presents itself. Then she launches
herself passionately into action and determinedly pursues her course’ (97). In
this sense she plays a more passive role than the male characters. Éowyn is
both a feminine archetype and a ‘shield maiden’ archetype frequently seen in
fantasy – with other examples being present in both The Bitterbynde Trilogy and A
Song of Ice and Fire. However, unlike her counterparts in A Song of Ice and Fire, Éowyn does not
wish to be rid of her womanhood. She uses maleness as a disguise but only as a
last resort. Éowyn may seen to be a character made up of two contrasting
halves, but it is her feminine traits of patience and nurture-based leadership
that allow her to act when the time is right.
Sacrifice is a common theme in stories about women,
with the acquisition of power coming only through the willingness to give up
some part of the self. Daenerys Targaryen of the Song of Ice and Fire series only acquires her greatest power – her
dragons – through the sacrifice of her husband and unborn son. She also gives
up her ability to have more children, despite the significance motherhood has
in the lives of women in Martin’s patriarchal world. In a sense she is
sacrificing the security of an established narrative of womanhood, as defined
by Frankel (73). It is this sacrifice which earns Daenerys the title ‘Mother of
Dragons’, a moniker which is both an affirmation and a perversion of the
strength inherent to concepts of motherhood. Arwen of The Lord of the Rings must sacrifice her immortality in order to be
with Aragorn, while Galadriel chooses to sacrifice the opportunity for absolute
power and instead wield the power she has to aid the Fellowship (Porter 117). Ashalind
constantly sacrifices comfort, safety, sanity and personal goals for the sake
of others. However, through these sacrifices women are able to acquire power
far greater than that of the male characters, which can potentially have much
more far-reaching effects. Daenerys’s sacrifice not only brings her great
power, but is linked to the re-emergence of magic within the Seven Kingdoms. In
Bitterbynde, the arrogance and hubris
of the wizards of Erith means they are unable to sacrifice even so much as a
little of their pride in order to obtain more genuine knowledge and power,
while the carlins acquire wisdom which can potentially benefit anyone they come
into contact with.
These examples all show the diverse ways in which female
characters can be feminine and powerful due to their employment of aesthetics,
use and understanding of magic and willingness to make sacrifices. This gives
women what Glente and Winthers-Jensen refer to as ‘an “own” power of women’, an
almost exclusively female form of power which is undeniable outside of
physical-based definitions of strength (18).
Humans and Monsters: Women and Magic
in High Fantasy
In The
Bitterbynde Trilogy, magic is heavily gendered. Male wizards are powerful
figures within society. Powerful houses have their own wizards as a sign of
status and significant social events usually contain a performance of their
‘magical abilities’. However, the ‘magic’ of these wizards is essentially akin
to the tricks of stage magicians. Real magical power lies with carlins, women
who use natural magic to help their communities. This reflects the ‘own power’
of women discussed in the first chapter, as referred to by Glente and Winther-Jensen
in Female Power in the Middle Ages
(18). They do not seek great power or status or wealth, instead living modesty
and only acquiring their wands through sacrifice: the Crone grants them power
after taking something from them, for example their sight or speech. This
clearly shows how women can hold power outside of the spheres of power which
men value, and thus have greater and more genuine abilities. While a carlin may
not be able to rise to the king’s court, she is able to produce genuine magic
and provide genuine help to her community. In each of the examples discussed,
women who are heads of state are almost always in possession of magical
ability. Daenyras Targaryan holds the power of dragons. In The Lord of the Rings, the elf women Arwen and Galadriel both
possess great magical powers. While not active in the battles or questing of
the Fellowship of the Ring, they both use their visions to influence the fate
of Middle-earth (Porter 115). Galadriel in particular is a ruler of her people,
possessing of great wisdom and ability. She aids the Fellowship despite the
fact that it will mean personal loss (117).
Male characters are often entrenched within the system
to the point that they lack the imagination to see outside of it, or to expand
their understanding of the system to include lifesaving measures. Ashalind’s
understanding of the importance of rules gives her power which those around her
– especially men – lack. She understands that in working within existing
systems it is possible not only to survive but use social structures for her
own benefit, including against others. Etiquette becomes a tool which she can
acquire and wield against her enemies just as an understanding of eldritch lore
allows her to outsmart dangerous wights. The men she comes into contact with
often lack this ability; their arrogance, hubris and desire all cloud their
ability to operate within the system, and it is Ashalind’s knowledge which must
rescue them from wights or from themselves. Here again is where Ashalind uses
her understanding of the world’s structures and rules to rescue others. She may
not possess the magic of the carlins or the Faêran but Ashalind can still bend
magical beings to her will. The moments when Ashalind stumbles or fails in her
quest are often moments when she transgresses the rules of the world around
her. Her narrative shows what Heilbrun and Higonnet refer to as the ‘social and
personal cost of defying the social order’ (xviii). When she disobeys the rules
set out for her by giving in to fear, she loses everything she has fought for. As
a woman who often travels with scant knowledge of her surroundings or
experience in the wild, the structures of Ashalind’s world and her adherence to
them are not only a source of strength, but they keep her alive.
Imrhien-Rohain-Tahquil-Ashalind:
Constructed Identity and Inherent Traits
Ashalind exemplifies the use of femininity and its
aesthetic components as a means of negotiating a world and its power
structures. While most of these characters adopt one or two disguises to fulfil
a narrow set of specific needs, Ashalind is almost never ‘herself’. Ashalind
begins The Bitterbynde Trilogy with
no identity whatsoever and goes on to inhabit a wide range of extremes in the
disguises and names she takes on. She is subject to both physical and social
extremes in how she is perceived and the roles she plays, some of which she
chooses and some of which are chosen for her. Even after regaining her true identity,
Ashalind still opts for both male and female disguises in order to navigate the
world and complete her assigned tasks. Her employment of disguise to evade
others who have objectified her is also a means of asserting herself as
non-object and as a being with agency. At this point Ashalind has achieved to
goals she set out with at the beginning of the series: to find a name, a face,
and an identity. While the resolution of this particular quest fulfils the
typical requirements of the bildungsroman
structure – Ashalind’s coming of age and discovery of noble birth and high
purpose – her personal narrative is shown to be a small part of a cosmically
important conflict. She exemplifies Porter’s definition of a hero as someone
who is able to ‘rise above’ her circumstances (21). She is not concerned with
proving herself worthy but rather with doing her duty and fulfilling the tasks
she feels she has been assigned. By employing the use of disguise after this
point of the narrative Ashalind is protecting not just herself, but her
world. Despite rarely being her true
self, and even when completely stripped of identity, however, Ashalind still
holds onto distinctive character and personality traits. She is impatient but
polite, level-headed and tenacious. She conforms to the feminine archetype,
fitting into it more comfortably as each new identity brings her an increasing
set of skills and behaviours.
Ashalind’s first female identity, after discovering
her true gender, is as Imrhien. She is at first led to believe that her
secondary sex characteristics were in fact ‘deformities’, and when her true
gender is ‘discovered’ those characteristics then mark her as a target for the
desires of men. She learns that her body is extremely desirable, while knowing
that her face is not. This interferes with her ability to interact normally
with others on two levels; she is rejected on sight due to her extreme facial
scaring but must hide the ‘normal’ parts of her body or risk becoming a target.
As Imrhien she is also unable to talk and thus defend herself. Despite this,
Ashalind-Imrhien is able to use her intelligence and ingenuity to survive in
the wilderness, rescue her brash and testosterone-fuelled companion Sianadh and
learn sign language. She makes a stark contrast to the ultra-masculine Sianadh,
whose reliance on physical strength and bravery get him into a number of
dangerous situations from which he is only saved by Ashalind-Imrhien’s sensible
problem solving and level-headedness. While Sianadh gives her a name and his
friendship, it is her first teacher Grethet, a female servant of Isse Tower,
who shapes Ashalind in her instinct for survival.
In her second female identity as Rohain, the Lady of
the Sorrows, Ashalind meets Dianella, a high-born woman who holds a great deal of
social power within the court. She is emblematic of the ways in which
patriarchal structures try to keep women from holding true power by restricting
them within an arbitrary framework of competition. Ashalind poses as a woman of
noble birth – believing at this point that she is extremely low-born – in order
to live at court until she is able to meet the king. At court she struggles to
fit in to the highly structured society, full of complex and arbitrary rules.
Dianella offers help while planning sabotage. She is an example of a character
who plays completely within a patriarchal structure, viewing other women as
threats and seeking more power through masculine means of undermining her
opponents. She is beholden to the whims of her uncle, a powerful wizard. She
holds power over Rohain through her ability to perform high-class
femininity. We are not given any real
insight into Dianella’s thoughts, making her something of a problem character;
she conforms to negative stereotypes about women and their desire to compete
with each other. She is cruel, petty, self-serving and vain. She represents the
toxic side of performed femininity and is in contrast to characters such as
Viviana who live at court and are feminine but in a more ‘natural’, less
performative way. Viviana is another mentor figure for Ashalind, teaching her
how to behave in the foreign environment of court.
The next identity that Ashalind assumes for herself is
Tahquil. This is the identity she uses to travel unheeded to Huntingtowers,
where she regains her memories of her true identity as Ashalind. However, she
continues to travel under the assumed identity of Tahquil. She is making a
choice about who she will be, now that she has the full information of who she
is. Her use of disguise and falsehood to travel allows her to wield her true
identity only when necessary.
Despite her variety of disguises, Ashalind is never
able to simply ‘blend in’. As the nameless mute and as Imrhien she is
considered so ugly that people recoil from her, and after a carlin restores her
face she is so beautiful that she continues to draw attention. She is the peak
of white-centric fantasy beauty, with long golden hair and a perfect face and
body. This affects her relationships with others, especially men, complicating
her attempts to acquire help. People see Ashalind by her face first, beautiful
or ugly, and in doing so fail to see everything else that she is. When she is
finally able to see herself as others see her in The Battle of Evernight, she describes her own perfect face as ‘a
mask to hide sorrows’ (358). She is able to use her own face to disguise her
feelings and intentions from others. It is how others see women that leads to
the belief that they are less capable. Éowyn is seen as fragile, Daenerys as
desirable, and these are the traits others reduce them to. This marks their
triumphs as being not just over the hero’s typical adversities but also over
expectations.
What remains consistent across all of Ashalind’s disguises
and identities is her personality. She is kind but impatient, clever at coming
up with solutions, and always looking out for others. The face that she has
traits which remain consistent and these traits correspond with concepts of
femininity show that her femininity is not a disguise or a device but an
inherent part of herself. She carries these traits across roles and faces and
uses them to succeed in difficult situations. This shows that there is nothing
artificial or inauthentic about her feminine identity. She does on occasion
attempt to cover up or tarnish her femininity, by donning male disguise or
cutting off her long, beautiful hair as an act of defiance.
CONCLUSION
In the introduction to this thesis I introduced a
series of questions posed by Simone de Beauvoir in her book The Second Sex.
How can a human being in a
woman’s situation attain fulfilment? What roads are open to her? Which are
blocked? How can independence be recovered in a state of dependency? What
circumstances limit woman’s liberty and how can they be overcome? (29)
Through examining the work of de Beauvoir, Tseelon and
Winther-Jensen, I have defined what is meant by ‘a woman’s situation’ in
medieval high fantasy fiction. I have outlined the structures of power in the
societies contained within these texts and examined ways in which characters
have and are able to obtain and wield power within those structures, while also
having the potential to subvert them. In doing so I have proved that women are
capable of being heroes within their narratives without abandoning their
femininity. I shall now introduce the creative component of this thesis with a
short bridging document.
BRIDGING DOCUMENT
In the creative component of this thesis, titled “A
Tower for the Queen”, I am seeking to apply the studies of female strength and
power to an original character and narrative.
In Gender and
the Construction of Dominant, Hegemonic, and Oppositional Femininities,
Justin Charlebois notes that gender differences cannot be viewed in a vacuum,
but that ‘other factors such as race, social class, and sexuality [...]
intersect and inform the social accomplishments of gender’ (8). He refers to
aesthetically concerned expressions of femininity as ‘emphasised femininity’,
and argues that this category is both ‘geographically mobile’ and ‘unfeasible
for many women’ (26). In other words, expressions of femininity which do not
align with dominant, hegemonic conceptions of femininity can be seen as
‘subordinate’, ‘subversive’ or ‘noncompliant’ (27-28). Emphasised femininity
and aesthetic femininity are particular means of gender expression which, in
interpreting femininity as an artificial layer, do not necessarily coincide
with gender identity.
In The
Bitterbynde Trilogy, features which can be read as non-white – such as the
thick lips and heavy brows of siofras or the ‘slanted eyes’ of nymphs and swan
maidens – are assigned to non-human (eldritch) creatures. By contrast, Ashalind
is blonde, white, heterosexual, and upper class. She is the pinnacle of human Erith
beauty, while non-white features are marked as unnatural and Other. All the
human ‘races’ in Erith are white. Gender operates within a strict binary, with
a single example of drag in ‘The Battle of Evernight’ as part of a ceremony.
These forms of rigidity, erasure and Othering all reinforce a strictly white,
heteronormative paradigm. Fantasy fiction which maintains this paradigm does a
disservice to the potential of the genre, which has unlimited creative
potential in regards to non-white, non-heteronormative, non-cisnormative
narratives. In the creative component of this thesis I shall attempt to create
an in-world paradigm which, while patriarchal, engages with a broader spectrum
of race, genre and sexuality. The intent of this is to show that fantasy tropes
can be maintained without the narrow and normative world-building implied by a
white, heteronormative paradigm or reliance upon a masculine hero.
My central character of Adalee has been left without a
patriarch to exert control over her life, but she chooses to retain her
femininity and work within established structures as she knows they are a
source of strength for her. She redefines her own sense of importance within
her family, learning that while her father’s fortunes no longer rely on her conforming
to certain expectations, she has a larger family within which she plays a small
but symbolically important role. That is the role which she chooses to honour.
The story is open-ended, just as Adalee’s options have opened up before her.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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