Themes
Perhaps more than anything, the text of The Mists of Avalon juxtaposes Morgaine and Gwenivere, thereby setting up a powerful dichotomy between religion, sexual freedom, lifestyle, and choice. While Gwenivere is a queen, trapped without choice in a patriarchal kingdom, Morgaine is a freespirited priestess who works against the laws of her growing Christian world. However, Bradley does incorporate aspects of medieval history (for example], in the Middle Ages women were often forced to enter into marriage against their will). Thus, while Morgaine is able to live freely in Avalon, she is exposed to the laws of man outside in the patriarchal world of Camelot. She is manipulated by both the men and women around her for social and political gain. For example, Morgaine leaves Avalon and gives up her station as priestess when she discovers that Viviane sent her to her brother's bed. As well, she accepts her fate when she is manipulated by Gwenivere into marrying Uriens, who is old enough to be her father, instead of Accalon, the man she truly loves.
The Mists of Avalon begins dramatically with a note from Morgaine in the prologue of the text: In my time I have been called many things: sister, lover, priestess, wise-woman, queen.
Now in truth I have come to be a wisewoman, and a time may come when these things may need to be known. But in sober truth, I think it is the Christians who will tell the last tale. For ever the world of Fairy drifts further from the world in which the Christ holds sway. I have no quarrel with Christ, only with his priests, who call the Great Goddess a demon and deny that she ever held power in this world. At best they say that her power was of Satan. Or else they clothe her in the blue robe of the Lady of Nazareth—who indeed had power in her way too—and say that she was ever virgin. But what can a virgin know of the sorrows and travail of mankind?
Clearly the argument put forth in this text is not that the worshiping of Jesus Christ is oppressive. Rather, Morgaine questions the male priests who reshape and deliver the message of Christ and who consequently create onerous social structures.
For the most part, Morgaine's world revolves around Avalon. Morgaine, like all priestesses in The Mists of Avalon, is a sexually free woman. She has the freedom of choice made possible by her sincere devotion to the Mother Goddess. She participates in the rites of Beltaine where she chooses her lovers: in the outdoors, before Mother Nature, she lets herself go freely to Lancelot, and she chooses to lie with Kevin, Merlin's successor. This freedom has a price to it, however. The Christians within the text consider Morgaine to be a seductresswitch working under the guise of Satan.
Her rebellious nature and. devotion to the Goddess alienate Morgaine from society.
In The Mists of Avalon, Morgaine's paganism is a means of freedom and choice, whereas Gwenivere's devotion to Christianity and consequently her perceptions about sexuality are compared with imprisonment. Gwenivere is jealous of both Morgaine's freedom of speech and her sexual indiscretion. Trapped between her deep feelings of unity with Morgaine, and her proper Christian/social upbringing, Gwenivere can not help but be resentful of Morgaine.
It is only when she finally realizes that her love for Lancelot is the first thing in life she has chosen that Gwenivere can allow herself to go freely to him. For a time, Gwenivere abandons her religious piety and questions whether God exists. After she is savagely raped by Malagant, she feels ashamed and used. Since God could not save her from such a fate, she finds comfort in Lancelot's arms. Even then, however, she is haunted by heavy Christian feelings of guilt and eternal damnation.
The juxtaposition of Christianity with paganism is one found in several versions of the Arthur story. Although it is not always the prevailing motif, religious struggle is nevertheless always present. The religious struggle presented in The Mists of Avalon depicts a metaphorical tug-of-war.
Throughout the text, it is the relationship between Morgaine and Gwenivere which experiences such an exchange—while the two women grow to have an unexpected and perhaps strange love for each other, both are jealous, fearful, and resentful of the other. From the very beginning of the text, Christianity and paganism are diametrically opposed. Bradley makes it quite clear that Gwenivere is oppressed by the Christian Church; she becomes jealous of the freedom Morgaine experiences as a result of her goddess worship. Gwenivere believes that it was a woman's proper business to be married and bear children.. . . Women had to be especially careful to do the will of God because it was through a woman that mankind had fallen into Original Sin, and every woman must be aware that it was her work to atone for that Original Sin in Eden. No woman could ever be really good except for Mary the Mother of Christ; all other women were evil, they had never had any chance to be anything but evil.
This was [their] punishment for being like Eve, sinful, filled with rage and rebellion.
The ridiculous nature of Gwenivere's thoughts depicts the narrator's outrage against the institution of Christianity; just as a great variety of feminist voices have spoken out on religion in the past two centuries, Bradley uses her fiction to bring the women of Camelot out of their silence.
To this end then, The Mists of Avalon exposes the patriarchy of Christianity in favor of the Goddess. We are told by Morgaine that the Christians believe that "there is no Goddess; for the principle of woman is the principle of all Evil" and that women should not presume to read the divine scriptures for they will not know how to understand them properly and should thus "listen to their priests for the true interpretations." In contrast, Viviane, Lady of the Lake, looks upon men with scorn as "the natural prey of the Goddess in the form of her priestesses to be taken or denied as seemed right at the moment."
The Christian tradition embedded in this legend has, in literary history, ensured that powerful women were portrayed as evil.
Thus, stories by early authors often portray Morgan le Fay and Gwenivere as evil whenever they assert political or social power.
Additionally, the concept of original sin enhanced this subversion of women with a holy and legitimate basis which people were too frightened to challenge in the early stages of Christianity. In The Mists of Avalon, however, the main theme is to challenge this primary stage of the religion. The text presents powerful women who confront and oppose the "mindless" Christian priests.
Not surprisingly, Gwen is tempted by the notion of goddess worship throughout The Mists of Avalon. She is presented as a woman who struggles to find a place for herself in the male-dominated world of Camelot. From the beginning of her relationship with Arthur, Gwenivere recognizes her secondary status in the world and reflects that she is only Arthur's "prize of war" and a "broodmare for the High King's stud service." When she begins to fear that she is barren, she goes to Morgaine for a "charm" to help her conceive: "I think perhaps God cares nothing for women—all his priests are men, and again and again the Scriptures tell us that women are the temptress and evil—it may be that is why he does not hear me. And for this I would go to the Goddess—God does not care." In addition when she fears for her life at the hands of Malagant, it is Morgaine and the Goddess to whom Gwenivere appeals: "God did not reward me for virtue. What makes me think he could punish me? ... Perhaps there was no God at all.... Perhaps it was all a great lie of the priests so that they may tell mankind what to do, what not to do, what to believe, give orders." However, Gwenivere's temptation to practice goddess worship is fleeting and short-lived; as tempted as she is at times, Gwenivere is not strong enough to oppose those around her. Bradley portrays a comparable struggle for freedom in the character of Morgan le Fay. Moreover, in juxtaposing Gwenivere and her Christian belief system with Morgaine's character, Bradley emphasizes the social ramifications which women like Morgaine faced.
The feminist visions found in Bradley's text are meant to illustrate how patriarchy oppresses and silences women. Although the plot of her fiction revolves around the legend of King Arthur, her message is one that reaches any contemporary female audience. The patriarchy that is embedded within religious organizations has been magnified over the years and has continued to be negative for women. In her attempt to remove such patriarchy from the legend, Bradley turns to the concept of the Goddess. The story of Arthur (his birth, his reign, his relationship with Morgaine and with Camelot) becomes one which revolves around the power of Avalon and its attempt to save the worship of the Goddess in Britain.
The Mists of Avalon begins dramatically with a note from Morgaine in the prologue of the text: In my time I have been called many things: sister, lover, priestess, wise-woman, queen.
Now in truth I have come to be a wisewoman, and a time may come when these things may need to be known. But in sober truth, I think it is the Christians who will tell the last tale. For ever the world of Fairy drifts further from the world in which the Christ holds sway. I have no quarrel with Christ, only with his priests, who call the Great Goddess a demon and deny that she ever held power in this world. At best they say that her power was of Satan. Or else they clothe her in the blue robe of the Lady of Nazareth—who indeed had power in her way too—and say that she was ever virgin. But what can a virgin know of the sorrows and travail of mankind?
Clearly the argument put forth in this text is not that the worshiping of Jesus Christ is oppressive. Rather, Morgaine questions the male priests who reshape and deliver the message of Christ and who consequently create onerous social structures.
For the most part, Morgaine's world revolves around Avalon. Morgaine, like all priestesses in The Mists of Avalon, is a sexually free woman. She has the freedom of choice made possible by her sincere devotion to the Mother Goddess. She participates in the rites of Beltaine where she chooses her lovers: in the outdoors, before Mother Nature, she lets herself go freely to Lancelot, and she chooses to lie with Kevin, Merlin's successor. This freedom has a price to it, however. The Christians within the text consider Morgaine to be a seductresswitch working under the guise of Satan.
Her rebellious nature and. devotion to the Goddess alienate Morgaine from society.
In The Mists of Avalon, Morgaine's paganism is a means of freedom and choice, whereas Gwenivere's devotion to Christianity and consequently her perceptions about sexuality are compared with imprisonment. Gwenivere is jealous of both Morgaine's freedom of speech and her sexual indiscretion. Trapped between her deep feelings of unity with Morgaine, and her proper Christian/social upbringing, Gwenivere can not help but be resentful of Morgaine.
It is only when she finally realizes that her love for Lancelot is the first thing in life she has chosen that Gwenivere can allow herself to go freely to him. For a time, Gwenivere abandons her religious piety and questions whether God exists. After she is savagely raped by Malagant, she feels ashamed and used. Since God could not save her from such a fate, she finds comfort in Lancelot's arms. Even then, however, she is haunted by heavy Christian feelings of guilt and eternal damnation.
The juxtaposition of Christianity with paganism is one found in several versions of the Arthur story. Although it is not always the prevailing motif, religious struggle is nevertheless always present. The religious struggle presented in The Mists of Avalon depicts a metaphorical tug-of-war.
Throughout the text, it is the relationship between Morgaine and Gwenivere which experiences such an exchange—while the two women grow to have an unexpected and perhaps strange love for each other, both are jealous, fearful, and resentful of the other. From the very beginning of the text, Christianity and paganism are diametrically opposed. Bradley makes it quite clear that Gwenivere is oppressed by the Christian Church; she becomes jealous of the freedom Morgaine experiences as a result of her goddess worship. Gwenivere believes that it was a woman's proper business to be married and bear children.. . . Women had to be especially careful to do the will of God because it was through a woman that mankind had fallen into Original Sin, and every woman must be aware that it was her work to atone for that Original Sin in Eden. No woman could ever be really good except for Mary the Mother of Christ; all other women were evil, they had never had any chance to be anything but evil.
This was [their] punishment for being like Eve, sinful, filled with rage and rebellion.
The ridiculous nature of Gwenivere's thoughts depicts the narrator's outrage against the institution of Christianity; just as a great variety of feminist voices have spoken out on religion in the past two centuries, Bradley uses her fiction to bring the women of Camelot out of their silence.
To this end then, The Mists of Avalon exposes the patriarchy of Christianity in favor of the Goddess. We are told by Morgaine that the Christians believe that "there is no Goddess; for the principle of woman is the principle of all Evil" and that women should not presume to read the divine scriptures for they will not know how to understand them properly and should thus "listen to their priests for the true interpretations." In contrast, Viviane, Lady of the Lake, looks upon men with scorn as "the natural prey of the Goddess in the form of her priestesses to be taken or denied as seemed right at the moment."
The Christian tradition embedded in this legend has, in literary history, ensured that powerful women were portrayed as evil.
Thus, stories by early authors often portray Morgan le Fay and Gwenivere as evil whenever they assert political or social power.
Additionally, the concept of original sin enhanced this subversion of women with a holy and legitimate basis which people were too frightened to challenge in the early stages of Christianity. In The Mists of Avalon, however, the main theme is to challenge this primary stage of the religion. The text presents powerful women who confront and oppose the "mindless" Christian priests.
Not surprisingly, Gwen is tempted by the notion of goddess worship throughout The Mists of Avalon. She is presented as a woman who struggles to find a place for herself in the male-dominated world of Camelot. From the beginning of her relationship with Arthur, Gwenivere recognizes her secondary status in the world and reflects that she is only Arthur's "prize of war" and a "broodmare for the High King's stud service." When she begins to fear that she is barren, she goes to Morgaine for a "charm" to help her conceive: "I think perhaps God cares nothing for women—all his priests are men, and again and again the Scriptures tell us that women are the temptress and evil—it may be that is why he does not hear me. And for this I would go to the Goddess—God does not care." In addition when she fears for her life at the hands of Malagant, it is Morgaine and the Goddess to whom Gwenivere appeals: "God did not reward me for virtue. What makes me think he could punish me? ... Perhaps there was no God at all.... Perhaps it was all a great lie of the priests so that they may tell mankind what to do, what not to do, what to believe, give orders." However, Gwenivere's temptation to practice goddess worship is fleeting and short-lived; as tempted as she is at times, Gwenivere is not strong enough to oppose those around her. Bradley portrays a comparable struggle for freedom in the character of Morgan le Fay. Moreover, in juxtaposing Gwenivere and her Christian belief system with Morgaine's character, Bradley emphasizes the social ramifications which women like Morgaine faced.
The feminist visions found in Bradley's text are meant to illustrate how patriarchy oppresses and silences women. Although the plot of her fiction revolves around the legend of King Arthur, her message is one that reaches any contemporary female audience. The patriarchy that is embedded within religious organizations has been magnified over the years and has continued to be negative for women. In her attempt to remove such patriarchy from the legend, Bradley turns to the concept of the Goddess. The story of Arthur (his birth, his reign, his relationship with Morgaine and with Camelot) becomes one which revolves around the power of Avalon and its attempt to save the worship of the Goddess in Britain.