The Mists of Avalon

The opening chapters of The Mists of Avalon establish the book’s main themes and ideas, which focus heavily on gender roles and fate. The Mists of Avalon immediately establishes its distinct perspective in the Prologue. Morgaine speaks in the first person, announcing that she plans to tell her story and that women will be at the center of her tale. Morgaine is the only character in The Mists of Avalon to directly address the reader, and she is speaking within the context of a mostly Christianized society that oppresses women due to their connection to Original Sin (that is, Eve eating the apple from the Tree of Knowledge and causing humanity’s expulsion from Eden). This makes her perspective as an assured woman of high status a radical one. By establishing Morgaine as powerful through her distinctively blunt first-person narration, The Mists of Avalon suggests that it will be exploring female experiences during a distinctively sexist time period and presenting a unique addition to the male-dominated Arthurian legends.

Chapter 1 continues to establish The Mists of Avalon’s main themes. If the Prologue serves as a declaration of female sovereignty, Chapter 1 shows that this ideal is not being fulfilled. Though Igraine and Viviane had the same upbringing, their lives could not be more different. Igraine is defined by what she cannot do. She praises Gorlois for allowing her to continue nursing Morgaine even though this prevents her from becoming pregnant, saying that few fathers would risk not having a male heir. Conversely, as Lady of the Lake, Viviane can have children with whomever she wants, telling Igraine that she doesn’t even know all the fathers of her children. While Viviane still lives an austere life in dedication to the Goddess, Avalon affords her a position of power that allows her autonomy Igraine will never know. The initial chapter serves to establish the differences between how Christianity and Druidism treat women.

Chapter 1 also establishes fate as a main driver of the plot and another force that constrains Igraine. It is fate that forced her to abandon her homeland and perceived calling as a priestess, and it was fate that drove her to an unhappy marriage to Gorlois. She laments that living with Gorlois has caused her to lose her Sight. When it returns, she thinks, “Now I have come back to myself” (8), suggesting that for Igraine, losing the Sight was equivalent to losing a part of herself. When she follows fate, she therefore loses key parts of herself in order to submit to a higher duty. However, as a woman, this is one of the only ways she can serve Avalon; her only possible destinies are as a priestess or as a sociopolitical tool to preserve an alliance. She did not choose to be married to a man in his forties as a teenager, but she did so because it served her sister and her homeland.

Chapter 2 gives the reader another glimpse into the difference between gender roles in Avalon and Christian Britain. When Taliesin the Merlin is imploring Igraine to marry Uther, he tells her he is her father but has “no right” to dictate her choices (16). Rather than surprise, Igraine calmly reflects that she assumed the Merlin slept with her mother at some point: Avalon teaches Taliesin that his role as a man is to provide sons and not to interfere with his children’s life unless prompted. By contrast, Igraine must endure Gorlois’s constant prodding for an heir. Patriarchal Christianity values women for their ability to provide children and expand their husband’s power. Igraine’s relationship to fate further complicates her life and choices. Fate is an important part of the culture of Avalon, but it is hard for her to believe that fate is the most important force in her life when Gorlois dictates so much of her world. This suggests that Avalon’s gender dynamics make it easier for the Merlin and Viviane to accept fate, since their lives are less rigid in the first place. Igraine tries to assert this in her own decision-making when she thinks “I am a woman […] I will do my own, and not that of the Lady of the Lake” (19).

In Chapter 3, Zimmer Bradley looks more closely at gender roles, offering Gorlois and Uther as two types of men within British society. Both men are powerful, ambitious, and warlike. However, the differences in their treatment of Igraine suggest that each man has a unique understanding of women and their role in society. When Igraine, a woman who has received at least some formal schooling, tries to engage with Gorlois on matters of state, he shuts her down and only relents when Igraine reminds him that the council’s actions will impact her as a person who lives in Britain. This leads to Igraine calling the foundation of her relationship with Gorlois into question, as his disrespect of her in political situations suggests that he does not think highly of her.

Conversely, Uther is excited to discuss the political process with her, and Igraine feels “struck […] with sudden wonder that she was sitting here on a tree branch with the next High King of Britain, talking about religion and matters of the state” (45). Uther trusts and respects Igraine enough to seek her advice from the day he meets her, whereas Gorlois continues to demean her intelligence four years into their marriage. Uther is also not afraid to show emotion and cries in front of Igraine hours after the men praise rulers with strength and manliness. Uther’s eventual selection as High King shows that tenderness and other traditionally feminine qualities have a place on the British throne.