Monstrosity in Medievalism in Richard III and a Song of Ice and Fire Emily Parise
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Locus: The Seton Hall Journal of Undergraduate Research Volume 1 Article 8 October 2018 “You are not on trial for being a dwarf”: Monstrosity in Medievalism in Richard III and A Song of Ice and Fire Emily Parise Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.shu.edu/locus Recommended Citation Parise, Emily (2018) "“You are not on trial for being a dwarf”: Monstrosity in Medievalism in Richard III and A Song of Ice and Fire," Locus: The Seton Hall Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 1 , Article 8. Available at: https://scholarship.shu.edu/locus/vol1/iss1/8 Parise: “You are not on trial for being a dwarf”: Monstrosity in Medieval “You are not on trial for being a dwarf”: Monstrosity in Medievalism in Richard III and A Song of Ice and Fire Emily Parise Seton Hall University Abstract During an interview with MTV, Peter Din- klage, the actor playing Tyrion Lannister on George R.R Martin’s fantasy series, A Song HBO’s Game of Thrones, describes the show of Ice and Fire, and William Shakespeare’s play in forty-five seconds: “Stabby, stabby, stabby, Richard III both utilize a fictionalized medieval stabby, sexy, sexy, sexy, more stabby, stabby, setting, thus creating an act of medievalism. Both beautiful language” (Dinklage). Dinklage’s expla- texts utilize the setting of the War of the Roses to nation of Game of Thrones encapsulates George recreate a violent medieval past for popular con- R.R. Martin’s desires regarding the medieval word sumption. By using the Middle Ages as a back- he creates in A Song of Ice and Fire, the book se- drop for these fictions, Shakespeare and Martin ries the HBO show Game of Thrones is based on. are able to utilize a medieval past to explore me- The first book in the series is titled A Game of dieval and modern anxieties surrounding politics, Thrones, the book from which the show gets its ti- society, and monstrosity. This paper examines the tle. The hyper-violent “stabby, stabby” world of A three major monsters present in these texts: Cer- Song of Ice and Fire creates a significantly more sei and Tyrion Lannister in A Song of Ice and Fire violent modern conception of the Middle Ages, and Richard III in Richard III. These narratives, rewriting popular understandings of the medieval however, only condemns the internal monstrosity period in opposition to other fantasy writers like of Cersei and Richard, while it embraces and up- J.R.R. Tolkien. Martin parallels his novels against lifts the outward monstrosity of Tyrion. These texts the historical War of the Roses, allowing him to only condemn monstrosity that produces further explore violence, war, monarchy, and blood feuds monstrosity though murder and incest. The narra- in his fantasy. tives condemn this kind of monstrosity because it By setting A Song of Ice and Fire in a fantasy encapsulates the cultural fears and anxieties sur- world meant to mimic the English Middle Ages rounding the instability of power at the time they in terms of civil conflict, social structures, and were written. While Tyrion may be condemned costuming, Martin creates a piece of medieval- by Westeros for his physical deformity, these texts ism. medievalism can be defined as “the art, litera- ultimately condemn Cersei and Richard for their ture, scholarship, avocational pastimes and sundry constant attempts at destabilizing the monarchies forms of entertainment and culture that turn to and other social hierarchies in their quests for the Middle Ages for their subject matter or in- sole political power. Therefore, these texts reject spiration, and in doing so, explicitly or implic- monstrosity that produces evil and destabilizes so- itly, by comparison or by contrast, comment on the cial norms, leading to the condemnation of Cersei artist’s contemporary, sociocultural milieu” (Pugh and Richard, but not Tyrion. and Weisl 1). In creating a piece of medieval- Published by eRepository @ Seton Hall, 2018 1 Locus: The Seton Hall Journal of Undergraduate Research, Vol. 1, Iss. 1 [2018], Art. 8 ism, Martin aligns his work with other dramatic ciety. In contrast to Tyrion, Richard III and Cer- recapitulations of the war, most notably, William sei manifest monstrosity in a way that directly im- Shakespeare’s Richard III. Both texts utilize the pacts society – these characters are power hungry setting of the War of the Roses to recreate a vio- and unopposed to killing their enemies to achieve lent medieval past for popular consumption. By that power. The narratives condemn this kind of using the Middle Ages as a backdrop for these fic- monstrosity because it encapsulates the cultural tions, Shakespeare and Martin are able to utilize fears and anxieties surrounding the instability of a medieval past to explore medieval and modern power at the time they were written. While Tyrion anxieties surrounding politics, society, and mon- may be condemned by Westeros for his physical strosity. deformity, these texts ultimately condemn Cersei Martin and Shakespeare explore themes of and Richard for their constant attempts at destabi- monstrosity in their medievalism, allowing mod- lizing the monarchies and other social hierarchies ern and medieval views of monstrosity to exist in in their quests for sole political power. Therefore, conjunction with each other. Concepts and themes these texts reject monstrosity that produces evil of monstrosity are explored by Jeffery Jerome Co- and destabilizes social norms, leading to the con- hen in his book Monster Theory: Reading Culture. demnation of Cersei and Richard, but not Tyrion. Cohen describes the monstrous body as “pure cul- Both Shakespeare and Martin utilize this back- ture” (4), a body that represents the “fear, desire, drop of the War of the Roses as a stage on which anxiety, and fantasy” of the culture in which the they can present their modern monsters. Their monster exists (4). Monster theory explores the monsters are representations of political instabil- values and fear of a culture based on the mon- ity and demonstrate a potential to destabilize fur- sters that certain cultures engender. By setting ther the medieval societies in which these narra- representations of monstrosity in the Middle Ages, tives exist. At its most simple, The War of the these texts utilize a contradiction between me- Roses was a century-long civil conflict between dieval and modern understandings of monsters, the powerful houses of York and Lancaster for contrasting external deformity, and internal mon- control of the English Throne. Henry IV of house strosity. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and Lancaster took the throne from Richard II of the Shakespeare’s Richard III both engage with ideas house York. From there, these two houses en- of monstrous bodies, specifically Tyrion and Cer- gaged in various battles over control of the throne sei Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire), and Richard spanning roughly four generations and six kings III (Richard III). These “monsters” engage with (Henry IV, V, VI, Edward IV, Richard III, and both physical monstrosity, such as a physical de- Henry VII respectively). This conflict worked to formity, and internal monstrosity, such as a will- significantly destabilize traditional ideas about the ingness to commit evil acts like murder and in- monarchy and divine right, as they forced people cest. While these three monsters are condemned to consider how two houses could wage war over by their fictional societies for their various unnat- a throne, if monarchical right was supposed to be ural qualities, the circumstances of A Song of Ice given to the king by God. The conflict, there- and Fire and Richard III only seem to condemn fore, came to demonstrate the fallibility of these the internal monstrosity of Cersei and Richard, social constructs surrounding the throne, reducing while it embraces and uplifts the outward mon- what had once been an established familial line strosity of Tyrion. Tyrion is not condemned for his that passed from father to son, to an object that dwarfism by the narrative because his dwarfism could be fought over and obtained through battle does not create or recreate monstrosity through (Weir). By setting these two conflicts against the murder and incest, thus it poses no threat to so- historical War of the Roses, Shakespeare and Mar- https://scholarship.shu.edu/locus/vol1/iss1/8 2 Parise: “You are not on trial for being a dwarf”: Monstrosity in Medieval tin can similarly use a medieval setting to explore in political theory about the role and temporal- a modern anxiety over the stability of government ity of the so-called “divine rights” of the monar- in their fiction. chy (Finlayson and Frazer 233-335). In “Dic- Unlike Martin’s medievalism fantasies, Shake- tions of Sovereignty: Shakespeare, Theater, and speare’s historical dramas situate themselves in the Representations of Rule,” Alan Finlayson and between genre – they deviate from earlier Ro- Elizabeth Frazer argue that Shakespeare’s political mance Histories, seeking to portray a more real- adaptation, “Engag[es] with what we now think istic tale of both history and the human experi- of as questions of political theory, he makes them ence; however, these plays dramatize history to a part and parcel of the human dilemmas he is dra- point that they cannot be considered a chronicle matizing, produces something insightful and illu- history told by a historian (Dean 34-36). The new minating” (234). When Richard violently kills his genre created by Shakespeare’s earlier histories, own family members, he embraces these questions then, utilizes historical moments to explore polit- by examining the roles of the unnatural and mon- ical themes of monarchy, war, and death. Con- strous in these divinely and politically established cerns of political stability and divine right were monarchies and houses.