Intro—
Hook: Gotta get this off my chest—Morgan did nothing wrong. Focus:
Morgan le Fay/ Morgana Pendragon’s character in Arthurian Legend VS BBC’s
Merlin, Name/Credibility, Thesis: the treatment of Morgan le
Fay’s character was trashed for violating sexist societal norms, and this even
bleeds over into modern adaptations like BBC’s Merlin.
-jump
into religion/gender politics of this time
-Morgan
when she first appeared vs Morgan later (GoodàEvil) (Morgan le Fay, Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia)
-Well
whyyyyyyyy?
- (One explanation) Religion and Morgan (Pagan
themes=she’s great, Christian themes=she’s evil) (Don’t get to in depth here—leave a feather that I’m talking about
this more later) (Mladen M., Magic,
paganism and Christianity in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)
-Morgana
Pendragon’s “fall from grace”
-Merlin
spoiler warning oops
-She was really cool at the beginning (Morgana
Pendragon, Merlin Wiki)
-In brief, they gave her a sympathetic path to
villainhood but still vilified her (Morgana Pendragon, Merlin Wiki)
-She
could never be depicted like this in Arthurian legend—how the two differ as a
result of the shifting times
-Let’s get back
to the vilification of Morgan le Fay (Morgan le Fay, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
-The role of women in Medieval times (They existed to
reproduce) (Nbc, Women in Medieval Times)
(Robeson, L., Pawns, Predators and
Parasites: Teaching the Roles of Women in Arthurian Literature Courses.)
-More on
religious tones (Morgan being a relic of Paganism and a woman who wanted power
in a time where women existed to get pregnant and either raise kids at 15 or
die in childbirth, the most common cause of death in girls at the time)—between
culture and religion, people would’ve hated Morgan
(Morgan
le Fay, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
(Robeson, L., Pawns,
Predators and Parasites: Teaching the Roles of Women in Arthurian Literature
Courses.) (Kacelnik, C., Iconography:
Morgan le Fay) (Mladen M., Magic, paganism and Christianity in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)
(Cobb, M., Morgan
le Fay: how Arthurian legend turned a powerful woman from healer to villain)
(Nbc, Women in Medieval Times)
-What if she
were a man—magic was okay for Merlin, even if he was sometimes called devil
spawn, he was still usually seen as good, simply based on gender) (Cobb, M.,
Morgan le Fay: how Arthurian legend
turned a powerful woman from healer to villain)
-I couldn’t even
find any Medieval art of Morgan, no one cared enough I guess
-The role of
women in 2008, when Merlin started,
was of course, super different
-Third wave
feminism (Britannica.com, The third wave
of feminism)
-Women in media
were being portrayed as stronger, and even characters like Dora the Explorer are
an example of this
-There were/are
still a lot of issues of course, but women by 2008 had the chance to be their
own people.
-Despite that, sexism still
bled into Morgana’s vilification
-Empathy
had been a defining quality of her character (Morgana
Pendragon, Merlin Wiki)
-It
felt like as soon as they had a reason for her to be a villain, they dropped
her development and she acted out of character
-Could
also be internalized sexism I guess, but if they were trying to mimic her
“development” from the original myth, then this is an example of just how
messed up the original was
-Popularity from Ancient Text to British Series
-Dr. Vrooman and Raymond Williams both discuss
Television viewing as a sort of “flow” in which it’s not something that you’re
really paying attention to (Vrooman S., “Apparatus Theory”) (Williams R., Television: Technology and cultural form)
-Merlin
came out when streaming was becoming popular (2008, Netflix started online
streaming in 2007)
-Merlin
got a fairly large community of families who were all very interested in the
show itself
-How
Arthurian myth was popularized (12th
Century History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth made it
popular, he said it was from a lost Celtic manuscript he found) (Kelly, J., King Arthur and Camelot: Why the cultural
fascination?)
-This
popularity has lasted because it’s a recyclable story about a hero fighting
evil (and thwarting any women who want power, apparently) (Kelly, J., King Arthur and
Camelot: Why the cultural fascination?)
-Arthurian
stories, modern and old, still draw a lot of people in, so it’s important to
acknowledge problematic themes such as sexism in them
Conclusion:
Main Points: Morgan le Fay/society and religion, Morgana Pendragon and a
new time with old problems, Closure: These issues are prevalent but by
acknowledging them we can make progress, Clencher: Because, as Morgana
said “Sometimes you’ve got to do what you think is right and damn the
consequences.”
References: The third wave of feminism. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/feminism/The-third-wave-of-feminism.
Robeson,
L. (1998). Pawns, Predators and Parasites: Teaching the Roles of Women in
Arthurian Literature Courses. Medieval Feminist Newsletter, 25,
32–36. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2008300881&site=eds-live&scope=site
Raymond
Williams Television Technology and cultural form. (n.d.). Retrieved October 3,
2019, from
http://classes.dma.ucla.edu/Winter13/8/Williams_Televison_Flow.pdf.
Nbc.
(n.d.). Women in Medieval Times. Retrieved from
https://www.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/flatview?cuecard=110965.
Morgana
Pendragon. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://merlin.fandom.com/wiki/Morgana_Pendragon.
Morgan
le Fay. (2019, September 29). Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_le_Fay.
Kelly,
J. (2011, June 9). King Arthur and Camelot: Why the cultural fascination?
Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-13696160.
Kacelnik,
C. (n.d.). Iconography: Morgan le Fay. Retrieved from
https://www.bitchmedia.org/post/iconography-morgan-le-fay.
GATEWAY
TO DATABASES. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://bulldogs.tlu.edu:2160/article/8d46816c1557458e8d8d8da85d3e9404.
Cobb,
M. (2019, January 31). Morgan le Fay: how Arthurian legend turned a powerful
woman from healer to villain. Retrieved from
https://theconversation.com/morgan-le-fay-how-arthurian-legend-turned-a-powerful-woman-from-healer-to-villain-109928.
Morgan le Fay was treated in an unfair, sexist way in
Arthurian mythology, and this has also bled over into the more modern series,
BBC Merlin (as much as I love that show).
Of course, the reasons behind the sexist/unfair treatment of this character
stem from very different between the versions of her character, because there
are like, 1000 years between the two Arthurian tales. In the first version,
Morgan le Fay’s actions are very clearly influence by the culture Arthurian
times. Women’s role in society is to have kids by as early as 15 and dedicate
their entire life to tending however many kids they have. Morgan’s original
depiction was a superpowered protector of Arthur (similar to Merlin) and sister
figure to him. It makes sense that this character wouldn’t have gone over super
well in a society like that one. Also, Christianity was rising. Morgan was a
relic of paganism, and increasingly with Christian culture, which condemned
witchcraft as “of the devil”, was an “inappropriate” power figure due to being
female. Just look at Merlin—he was a magic-user too, and while he was
occasionally referred to as having some relation to the devil, was still
generally depicted as a good guy who used magic to help Arthur. This culture is
what generated Morgan’s shift from benevolent healer to conspiring hag who hits
on men (also seen as an inappropriate thing for a woman to do. Skipping over to
2008, BBC puts Merlin on for the first time. Things are at least better than
they were for women, with them being able to get jobs and not having to spend
all their time on babies and whatnot. Feminism had become a widespread
movement. BBC tried to address this shift by initially depicting Morgana
Pendragon as kindhearted and classy yet powerful, and generally depicted this
as being a fairly accepted thing in their fantasy Camelot. However, they try to
stick extremely loosely to the original mythology in Merlin, so they still
develop her into a bad guy. They began developing her in a sympathetic
tragic-backstory sort of way, which was still good character development, and
an interesting way of working with her character. My issue is that they cast
her aside as soon as this phase of her character is over. They strip her of
every trait that made her such a cool character. The tragic backstory arc she
followed made her aspirations to take what she believed to be her rightful
place on the throne. It didn’t make sense for Morgana to suddenly lose all
empathy when her motives, even as a villain, were based around her empathy for
others and the choice to love and embrace herself and the fact that she was
born with magic, even when she had been raised in a fantasy culture that would
have seen her dead for it. It felt like the writers had just used seasons of
development as an excuse to make her the ultimate evil, whether or not it made
sense. Dr. Vrooman has discussed the internalized views that are brainwashed
into us from an early age. Among racism, homophobia, and transphobia, one of
these views is sexism. Perhaps these under-the-radar views could have led the
(6/8 male) writers to not question the choice to go this direction with
Morgana’s character. (Although that possibility may not actually be
well-founded enough to explore in my presentation.)
Both BBC’s Merlin and actual Arthurian legends start off
with Morgan le Fay/Morgana being lovable and awesome, and end with her being
tattered and gratuitously evil. There are a few reasons for this, but, given
that there are several thousand years between the two texts, they’re a little
different.
Morgan le Fay starts
off as a superhero in Arthurian mythology. She’s badass, she’s literally and
metaphorically magical, she’s a savior figure who heals Arthur and is kind of
his sister, and they’re super tight. But by the end of Arthurian mythos, her
depiction has been reduced an evil, hag-like conspirator who only even has
(dark) magic because she seduced Merlin. One reason for this is her being a
woman of power. The sole purpose of women in Medieval times was basically to
produce offspring and care for that offspring. Girls were typically pregnant by
age 14, and, if they survived childbirth (they often didn’t), had kids by 15.
Morgan at the beginning of Arthurian legend is sort of contradictory to these
societal norms. But what I really want to emphasize here is that, by the time
she had already been vilified, she was vilified for being a woman who pursued
power. She’s constantly lurking around the court, waiting for opportunities to
further her schemes, she seduces men rather than being an object for them to
pursue, and has magic at her disposal. She and Merlin both started out as
protectors of Arthur, but Merlin was allowed to stay a good guy because he
didn’t break strict gender norms, even as Christianity rose and magic was seen
as devilish (but I’ll discuss Christianity’s impact on Morgan’s shift later.)
Morgana from BBC’s Merlin experiences a similar descent in a
very different time. Merlin began in 2008. There were more female characters in
media, we were in the third wave of feminism, and women had become much more
than baby-birthers/tenders. So why do we see this same shift from cool and
strong and likable to “what are you even doing, I feel frustrated every time
you’re even on screen by this point?” The obvious answer that comes to mind is
that they were just sticking with the mythology. However, they nonetheless
vilified her. At the beginning, it made sense. There were “little”
catalysts—the actions her cruel father-figure, Merlin attempting to poison her
because the dragon in his basement told him to, realizing that her father
figure was actually her father and he never told her (at least partially) to
prevent her from having a claim to the throne, etc. But then, after they played
that development out, she just got evil to the point of it being annoying. By
the end, she had lost the thoughtfulness which had previously made her such an
interesting character and was running on blind malice. I can see how they
introduced Morgana in as a strong female character, calling Uther out for the
senseless slaughter of magic-users, showing empathy to everyone, and being at
least Arthur’s equal with a sword. Unlike the original text, they tried to
explain her fall in a more understandable and sympathetic way. But does it say
anything that they still vilified her? Her entire goal became to seize
power—she had herself crowned queen when it seemed like her schemes had come
through, and she was immediately portrayed as irrationally evil—the same
character who had stood up against senseless slaughter, who wanted to become
queen supposedly to end that senseless slaughter, almost shot up a bunch of
hostage peasants, and relished tormenting others, killing without hesitation. A
woman pursuing power to (in theory) end the execution of people with magic was
depicted as evil. If she had remained empathetic would this takeover have even
been a bad thing? And as soon as they were done developing her into a villain,
they basically cast aside that development altogether.
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