ipl-logo

Listening To Guinevere Analysis

644 Words3 Pages

In his article, Listening to Guinevere: Female Agency and the Politics of Chivalry in Tennyson’s Idylls, Stephen Ahern examines the treatment of women in the poems, specifically the character of Guinevere in relation to her male counterpart Arthur, and provides a complex view of Tennyson’s underlying message as a critique on the Victorian social constructs of his time rather than a simple representation of it. Ahern builds a solid argument for Guinevere’s treatment as the victim in the story ultimately signifying that she was being used as a model of the wrongs of the standard Victorian expectation of femininity. This complex analysis of the text gives a different, more modern perspective of the poems. The key features of his argument cite …show more content…

While Aherns provides effective evidence for his argument, he seems to project modern views and thought onto the story and make assumptions of Tennyson’s purpose behind the text to fit him into a more progressive role. The details of the story do not typically read as particularly supportive of Guinevere’s rebellious actions or refusal to fit into the role society attempts to impose on her unless the story is being viewed from a modern perspective. Ahern asserts that “Her freedom of choice is limited by the world in which she finds herself, but she has no qualms about asserting her agency in the one arena in which she as a woman of noble stature can exert control –the arena of love” (Ahern 97). While this is true of Guinevere’s character, Ahern does not consider the way in which this aspect of her personality may have painted her in a negative light to many people as ultimately selfish and it focuses overmuch on how a modern audience may view her rebellion positively. There is also the matter of how Ahern argues for the condemnation of Arthur as the real one to blame beyond Guinevere. According to Ahern, Arthur “invests responsibility for his success in the image of ideal womanhood he projects onto his wife” (Ahern 95). While this is true, Ahern attempts to use this as one

Show More
Related

  • Sir Gawain's Caution Against Pride In British Literature

    949 Words  | 4 Pages

    Caution against pride seems to be a frequent theme of British Literature through all ages. The likelihood of characters to think they are not destined by the boundaries of average humans. Today I will focus on four different literary works who portray this caution against pride. The literary works can be found in the books, The Longman Anthology of British Literature the Middle Ages and The Longman Anthology of British Literature the Early Modern Period. I will discuss characters from different periods including , Old English with the story of “Beowulf”, Middle English with the story of “Sir Gawain”, and from the Early Modern Period, “Paradise Lost” and “Twelfth Night”.

    Read More

  • King Arthur Love Triangles

    603 Words  | 3 Pages

    Because of Arthur’s denial of Guinevere's affair with Lancelot, Mordred seizes his opportunity to accuse Guinevere, which causes Arthur to stage her “execution” and her rescue. Because of this, Gaheris and Gareth are placed in danger, and killed by Lancelot in his rampage, as well as many other soldiers who were only doing their duty. “” (White #) However, this has wider repercussions, and Mordred and Agravaine use Lancelot’s crime of “treason” to persuade some of the knights of the Round Table to follow his ideas. This culminates in a battle between his followers and Arthur’s, and ultimately ends in Arthur’s death, marking the end of his kingdom. “” (White #) All of Mordred’s actions would never have occurred if not for Guinevere’s affair. The chain of events causing Camelot’s collapse would never have happened if Guinevere had not loved both Arthur and

    Read More

  • Justice In T. H. White's The Once And Future King

    999 Words  | 4 Pages

    During the first two books of T.H. White’s “The Once and Future King”, the lives of Arthur, Lancelot, and Guenever are drawn out for the audience, everything in order and the friendship between them strong and faithful. By the fourth book, the relationship between these three characters has become severely broken, the Author vividly illustrating their lives of sin, adultery, and hypocrisy that none of them can recover from, the Kingdom’s downfall set into motion. As Lancelot and Guenever continue to do wrong, Arthur must make the difficult decision of going against the two people he loves most. Honoring his new set of laws and expelling justice is the only route he can take. Arthur continuously struggles to deal with harming his friends when they have been proven guilty, being bound by

    Read More

  • Epistle From Mrs. Yonge To Her Husband Analysis

    883 Words  | 4 Pages

    Women through history struggled to fit in a life were men have the most important roles and the whole world in their hands. The battle for a woman to be seen as a person in her own privilege, characterized her own terms, by her own judgment and achievements, wishing the same open doors as men have and practice. There is no role for women in the society back then even in marriage, she can’t choose whom to marry, and basically women role is forgotten in the society at the Restoration era. So in this research paper I will discuss one of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s poem Epistle from Mrs. Yonge to Her Husband. In which a woman blamed for infidelity lashes out against her glaringly double-crossing spouse, against the patriarchal lawful framework that permits

    Read More

  • Women In Erec And Enide

    582 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women were judged on their appearance, objectified, prizes and expected to obey a man’s every order. Women were first presented as a prize when King Arthur was holding court. There he declared he wished to revive the tradition of hunting the white stag (Troyes, 37). With this hunting of the stag, the winner is granted to kiss the most beautiful damsel in the court. Such a prize glorifies objectifying the women of the court.

    Read More

  • Beowulf: The Role Of Women In Literature

    846 Words  | 4 Pages

    Beowulf is an excellent piece with a lot for the readers to desire and relate to while reading. This analysis explores different escapades while examining the role of women in the literature. One thing to point out is that female characters have always received very thin attention in different pieces of literature, something that has always made many people think that their role is meager. Every piece of literature has an important message to pass across to its intended audiences. Indeed, this study seeks to demystify the male-centric mindset to promote the visibility of women in the contemporary interpretation of literary works demonstrating that women play a greater role in the literature despite the proximity given to male protagonist.

    Read More

  • King Arthur Dbq Essay

    1962 Words  | 8 Pages

    The idea of a farm boy becoming the true king was so repulsive to some nobles that they refused to acknowledge that Arthur was successful in pulling out a sword, forcing him remove the sword multiple times, until the common people demanded that Arthur has proven his worth and that he should be crowned king. Even after being crowned king, he was engaged in the Eleven Kings War, where eleven nobles claiming to be the true kings challenged Arthur to the throne. Arthur successfully, put down each rebellion and stood tall as the people’s new king (Source B3). Through time King Arthur became an astounding, relished leader with a true mind for the people. During his time as king, he inspired the idea of the Round Table, debatably King Arthur’s most

    Read More

  • Lancelot The Knight Of The Cart Literary Analysis

    1042 Words  | 5 Pages

    During this time, writers articulated physical and emotional passion through their writings, because freedom was highly encouraged. Through the art of poetry, writers had the liberty to write freely. In this poem, the author entirely concentrates on the relationship between the two characters. He depicts the affair between Lancelot and Guinevere by solely focusing on Guinevere’s passion towards Lancelot, which adds a twist to the legend because stories usually highlight Lancelot’s infatuation with Guinevere. Despite her being married, Guinevere’s true feelings for the knight are exposed.

    Read More

  • Women In Beowulf And The Wife Of Bath's Tale

    1333 Words  | 6 Pages

    Beowulf and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” are both narratives in which gender acts as an important theme within their individual communities; both have underlying meanings when it comes to defining what the role men and women in a good community should be. Or in other words, both stories paint a vivid picture of the role of women during the medieval time period, by suggesting that one gender had more power over another. However, these two narratives take alternative paths when expressing their views; Beowulf conveys its message through what is missing, while “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” incorporates satire and uses explicit narrative when telling the experience of a woman that is highly different from other women in her time. Furthermore, another difference that is appealing to the reader’s eyes, besides the way the two narratives reflect to women’s role in medieval times, is that men become the hero in Beowulf, while “the wife”, so a woman, becomes the authority figure in the story of “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” I want to first introduce the two main differences between the two narratives and then I will explain how regardless of the differences, both of these narratives’ main goal is to show that women had less power and a good community back that time was male dominated.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Patriarchal Oppression In Jane Eyre

    1638 Words  | 7 Pages

    Her refusal to submit to her social destiny shocked many Victorian readers when the novel was first released and this refusal to accept the forms, customs, and standards of society made it one of the first rebellious feminism novels of its time (Gilbert and Gubar). This essay will discuss the relationships Jane formed with the men she encountered throughout the novel and will attempt to identify moments of patriarchal oppression within the story. The first act of patriarchal oppression Jane experiences is quiet early on it the novel, during her childhood years spent at Gateshead. It is here where she must endure to live

    Read More

  • The Mist Of Avalon Essay

    944 Words  | 4 Pages

    This leaves Arthur and Morgaine to become the downfall of their royal line because of sin. It shows that informing children about their family life is important avoid accidentally committing a sin. The Arthurian book also tackles the problem of Christianity and paganism that has toxic traits of femininity from the point of view of the protagonist, which is a pagan priest, and another character, which is a Christian woman viewing the problems of medieval guidelines for

    Read More

  • Guinevere's Relationship With Lancelot

    713 Words  | 3 Pages

    Guinevere is a dynamic character that influences the whole Arthurian Legend story. In Guinevere, an entry in the Encyclopedia of World Mythology, Guinevere is the symbol of loyalty and betrayal, while in Alfred Tennyson’s Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere Guinevere’s life is only described through her relationship with Lancelot. Both sources are used to show how Guinevere’s relationship with Lancelot tore apart the Arthurian kingdom. Guinevere’s character has changed over time because in the earliest of Arthurian Legends she was not associated with Lancelot.

    Read More

  • Comparing Women In Sir Gawain And Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

    1297 Words  | 6 Pages

    Sir Gawain and The Green Knight and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales are two pieces of British literature that are incredibly interesting and thorough. Women play important roles in both of the texts. Throughout Sir Gawain and The Green Knight there are several important females present. The women being Guinevere for a short period of time, Lady Bertilak, and Morgan Le Fay. Guinevere is presented at the beginning of the text before The Green Knight barges into the castle, and is presented as the standard of beauty.

    Read More

  • Men And Women In Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband

    1285 Words  | 6 Pages

    The play An Ideal Husband was written by Oscar Wilde in 1895 in England’s Victorian era. This era was characterised by sexual anarchy amongst men and women where the stringent boundaries that delineated the roles of both men and women were continually being challenged by threatening figures such as the New Woman represented by Mrs Cheveley and dandies such as Lord Goring(Showalter, 3). An Ideal Husband ultimately affirms Lord Goring’s notions about the inequality of the sexes because of the evident limitations placed on the mutability of identity for female characters versus their male counterparts (Madden, 5). These limitations will be further elaborated upon in the context of the patriarchal aspects of Victorian society which contributed to the failed attempts of blackmail by Mrs Cheveley, the manner in which women are trapped by their past and their delineated role of an “angel of truth and goodness” (Powell, 89).

    Read More

  • Women In The Victorian Society In Tess Of The D Urbervilles

    1162 Words  | 5 Pages

    Rosemarie Morgan thinks that continuous censure, criticism and frustration is precisely what increased his sympathy towards women who were coerced to conform to the men 's world (Morgan, 2006, p.15). This chapter of the paper makes an attempt to discuss the importance and the influence that the society with its prejudices had on the portrayal of women in the novel, with special focus on the protagonist Tess of the d 'Urbervilles. Social influences and prejudices include the oppression that Tess receives from her family, the church 's denial of a proper burial for her baby, and the society 's judgments on being a mother of an illegitimate child. The second one is gender restraints, illustrated through male

    Read More

More about Listening To Guinevere Analysis

Open Document