How Did T. H White Use Feminism In The Once And Future King

800 Words2 Pages

In the 20th century there were many issues including fascism, the second world war, and second wave feminism. These issues were reflected in the works of T.H White and Marion Zimmer Bradley; they adapted the Arthurian legend to address the issues that were facing at the time as well as some of their own personal issues. T.H White used the Arthurian legend and it’s characters to comment on and look at fascism and World War II. During the 20th century Marion Zimmer Bradley used the Arthurian Legend to look at feminism as well as showing some conflict of religion that she might have been facing. T.H White’s The Once and Future King reveals some of his thoughts about the war going on around him. During his lifetime T.H White saw the second world …show more content…

It is contradictory with itself when trying to explain that their subjugation of the other colony is justified but if the other colony were to do the same to them then they would be unnatural. Clearly T.H. White is trying to explain how the entire war seems unnatural and is showing that through his own version of the Arthurian Legend. Marion Zimmer Bradley also commented on her society through the Arthurian Legend. Her struggles with society included feminism. Marion was one of the first female authors to be successful in science fiction. The stories that she wrote revolved on the female characters. The Mists of Avalon is told in the perspective of the female characters, this is one of the things that shows Marion’s feminist side. In the story there are two characters that show Marion’s internal and personal conflicts. Guinevere and Morgaine are two sides of a coin that made up Marion Zimmer’s life. Guinevere represented everything negative and all the hatred associated with Christianity. At one point she was trying to convince Arthur to carry a new flag that did not have a pagan symbol on it. Guinevere continually talked about sin and she radiated no positivity. Morgaine on the other hand was a more well rounded character and everything she did in the story was for the good of herself or other people. Unlike Guinevere she was more understanding.

Show More
Related

  • Cinderella The Legend By Hurston

    421 Words  | 1 Pages

    In today’s society, gender issues are often discussed as a hot topic. In literature, feminist views are used to criticise “societal norms” in books and stories. Two popular pieces by authors Kolbenschlag and Hurston paint two very different views on women. One common assumption in the use of a feminist critical perspective is that gender issues are central. Kolbenschlag who wrote the literary criticism “Cinderella, the Legend” would most likely disagree with this statement, she feels that women bare greater burdens in society and are more largely affected by social norms.

    Read More

  • Misogyny in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

    1808 Words  | 4 Pages

    Women were always viewed as weak, dependent, and powerless in the Middle Ages. Not only is it a common view during that time period, but this also is often stereotyped labeled to women today as well. In the romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the hatred of women is portrayed throughout. However, while women are certainly looked down upon, they also are influential to the knights. This romance also portrays how a woman having different characteristics, could change the way she was viewed as well. Although women in the Middle Ages appeared to lack power, the women in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight have a hidden influence over the men and actually drive the action of the medieval romance.

    Read More

  • Women in Homer's Odyssey, Joyce's Ulysses and Walcott's Omeros

    1686 Words  | 4 Pages

    This essay explores the role of women in Homer's Odyssey, James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) and Derrick Walcott's Omeros (1990), epics written in very different historical periods.  Common to all three epics are women as the transforming figure in a man's life, both in the capacity of a harlot and as wife.

    Read More

  • Role Of Women In Sir Gawain And Green Knight

    1347 Words  | 3 Pages

    When I observe literature works of Medieval and Renaissance period, a man success is determine by the roles of women. I heard a famous quote say "behind a great man there is a amazing woman". As I examine literature works, in the Medieval time of "Sir Gawain and Green Knight "and the Renaissance period of The Faerie Queene of Book I. We have two extraordinary Christian like figures Sir Gawain and Red Crosse who represent Christianity in their respectably time period . Both men endured several tests and have sinned against God. While these men were in the mist of their downfall, they had significant woman who guided them along way to find Christ again. I will view the roles of women like Lady Bertilak of Sir Gawain and Una of the Red Crosse

    Read More

  • The Bloody Chamber

    944 Words  | 2 Pages

    Angela Carter was a writer in the 1970s during the third wave of feminism that influenced and encouraged personal and social views in her writing. This is demonstrated through her own interpretation of fairy tales in The Bloody Chamber. She combines realism and fantasy to create ‘magic realism’ whilst also challenging conventions of stereotypical gender roles.

    Read More

  • How The Canterbury Tales Corrupt Women

    1021 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the medieval ages, women were described as evil creatures that would destroy anyone standing in their way to get what they want. People claimed that women's malicious intentions clouded their judgment from doing the right thing forcing them to be selfish. In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and Malory’s The Death of King Arthur, both focus on women’s behavioral impulses through their dishonesty, manipulation, and their promiscuity.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In The Once And Future King

    1722 Words  | 4 Pages

    While some themes of The Once and Future King include maturity and knighthood, another prominent theme in the novel is gender roles, specifically female roles. Curiously, in many biographies of T.H. White’s life, it is stated that he did not have the “capacity for love,” and never married. This means that while gender inequality is prominent in White’s novel, he never had a close relationship with a female in his personal life. In the novel, The Once and Future King, many female figures are written to be stereotypical, mean women. Through his use of gender roles in The Once and Future King, T.H. White demonstrates the belief that women’s rights in the 1940-60s should mirror those of Medieval times.

    Read More

  • Goddess Dethroned: The Evolution Of Morgan Le Fay

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    This work doesn’t shun Morgan Le Fay’s powers, the idea of paganism, or her femininity, in fact it embraces them. In earlier works, Morgan Le Fay was a one-dimensional character: evil or good. Bradley tosses out this convention and makes Morgan Le Fay a complicated woman who doesn’t act on hate or love but purpose, and her purpose is to protect the old religion and Avalon. This resurgence of paganism and the idea of feminism in the book are simply a reflection of modern ideas that are more mainstream

    Read More

  • Sleeping Beauty: Feminist Critics

    1097 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...present powerful characters, while females represent unimportant characters. Unaware of the influence of society’s perception of the importance of sexes, literature and culture go unchanged. Although fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty produce charming entertainment for children, their remains a didactic message that lays hidden beneath the surface; teaching future generations to be submissive to the inequalities of their gender. Feminist critic the works of former literature, highlighting sexual discriminations, and broadcasting their own versions of former works, that paints a composite image of women’s oppression (Feminist Theory and Criticism). Women of the twenty-first century serge forward investigating, and highlighting the inequalities of their race in effort to organize a better social life for women of the future (Feminist Theory and Criticism).

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in The Things They Carried

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    The character analysis of Mary Anne Bell in comparison and contrast to Martha and Elroy Berdahl implores the audience to consider the idea that gender is not inherent.

    Read More

  • Role of Women in Sir Gawain and The Green Knight and The Wife of Bath’s Tale

    1648 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the Middle Ages, the roles of women became less restricted and confined and women became more opinionated and vocal. Sir Gawain and The Green Knight presents Lady Bertilak, the wife of Sir Bertilak, as a woman who seems to possess some supernatural powers who seduces Sir Gawain, and Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath Prologue and Tale, present women who are determined to have power and gain sovereignty over the men in their lives. The female characters are very openly sensual and honest about their wants and desires. It is true that it is Morgan the Fay who is pulling the strings in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; nevertheless the Gawain poet still gives her a role that empowers her. Alison in The Wife if Bath Prologue represents the voice of feminism and paves the way for a discourse in the relationships between husbands and wives and the role of the woman in society.

    Read More

  • Chaucer's Views on Women: Griselda and the Wife of Bath's the Loathly Lady

    3022 Words  | 7 Pages

    As a man fascinated with the role of women during the 14th Century, or most commonly known as the Middle Ages, Chaucer makes conclusive evaluations and remarks concerning how women were viewed during this time period. Determined to show that women were not weak and humble because of the male dominance surrounding them, Chaucer sets out to prove that women were a powerful and strong-willed gender. In order to defend this argument, the following characters and their tales will be examined: Griselda from the Clerk's Tale, and the Wife of Bath, narrator to the Wife of Bath's Tale. Using the role of gender within the genres of the Canterbury Tales, exploring each woman's participation in the outcomes of their tales, and comparing and contrasting these two heroines, we will find out how Chaucer broke the mold on medievalist attitudes toward women.

    Read More

  • Romances In Robinson Crusoe

    981 Words  | 2 Pages

    Stories are very important throughout histories. They transmit perception, values and attitudes from one generation to the next. Shakespeare’s history plays such as Henry V and Richard II say a lot about the Elizabethan politics rather than staging a war against France to seize the French throne and extravagant king respectively and Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe highlights issues such the mercantile system while focusing on a shipwreck. Stories are used for educational purposes to teach the youngsters the frame of reference fostered by a given community. Thus, the survival of the romance [is] intended to reclaim the kingdom of the English novel for male writers, male readers, and men’s stories” (Showalter, p. 78). Hereby, “king romance might recover his virility and power”, and, quintessentially, “these romances are targeted for ‘boys’” (79). Feeling this exclusion, Victorian women have recourse to the genre that humiliates them to parody it and, hence, rehandle and transform its conventions.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Written At The Close Of Spring By Charlotte Smith

    1578 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout literature’s history, female authors have been hardly recognized for their groundbreaking and eye-opening accounts of what it means to be a woman of society. In most cases of early literature, women are portrayed as weak and unintelligent characters who rely solely on their male counterparts. Also during this time period, it would be shocking to have women character in some stories, especially since their purpose is only secondary to that of the male protagonist. But, in the late 17th to early 18th century, a crop of courageous women began publishing their works, beginning the literary feminist movement. Together, Aphra Behn, Charlotte Smith, Fanny Burney, and Mary Wollstonecraft challenge the status quo of what it means to be a

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Lamplighter By Maria Susanna Cummins And Ruth Hall

    2145 Words  | 5 Pages

    Females are powerful creatures that are often overlooked and underestimated. Females are a force to be reckoned with. In literature, the inspiration that drives the creation of strong female characters often comes from the writer’s own experience and life. This essay will compare the female characters of The Lamplighter by Maria Susanna Cummins and Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present Time by Fanny Fern and the characters’ journey toward independence by referencing how the genres of literature and background of the authors feed the main ideas of the respective novels.

    Read More

More about How Did T. H White Use Feminism In The Once And Future King

Open Document