Abstract
Thomas Malory’s book “Le Morte Darthur: The Winchester Manuscript” is about the life and death of King Arthur. Apart from ventures and battles, it depicts the disempowerment of women in King Arthur’s Court, an issue which is not so frequently discussed by scholars in frames of the book “Le Morte Darthur: The Winchester Manuscript”. The thirteenth book, “The Noble Tale of the Sangreal”, is the focus of this paper which is going to deal with the topic of disempowerment of women from the perspective of such authors as Wolfram Von Eschenbach, Chretien De Troyes, and William of Malmesbury.
Introduction
Throughout the centuries women have been seeking independence and equal rights with men. Several literary works have been dedicated to their strivings to become independent and most of the writers have been trying to depict how much women’s freedoms were limited and to which extent their rights were neglected. Not all of the writers succeeded in depicting this part of the world’s history verisimilarly. Thomas Malory belongs to those writers who managed to depict the disempowerment of women without focusing on the problem of racial discrimination alone. He writes about this issue as a fact rather than an actual problem. He does not write about the neglecting of the women’s rights, of their humiliation and oppression; he rights about the insignificancy of the woman’s role in those affairs where only men could take part. His book “Le Morte d’Arthur” is one of the best works belonging to Arthurian literature; it is used as a principal source by several modern Arthurian writers.
Malory started working on the book when he was in prison in the 1450s and managed to complete it only in twenty years. The book is written in Middle English and the modern reader will find it difficult to grasp the essence. Modern editors have been trying to update the language but none of them succeeded in this. Changing the spelling of some words, re-punctuation and re-paragraphing of the text made the book only more complicated and the editors ended up returning the text its initial looks. The book was first printed in 1485 by Caxton and reprinted in 1498 with some changes by Wynkyn de Worde. Later, three other editions were issued with the corresponding changes introduced by William Copland, William Stansby, and Thomas East. Not only changes but errors were included in the books; sometimes the whole list of the text was omitted. The book quickly went out of fashion and was not of great interest to the public until interest in medieval art and literature revived in the 19th century. At that time, reprinting the book was renewed, but only Caxton 1485 was used as a basis.
Malory’s book has been separated by Caxton into eight tales, namely, “From the Marriage of King Uther unto King Arthur that Reigned After Him and Did Many Battles” (about the birth of King Arthur), “The Noble Tale Between King Arthur and Lucius the Emperor of Rome” (the war against the Romans), “The Noble Tale of Sir Launcelot Du Lac” (the book of Lancelot), “The Tale of Sir Gareth of Orkney” (the book of Gareth), “The First and the Second Book of Sir Tristrams de Lione” (Tristan and Isolda), “The Noble Tale of the Sangreal” (about the Holy Grail), “Sir Launcelot and Queen Gwenyvere” (abut Lancelot and Guinevere”, and “The Death of Arthur”. The majority of the events take place in 5th century Britain or France; some of the ventures take place in Sarras and Rome. The eight tales are sometimes treated as a whole story but most of the scholars agree that Malory did not write them as a unified story; neither were those individual books. It is rather an interrelated series of stories that should be read one after another to grasp the whole idea.
One of the ideas presented in the story is the insignificance of the role of women in a society preoccupied with manly affairs. The thirteenth book of “Le Morte Darthur: The Winchester Manuscript” presents the adventures of several knights who are trying to find the Holy Grail meets several dangers on their way to it. Disempowerment of women within this story lies in the fact that they were abandoned whenever the quest for the Holy Grail began; no women were allowed to follow their husbands in this venture and no objections were accepted on their part. This paper will explore this issue in more detail, as well as it will view the problem from the perspective of such writers as Wolfram Von Eschenbach, Chretien De Troyes, and William of Malmesbury who also dedicated their works to the disempowerment of women in King Arthur’s Court.
The Quest for the Holy Grail
Proving the existence of the Holy Grail is so important that Malory dedicated the whole book to it. The significance of the Holy Grail for women lies in the fact that it would entirely change the perception of women by the church and by society. The conflict of disempowerment of women in the book under consideration is all about the importance of the Holy Grail for women and their inability to take part in searching for it. The Grail is first mentioned in the book as appearing in King Arthur’s hall “coverde with whyght samyte (Malory and Vinaver 521) However, it was not easy to get the grail because “there was none that myght se hit nother whom that bare hit.” (Malory and Vinaver, p. 521) During the first encounter, the Grail produces food and drinks for the knights; but then the Grail disappears and the knights set off to search for it. At this, Gawain makes a vow that he will get the Holy Grail at any cost: “I shall laboure in the queste of the Sankgreall, and … I shall holde my oute a twelve-month and a day or more if need be, and never shall I retunre unto the courte agayne.” (Malory and Vinaver, p. 522) He believes that he is the one who is destined to find the Grail because he has “sene hit more opynly that hit hath bene showed here (Malory and Vinaver, p. 522).
Other knights, including Lancelot, Galahad, Bors, and Pestival join Gawain in this quest. Young maidens and hermits who they met on their way give them different pieces of advice and interpret their dreams. Gawain and Lancelot fail in the quest and only Galahad, Bors, and Percival manage to achieve the Holy Grail. At the end of the story Galahad vanished “and so sudeynely departed hys soule to Jesu Cryste, and a grete multitude of angels bare hit up to hevyn evyn in the sight of hys two felowis.” (Malory and Vinaver, p. 607).
Arthur, Lancelot, Gawain, Guinevere, and Galahad as the Most Important Characters of “Le Morte d’Arthur”
Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot constitute a love triangle which can be observed almost in every book of “Le Morte d’Arthur”. This is where the effects of the disempowerment of women due to the quest for the Holy Grail can be felt. Lancelot is a problematic character; he is a knight who has certain flaws. After healing Sir Urry he cries as a “chylde that had bene beatyn” (Malory and Vinaver, p. 668) for he understands that he is not perfect as a knight and as a person. Though Lancelot denies any relations with Guinevere, other characters talk about it all the time. Guinevere and Lancelot’s love affair is as much a part of Arthurian history as the adventures of the quest and the sword in the stone (Cooper, p. 101). Their love affair helps to express the essence of Arthur’s life who could never find peace and order he dreamt of so much. The fact that his wife betrayed him with his best friend is one of the things which made his life unbearable. The quest for the Holy Grail was his only salvation but he failed even here.
Gawain and Galahad are not less important characters in the book. Galahad first appears in the story where the search for the Holy Grail begins. He can be distinguished from all other characters by his purity. “According to the legend, Galahad healed the Fisher King of the Wasteland, who had been wounded …, with a salve of Christ’s blood from the Holy Grail.” (Leeuwen, p. 215) In the book, he is often referred to as “Galahalt the haute prynce.“ (Malory and Vinaver 411) Gawain, in his turn, was the one who initiated the quest for the Holy Grail; he can be characterized by bravery and self-confidence.
Disempowerment of women can be observed even in the number of characters in the book. Guinevere is one of a few female characters who are present in the story. This proves how insignificant the role of a woman was in King Arthur’s Court and how little attention was paid to what women felt when their husbands and beloveds were constantly setting off for the search for the Holy Grail.
The Holy Grail in the Works of Other Writers
Several writers dedicated their works to the quest for the Holy Grail and the role of men and women in Arthurian society. Among them is Wolfram Von Eschenbach with his “Parzival”, Chretien De Troyes with his “The Story of the Grail”, and William of Malmesbury with “Gesta regum Anglorum” (or Deeds of the English Kings). Every story about the Holy Grail expresses the subject of disempowerment of women at least indirectly. “Parzival” and “The Story of the Grail” are the best examples of how women were treated in Arthurian times.
Quite a great part of “Parzival” is devoted to the description of the dignities of a knight. The story abounds with such expressions as “shame and honor are together where a man’s undaunted courage is chequered with its opposite” (Wolfram and Lefevere 3) and “a man with steadfast thoughts cleans to white” (Wolfram and Lefevere, p. 3), but when it comes to speaking about women, a different attitude is expressed towards them. They are treated in a perfunctory manner: “they are seen much more as potential contributors to the further propagation of kin than as kin themselves.” (Wolfram and Lefevere xii) In his “Parzival”, the author shows the inconstancy of women; Wolfram states that women’s fame is no less steady than “thin ice that gets the heat of the August sun” (Wolfram and Lefevere, p. 4) adding at this that “a woman’s beauty is widely praised, but if her heart is counterfeit I shall praise it as I would a piece of saffron-colored glass set in gold.” (Wolfram and Lefevere, p. 4) The book tells several stories about the “brave heroes engaged in noble pursuits” (Wolfram and Lefevere, p. 15) The quest for the Grail is described as an obsessive story: “He forced me to promise that I would get the grail for him. Even if I were to die for it now I must fulfill the promise.” (Wolfram and Lefevere, p. 112) However, just like in “Le Morte D’Arthur”, not much is written about the women who were left home when their husbands set off for the search. This once again shows that the quest for the Holy Grail led to the disempowerment of women who did not even have a right to object to their husbands’ obsession with it.
Similarly, “Gesta regum Anglorum”, especially the first part of the book, shows how much William of Malmesbury admired the man. “The Story of the Grail” is also about the men who were ready to sacrifice their lives in the quest for the Holy Grail. The book shows how easily the men left their families regardless of the women’s desire to go with them. Disempowerment of women can be observed not only in the books about the Holy Grail but in the movies as well since they were shot after these books.
Hollywood Films Portraying Arthurian Legend
Arthurian legend is portrayed in Hollywood films quite often and each of the directors has his/her way of interpreting the legend. One of the most successful movies is Excalibur directed by John Boorman and released in 1981. The movie is based on Malory’s “Le Morte d’Arthur” and even names this source as the film’s credits. Excalibur was not the first film shot after the Arthurian legend:
Knights of the Round Table is a key film because its focus on the famous love triangle illustrates how the legend is so amendable to the melodramatic form. Its influence is apparent in a film released four decades later, First Night (1995), which also conforms to the formal conventions of melodrama; but Excalibur (1981), more dynamic, ambitious, and inclusive in its use of the legend’s elements are also indebted to it. (Umland, p. 74).
The movie is extremely important in perceiving the subject of disempowerment of women in King Arthur’s court for it allows seeing what this disempowerment was all about. Boorman borrows information from several other sources though “Le Morte d’Arthur” remains his primary one. The musical choices for the movie may seem odd. The music fits into the movie but most of the viewers get surprised by the fact that it was written by German composers Richard Wagner and Carl Orff. “Wagner’s music is primary associative in function, of course, and is not intended to stand alone, being dependent on its textual inspiration.” (Tamblin, Arts Council of England, and Arts Council of Great Britain, p. 9).
The excerpts from Wagner’s and Orff’s operas used in Excalibur add the movie’s expressiveness and completeness.
Conclusion
The disempowerment of women can be observed in all the books which describe the quest for the Holy Grail. The thirteenth book of “Le Morte d’Arthur” by Thomas Malory shows this disempowerment in the best way depicting how Arthur’s absence from home led to his wife’s betrayal. Other writers, such as Wolfram Von Eschenbach, Chretien De Troyes, and William of Malmesbury have similar perspectives as to the insignificance of women’s rights in King Arthur’s court. Their works show that men were heroes in the Arthurian times, whereas women’s lot was motherhood and obeying the will of their husbands.
Woks Cited
- Cooper, Helen. The English Romance in Time: Transforming Motifs from Geoffrey of Monmouth to the Death of Shakespeare. Oxford University Press, 2004.
- Leeuwen, Rob D. The Complete New Tarot. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2004.
- Malory, Thomas and Vinaver, Eugène. Works [of] Malory. Oxford University Press, 1971.
- Tambling, Jeremy, Arts Council of England, and Arts Council of Great Britain. A Night in at the Opera: Media Representations of Opera. University Press, 1994.
- Umland, Rebecca A. The Use of Arthurian Legend in Hollywood Film: from Connecticut Yankees to Fisher Kings. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996.
- Wolfram, Lefevere, Andre. Parzival. Continuum International Publishing Group, 1991.