Lily's essay on: Another Look at Morgan Le Faye

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Subject: Lily's essay on: Another Look at Morgan Le Faye Wed Mar 15 2006, 01:55

Ok I was exteremly bored and wrote another essay - this one is based on the Morgan Le Faye homework - I decided to give you all another look at her through a wonderful book - The Mists of Avalon - which is my main source for this essay. So enjoy!

Another Look at Morgan Le Faye

The Mists of Avalon is a novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley that tells the King Arthur myth from a feminist point of view. The book tells the story from Morgaine's (in the old sources often called Morgan Le Faye) viewpoint, following her life instead of Arthur's, thus removing the negative stigma attached to her character. In the book, Bradley depicts Morgaine as a woman fighting for a Celtic culture in a country where Christianity threatened to destroy the druidic way of life. Arthur, in her novel, is a strong leader and king, but is unable to resist the ideas of his Christian wife Gwenhwyfar.

Morgaine is the main viewpoint character. She is a character with strong magical powers, capable of Second Sight and transfiguration. She is portrayed as a tragic character, torn between her loyalty to Avalon (which forces her to do things she disapproves of, such as High Priestess Viviane making her sleep with her own half-brother, King Arthur) and her unfulfilled love to Lancelot. She is doomed to witness the demise of the pagan ways of Avalon. In the end, however, she makes peace with Christianity and sees that she never fought the religion itself, but rather the uncivilized ways of the Saxon hordes that threatened Britain during Arthur's early reign. She realizes that once the Saxons have found an appreciation for beauty and peace, that her task has been completed, and some memory of the ancient beliefs of Britain will live on. Morgaine also fought for the survival of her pagan, Mother Goddess religion. In the end, she realizes that the Goddess that she worshipped did not die with the coming of Christianity. The Goddess just took another form in the image of the Virgin Mary.

This book is, above anything, else a philosophical essay. Is there really a god? Is there really a goddess? Is there such a thing as Fate? And can we really paint people black and white, call them good or evil?

Morgaine of the Fairies believed so much that she was doing the right thing -- that she was obeying the goddess -- that she was driven into hurting those people that she loved dearest. This is extremely ironic, for as a young woman Morgaine had defied the goddess and her will and runaway from Avalon. Why suddenly in her old age was it paramount that she obey her goddess? Not only did she renounce the goddess as a young woman, but she sneered on Christian people for their bigotry and narrow-mindedness and for trying to make everyone worship their Christian god . . . when she herself was doing the exact same thing with the goddess! This makes her a hypocrite on the highest degree -- but here's the thing . . . hyprocrisy is human.

Gwenhwyfar is another fanatical hypocrite and is nearly as bad as Morgaine when it comes to Christianity and her One god. And yet, while Gwen preaches and looks down her nose on those "wicked" pagans . . . she is committing adultery behind her husband's back. Is this not hypocrisy as well?

The only person in the entire book that seems pure of sin and wrong is King Arthur, who is torn between his wife and his half sister in their theological feud for his heart. Deep within, he cares really not for what god flies on his banner and leads him into battle, but only for the happiness of everyone around him. So he goes to lengths to please his Christian wife and his pagan half sister. And in a way . . . King Arthur's innocence and lack of hypocrisy almost make him perfect. He is almost not human in this way, but a god that everyone worships and adores.

In the end, none of the characters are really good or evil. People don't do things to be evil, they do them because they think they're right, and this book shows it on the plainest level of understanding.

Another well earned 50 points for a great essay - well done!

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