World in a Song of Ice and Fire by George R

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Fišerová Kristýna The female characters in the fantasy world in A song of ice and fire by George R. R. Martin Bachelor‟s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph. D. 2014 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author‟s signature Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction Page 1 Chapter 2 History of fantasy literature Page 3 Chapter 3 Literature survey Overview of the female heroines in fantasy Page 8 Tolkien and pre-Tolkien era Page 8 Tolkien-esque fantasy Page 11 Later 20th century Page 16 Chapter 4 Literary analysis Females of A Song of Ice and Fire Page 26 The daughters - Arya and Sansa Page 28 The mothers – Cersei and Catelyn Page 33 The warriors – Brienne, Ygritte, and Asha Page 38 Daenerys and the rest of the women Page 42 A Song of Ice and Fire and feminism Page 46 Chapter 5 Conclusion Page 51 Bibliography Page 52 Summary Page 56 Resumé Page 57 1 Introduction This diploma thesis deals with the development of the female characters in fantasy genre with the focus on the series A Song of Ice and Fire. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin (*1948) is a critically acclaimed epic fantasy series that has become a bestseller. Martin set his books in Medieval age, into a feudal society when men held the power in their hands, ruled the kingdoms, became knights, went into the wars, while the women, wives and daughters, stayed home, taking care of the children and households while waiting for their husbands. The series is still incomplete, to this day it consists of five books and Martin plans to write at least two more; and the number of characters is growing alongside the number of the books. The series is written in the points of view of many characters of various ages and social statuses, male and female, ranging from a young nine-year-old noble girl to grown-up male ex-smuggler. Martin presents readers with not one- dimensional characters but well-rounded people, with whom one can sympathize, encourage or strongly dislike them. And amongst the whole variety of characters one finds a great number of female ones who do not just sit home but prove again and again that a woman in the fantasy genre is not only the pretty accessory to a man, but can be just as engaging, powerful and successful as any man. In the present work I will try to offer a brief overview of the history of the fantasy genre alongside the development of heroines. The central aim of my thesis is to analyse protagonists of several fantasy novels and compare 1 them with the female characters of A Song of Ice and Fire. I will try to prove that females are not limited to the stereotypical gender roles seen so often in fantasy literature and that George R. R. Martin is one of the authors whose heroines can be considered feminist and who depicts the way society expects the women to act and treats any woman who oversteps this boundary, e.g., with harshness, cruelty or derision. There have been many literary critics who have been interested in feminism in the fantasy genre. However, the majority of the criticism has been directed at the well-known works of authors such as John R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis or Joanne K. Rowling. Concerning the works which do not have such popularity outside the readers of fantasy, I had to depend on Internet sources. All the used sources are listed in the bibliography. 2 2 History of fantasy literature Fantasy is fiction about the unlike, bizarre and impossible. Fantasy as a genre has not existed too long but its themes and basic elements – fantastic elements, brave protagonists, and various monsters - can be traced back to the ancient times, from famous Greek epic poems to the well-known legend about King Arthur and One Thousand and One Nights. Reading fantasy, a reader escapes into another, alternative world from the real one, forgetting his or her daily worries and immersing themselves in heroic adventures of the protagonists. They do not have to worry about paying the bills, a stressful job or an ever-demanding family; suddenly they are part of the world where people live by different set of rules and other things are valued. But aside from the magical elements, fantasy worlds are not so much different from the real one that a person would find himself or herself uncomfortable and lost; fantasy based on medieval age, which has been the most common setting, includes more often than not sexism, which was in those times an status quo, and the gender inequality reflected in the fantasy books has been possibly relatable over the years. Fantasy literature has been part of every one‟s lives, most notably as fairy tales which children love to listen to or watch; the common misconception that fantasy is for children or that fantasy has been deemed as childish, can stem from this reasoning. As Manlove argues, “There is arguably no difference in status between the child and the adult; only ignorance separates them. To a greater or lesser extent we are still children, only with different ends in view” 3 (8), adults are not so different from children, their worldview is only based on more experiences; moreover, not every adult behaves maturely and every child immaturely. The childish infatuation with fairy tales and the topic of the fight between good versus evil remains in some shape and form in every one, and though he or she reads another genre, the concept of morality can be found in any book - a person trying to overcome their or another‟s vices or a defeat of evil, whether in crime, horror or western. The stories about Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood or Hansel and Gretel are integral part of every one‟s childhood and no one really forget names such as the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen. Later, these fairy tales are revisited over and over in different forms and retold to younger generations and they shape every child‟s view of the world. Fantasy elements have been also featured in other works of literature, such as folklore and myths, and “many scholars of fantasy claimed the genre as a primary form of literature by linking it to the oldest forms of human storytelling” (Mandala, 7). Fantasy genre has been disregarded and ignored, generally seen as a genre primary aimed at children (Mandala, 10) and, as Hunt and Lenz claim, there have been three main opinions towards this genre – “formulaic, childish, and escapist” (9) and some people may still see this genre as inferior to other genres in terms of quality with the stereotypical characters who lack any depth (Mandala 120). Nonetheless, with the publication of The Hobbit in 1937 by John R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973) and subsequently the trilogy The Lord of the Rings, the attitude towards the genre has changed and as a result the demand for fantasy, in particular the epic fantasy, has increased. 4 But there were other fantasy authors before Tolkien, now mostly overshadowed by more successful authors of later times. The very first ones who influenced fantasy writers such as C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) or Tolkien were George MacDonald (1824-1905), a writer of fairy tales such as The Light Princess or The Princess and the Goblin, William Morris (1834-1896), an author of The Wood Beyond the World and The Well at the World‟s End, which are both considered classic fantasy as well as The King of Elfland‟s Daughter by Lord Dunsany (1878 – 1957). Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), MacDonald‟s pupil, wrote in 1865 a novel Alice‟s adventures in Wonderland which impacted the children fantasy with its young heroine suddenly appearing in a secondary world abundant with fantastic and bizarre elements. Another successful children‟s novel with a young heroine was published in 1900, The Wonderful wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, and two years later J. M. Barrie created Peter Pan, a never growing up boy living in Neverland, starring in many of his plays and novels; the end of the nineteenth century also saw the publication of Bram Stoker‟s Dracula, a horror novel with fantastic elements. In the early thirties in twentieth century were published in a first fantasy magazine Weird Tales Robert E. Howard‟s stories about Conan the Barbarian, which have influenced a many author writing a sword and sorcery genre. Tolkien‟s trilogy has undoubtedly impacted the fantasy genre; the story depicts adventures of an entire group - not an individual as was usual till this publication - who has to face the obstacles. Tolkien brought up a new concept of a whole group travelling across the medieval-like world in order to save it. His work has become a success, has been critically acclaimed and widely sought 5 up by readers, and as a result, the publishers had started to look for other fantasy writers, preferably ones writing trilogies (Blackwelder et al 307) who would follow in his steps, e.g. Terry Brooks, Robin Hobb, Ursula K. Le Guin, and many others. In 1977, Terry Brooks‟ trilogy Sword of Shannara showed that even fantasy literature can become a bestseller and after his success other authors followed in his footsteps – as well as Tolkien‟s; this era has brought a wave of writers of second-rate fantasy that was generally uninspiring and brought nothing new, but also authors who tried to be new and innovative.

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