Women In The Legend Of King Arthur

The Legend of King Arthur showcases several unique men and women that play vital parts in making the story as well known as it is today. However, it seems that while the men of the Arthurian legend go through extraordinary journeys and personal developments, the women of the story are either turned into one-dimensional characters or are set aside to make way for the more important storylines of the men. Although, as retellings of the legend of King Arthur continue to be created, it becomes easier to see the differences in attitudes towards women between older and newer versions. Through analysis of the representation and characterization of women in two versions of King Arthur, The Legends of King Arthur and his Knights and The Mists of Avalon,

One example of this is shown in a very obvious place in both texts, the cover. On the medieval text’s cover, a man stands with a sword in his hand, surrounded by a crowd of people with a rainbow above him. On the other modern movie cover, the focus lies on three faces of women, who are the main characters of this version. Just by looking at the initial pictures of the texts we can see how much of a difference there is in the way women are presented. In the modern version of the story, the cover shows us three very strong, confident women who we can infer the story will focus on, while in the medieval text there can be no inference made that women will even be present based on the cover of the book. This gives us minimal representation of women in the story, and makes so there are very few women for a female reader to relate to. Additionally, the increase in representation of women can be seen in the roles they play in each version of the story. A clear example of this can be seen using the character of

Focusing on Morgana, there is a very stark difference in her character traits between the two texts. In The Legends of King Arthur and his Knights, Morgana follows a typical witch archetype, plotting evil actions to betray and overthrow her half-brother Arthur through manipulation and even trying to set him on fire with sorcery. This text shows her as nothing more than an enemy to Arthur, ruthlessly questing for power with motiveless hostility. However, in contrast to the medieval text, The Mists of Avalon displays Morgana’s character as a priestess: a holy figure dedicated to healing others and preserving various religious practices. This modern version of Morgana's character is shown as more ambiguous, and even presents her in an entirely positive light compared to her usual role as an evil enchantress. While her character in the the book comes off as flat and lacking purpose, her character in the modern movie adaption has an obtained an incredible amount of depth; so much so that she is now presented as a woman whose own values and concerns have become the central focus of this retelling. By having a female character appear with more depth and a massive amount of importance in The Mists of Avalon’s version of the story, women are giving a possible role model to look up to. Morgana gives them a chance to