Oscillating between powerful and powerles:women in Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon

• Main Author: 陳泳璇
• Other Authors: 廖本瑞
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/84047653534861466908

碩士 === 高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 98 === Abstract King Arthur is a well-known legendary character in the Western culture. The noble deeds of Arthur and his knights of the Round Table have fascinated young and old from the medieval period up to the present. With the twentieth-century rise of feminism, and a renewed interest in the occult, the gender diversity finds its place in modern Arthuriana. Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-1999), an American female author, was so infatuated by the Arthurian legends in her childhood that she recreated the Arthurian legend in her fiction titled The Mists of Avalon. Here she provides an extraordinary insight from the perspective of a woman’s view and endows the old legend with a new life. This work has been widely read and lauded as one of the best Arthurian retellings. In this nearly nine-hundred-page mammoth, the skeleton of Arthurian legend remains the same; however, Bradley uses Morgan le Fay, half sister of Arthur, whom she recreates from a pagan priestess as the protagonist instead of King Arthur, and depicts her fighting against Christianity for her own Celtic culture. In Bradley’s version, women are no longer confined to attending to the domestic chores, raising children and waiting for their husbands to return from battles. Bradley’s women begin to realize that they are not chattels or animals but possess power and magic to shape their own destinies. Nevertheless, there is something beyond their control. As a result, women are often oscillating between powerful and powerless in this Arthurian story. This thesis consists of five chapters. The opening chapter introduces the author’s concerns of the contemporary issues, such as women’s rights and gay rights as well as how she integrates political issues into Arthurian legend and a synopsis of the book. Chapter two centers on the discrimination and restrictions against women in a patriarchal society and how women in the The Mists of Avalon have tried to repel. Chapter three discusses the power and magic these women are endowed with by the Goddess and elaborates how they wield their magic power in diverse situations. Chapter four will examine the intricate love-hate relationships entangled within these protagonists and the tragedy or destiny which no one can escape. Chapter five is the conclusion which confirms Bradley’s effort to speak for women.