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. are present and pressing concern to Shakespeare’s While Martin’s medievalism also explore society. At the end of the sixteenth century, when monstrosity through a retelling of the War of the Richard III was first being performed, Queen Eliz- Roses, Martin’s story utilizes the twenty-first cen- abeth I was strong, but she was past childbearing tury fantasy genre, which stems from Tolkien’s age without an heir, and the Catholic Church had publication of The Hobbit in the early twentieth put a bounty on her Protestant head. If Richard century. Tolkien’s fantasy was rooted in a fantasti- III embodies the anxieties surrounding this in- cal reimagining of the Middle Ages, where magic stability, then Henry VII, the triumphant hero at and the medieval function together to tell a mod- the end of the play, serves as a reminder of the ern story with a seemingly older past. Martin’s end of the Tudor line in “History as Echo: En- novels operate under a similar pretense, allowing tertainment Historiography from Shakespeare to him to tell a modern story by utilizing themes, el- HBO’s Game of Thrones,” Amy Rodgers argues ements, and images of the medieval, which define that “Shakespeare’s histories (and early modern his novels as acts of medievalism. Martin attempts England) were similarly concerned with national to recreate the Middle Ages through what he de- and monarchical origins, attempting, as they do, to scribes as a “more realistic” lens. Shiloh Carroll, celebrate a Tudor dynasty that had stabilized Eng- in “Rewriting the Fantasy Archetype,” argues that land after 30 years of civil war but was coming to by creating a hyper-violent anti-Disneyland me- a decisive end with the aging Elizabeth” (144). I dievalism that still embraces fantastical elements am not arguing that Elizabeth was not a beloved like dragons “Martin has found a middle ground or effective queen; rather, her childless reign had that allows him to align himself with Tolkien yet left her nation anxious about its own fate once separate himself from Tolkien’s imitators” (61). her successful reign was over. The instability of This split allows Martin’s novels to do more than the future circumstance of England become em- have both grotesque violence and magic in one bodied in Richard’s1 usurping body, as he desta- narrative; recreates a new way for audiences to bilizes the monarchy and the nation in pursuit of perceive the missile ages, by providing a more vi- personal and political gain. Shakespeare uses his olent perception of the Middle Ages than the tra- stage to recreate the Middle Ages while engaging ditional Tolkien medievalism. Rodgers argues that “This sense of instability, of not knowing what’s 1 All references to Richard refer to Richard III, unless about to happen, speaks to the moment ... it’s otherwise noted.

Published by eRepository @ Seton Hall, 2018 3 Locus: The Seton Hall Journal of Undergraduate Research, Vol. 1, Iss. 1 [2018], Art. 8

hard to dramatize economic uncertainty, so why By subjecting the monarchy to the judgement of not convey this feeling through a made-up ver- the people they rule, the roles of subject and sion of the Wars of the Roses” (qtd. in Rodgers). monarch are conflated. The King is subject to Martin creates a sense of not knowing by creat- his people’s judgement as much as they are sub- ing a new and shocking perception of the Middle ject to the judgement of the monarch. This con- Ages, coupled with the instability of the War of flation eliminates a sense of social hierarchies in the Roses. By combining these medieval elements theater and popular fiction, allowing the powers of with a modern audience, Martin creates a space the king and the people to be effectively the same; in which he explores representations of monstros- when this happens, the absolute rule of the monar- ity across both periods, utilizing Tyrion and Cer- chy becomes open to social opinion, leaving the sei Lannister’s characters to redefine medieval and royal family vulnerable and penetrable; thus, this modern monstrosity. vulnerability creates the possibility of monstrosity By placing monsters in the monarchy, these not only within the culture being ruled rule, but monsters become keenly linked with cultural con- within the ruling family itself. cerns and political concerns. Both monarchies are When the monarchies are exposed to mon- presented as the pinnacle of a society that has been strosity, and thus exposed to cultural fears and brought low by problems within the royal hierar- anxieties, the very roots that have established the chy, rather than from external sources. The civil monarchy’s absolute rule are threatened. The conflict represented in both A Song of Ice and monsters that inhabit a space in royalty have the Fire and Richard III allows the audience to see the most potential to destroy that monarchy. Richard monarchy as a penetrable, fallible structure that is III begins his play with a soliloquy surrounding capable of breeding monstrosity and imperfection. his own deformity and his role as the villain in Both of these monarchies are presented to audi- Richard III. He describes himself as a person who ences of common people; for Shakespeare, this has been “Cheated of feature by dissembling Na- audience is the urban populace in the theaters on ture” (1.1.19), describing Nature’s personified role the outskirts of London, and for Martin his audi- in his deformity. By establishing his deformity, ences are the readers of A Song of Ice and Fire and therefore his external monstrosity, as some- and the viewers of HBO’s Game of the Thrones. thing brought on by Nature, Richard is able to Finlayson and Frazier argue that conflate his internal monstrosity with his external In setting English Kings before an deformities, essentially establishing them as one audience of commoners, the theater and the same. He further conflates his disabled nourished the cultural conditions that nature and villainous personality later in the so- eventually permitted the nation to bring liloquy, when he says, “I cannot prove a lover / its King to trial, not because the the- ... I am determined to prove a villain” (1.128-30). ater approvingly represented the subver- Richard conflates his inability to be the romantic sive acts, but rather because representa- lover because of his outward deformity with the tion became itself subversive. Whatever internal choice to play the role of the evil villain, their overt ideologically content, history a role determined by a person’s internal desires. plays inevitably if unconsciously, weak- By establishing earlier that his physical form is ened the structure of authority: on stage the result of Nature, his use of the word “deter- the king became a subject—the subject mined” could take on two meanings. First, that of the author’s imagining and the sub- his external form, the result of Nature, determines ject of the attention and judgement of an his place as a villain in his own narrative. Sec- audience of subjects (234). ond, it could also reflect a personal choice to es-

https://scholarship.shu.edu/locus/vol1/iss1/8 4 Parise: “You are not on trial for being a dwarf”: Monstrosity in Medieval

tablish himself as the villain, allowing his external culture that they exist in, then Richard’s monstros- form to reflect his internal monstrosity. Richard’s ity embodies both medieval and Renaissance anx- nature has made him both physically and inter- ieties surrounding the stability (or instability) of nally monstrous, and Richard reinforces that idea the British throne. in these two lines. Richard effectively establishes Richard’s role as uprooter at the end of the a binary for himself with lover on one side and vil- conflict is the capstone to this destabilization. The lain on the other. If villainy is marked by outward instability of monarchy within and outside of the deformities such as his own, then his outward ap- royal family is the anxiety that has manifested it- pearance as not-lover marks him as villain, placing self on the British stage at the end of the six- him on the side of the binary that surrounds ideas teenth century. Cohen references Richard III in his of monstrosity. fourth of seven theses, writing “at its most active, Richard III is a prime example of an uprooting culture gives birth to a monster before our eyes, monster; not only has the house of York taken the painting over the normally proportioned Richard throne (taken the throne back, depending which who once lived, raising his right shoulder to de- family is being supported) from the house of Lan- form his simultaneously person, cultural response, caster, but Richard now seeks power for him- and the possibility of objectivity” (9). Cohen ar- self within his own family line. The War of the gues that Richard’s body becomes deformed by Roses conflict itself has uprooted stable concep- the culture that reflects on him – Shakespeare’s tions about the monarchy, but Richard now is up- audience. The representation of Richard on the rooting his own family tree in pursuit of power. In stage depends on the way that culture desires to Richard III, Margaret of Anjou describes Richard shape the anxieties it sees reflected in his inter- as a “rooting hog” (1.3.127) establishing his na- nal desires. Richard’s internal monstrosity, then, ture as animalistic and destructive. The use of becomes represented by the physically monstrous the word “rooting” in conjunction with the im- qualities of a raised shoulder, crippled hand, and age of Richard as an animal allows the metaphor limp walk for the benefits of live drama. By con- to do more than simply comment on Richard’s structing the monstrous body of Richard for the physical deformity; “rooting” adds a present ac- stage, Shakespeare alters history to create a refer- tion to the animalistic quality, an action that im- ential history of monsters and instability by utiliz- plies Richard’s desires to uproot his own family ing a monstrous Richard to reflect the current re- tree. Richard’s monstrosity manifests itself in his ligious and political anxieties surrounding the En- unnatural desires to usurp his own family line, and glish throne. The text can only resolve this conflict seem to be made physical by his deformity. His when Henry VII defeats Richard in battle, ascend- outward deformity merely marks him as different ing the English throne and marrying Elizabeth of and provides a visual monstrosity to accompany York, thus blending the houses of Lancaster and his character on the renaissance stage. When his York. Richard III ends with Henry VII uniting the outward deformity and internal unnatural desires red rose and the white, and ending the civil con- to murder his way to the throne are combined, flict; Shakespeare writes, “All this divided York Richard becomes marked as monstrous. Richard’s and Lancaster, / ... By God’s fair ordinance con- monstrosity is about more than simple desire to joined together / ... Now civil wounds are stopp’d kill both his enemies and family; his desires truly and peace lives again” (5.5.27-40). Henry VII’s center on his desire to uproot the monarchy, the speech and subsequent ascension re-stabilize Eng- ideas of divine right, and lawful succession. If land by putting a permanent end to the conflict. “the monster’s body quite literally incorporates This merge re-stabilizes England in the aftermath fear, desire, anxiety, and fantasy” (Cohen 4) of the of the War of the Roses by allowing Henry VII to

Published by eRepository @ Seton Hall, 2018 5 Locus: The Seton Hall Journal of Undergraduate Research, Vol. 1, Iss. 1 [2018], Art. 8

become the hero figure once he defeats the mon- of succession, leaving the nation without a true ster. king after Robert Baratheon dies. If Richard III surrounds anxieties regarding Cersei revisits the image of herself as an up- the instability of monarchy, A Song of Ice and rooter in A Feast for Crows, while she is in bed Fire embraces those anxieties full force. The ti- with her best friend, Taena Merryweather. In this tle A Game of Thrones2 embraces the destabi- moment, Cersei thinks back to her marriage with lized nature of the monarchy in Westeros by ac- her now dead husband; Martin writes, “Ten thou- knowledging how ideas of lawful ascension have sand of your children perished in my palm, Your been reduced to nothing but a competition for the Grace ...Whilst you snored, I would lick your sons Iron Throne. The ideas of uprooting the monar- off my face and fingers one by one, all those pale chy apply in similar ways as they had in Richard sticky princes. You claimed your rights, my lord, III. Rather than a single character seeking to up- but in the darkness I would eat your heirs” (A root his entire familial line through murder, Queen Feast for Crows 692-93). Like Richard, Cersei has Cersei becomes a monstrous uprooter by reject- been made monstrous by her unnatural desires to ing her role as heir-producer for King Robert prevent and tear down the succession of the fam- Baratheon. She uproots his line of heirs simply ily line in place of achieving her own power. Cer- by refusing to produce children for him, because sei’s thought “I would eat your heirs”(A Feast for of her hatred for him and her love for her brother, Crows 193) mimics Richard’s command: “Shall I Jamie. She cuckolds her husband with her own be plain? I wish the bastards dead” (4.2.19), will- twin brother, giving birth to three children who ing the death of children in return for her own have been produced solely through the Lannis- political advancement. Valerie Frankel unpacks ter line. Her desire to be with her brother evi- these moments of cuckolding and child eating in dent throughout the series, as well as her fierce her book Women in Game of Thrones—Power, rejection of the idea of having her husband’s chil- Conformity and Resistance. In her chapter “Ex- dren. When Ned Stark confronts her about her ploring Archetypes and Tropes” she writes, “[Cer- children’s illegitimacy, she admits that she went sei] takes her secret revenge by having children so far as to have an abortion to avoid giving birth with her brother instead of her husband, denying to one of Robert’s legitimate children, telling Ned Robert progeny and placing full Lannister’s on the “[Robert] never knew. If truth be told, I can throne. ... her adultery brings down the kingdom” scarcely bear for him to touch me, and I have not (90). Her adultery comes directly from her unnat- let him inside me for years” (Game of Thrones ural sexual attraction to her twin brother, as well 407). Cersei physically uproots Robert’s natu- as her disdain for her husband. Her desire for her ral line of succession when she aborts his legit- brother and to spite her husband create Cersei’s imate child, and she further ensures that Robert monstrosity, and allow her to reproduce her mon- will not plant that line by refusing to have sex with strosity by bearing her brother’s children in place him. She single handedly puts an end to the royal of her husband’s children. Frankel writes, “Cer- Baratheon line by producing bastard children who sei’s falseness and its consequences are a symp- are exclusively Lannister set to inherit the throne. tom of patriarchal culture. ... ‘When woman be- Cersei becomes monstrous by both avoiding a tra- comes man’s property, he wants a virgin, and he ditional feminine role and by achieving power for demands total fidelity at the risk of severe penalty herself through her Lannister children, creating in- ... conjugal infidelity on the part of the woman stability by eliminating all true heirs from the line is considered a crime of high treason’” (de Beau- voir 91 qtd. in Frankel 90). Frankel identifies Cer- 2 Referring to both the first book in the series and the TV sei’s actions as stemming directly from the culture show.

https://scholarship.shu.edu/locus/vol1/iss1/8 6 Parise: “You are not on trial for being a dwarf”: Monstrosity in Medieval

that these actions reject and prohibit. By deny- suggests that she can only find sexual relief in rela- ing Cersei the sexual freedom that she desires, tionships and situations in which she can produce the culture of Westeros has produced a monstrous, children. Her refusal to have vaginal sex with her cuckolding queen, who puts a stop to the natu- husband and the same-sex nature of this moment ral line of kings she should have produced in her with her best friend do not allow for conception. time as queen. Through this action, “Cersei usurps She only finds pleasure in the incestuous relation- the line of succession, substituting another man’s ship that she engages in with her twin. Cersei can- child for Robert’s own, an act that is both treason not, then, escape her own monstrosity. Her role and the ultimate emasculation” (Frankel 90). If, as a “normal” queen depends on her producing as Cohen argues, “the monster’s body quite liter- heirs for the King, which she fails to do before ally incorporates fear, desire, anxiety, and fantasy” his death. She can only further feel sexual grati- (4) of the cultures that create them, then Cersei, fication in moments that do not only cuckold her like Richard, embodies the fear of political uncer- dead husband (like the moment with Taena) but tainty, and a single person’s ability to completely also provide her with the possibility of more mon- uproot the monarchy. Cersei’s body becomes, like strous Lannister children, something she can only Richard’s, the physical representation of her un- achieve through her relationship with her brother. natural desires when her womb bears bastard chil- By these definitions of uprooters, Tyrion Lan- dren, introducing instability into the nation. nister should also be considered a monstrous up- Cersei’s ability to produce heirs is directly rooter; however, neither the text nor the audi- connected her attitudes regarding her various sex- ence condemns his uprooting action of killing his ual relationships. The moment in bed with Taena father. Although his physically deformed body Merryweather allows her to achieve masculine places him as logical comparison to Richard, Mar- power by dominating the other woman. Cersei tin constructs Tyrion’s character as everything but imagines herself both as the man in this moment, a power hungry murderer. In contrast to Shake- comparing herself to her now-dead husband; Mar- speare’s morally deformed and thus physically tin writes “‘I am the queen. I mean to claim my monstrous Richard, Tyrion’s outward deformity rights.’ ... but it was no good. She could not feel juxtaposes his internal goodness. Tyrion does not it, whatever Robert felt on the nights he took her. work for the advancement of himself, nor is he There was no pleasure in it, not for her” (692). In war mongering – he presents himself as a logi- this moment, Cersei fails to achieve full mascu- cal diplomat working for the advancement of his line power, equating herself still with her female realm. Westerosi society has always considered sex and role as queen, rather than king. She com- Tyrion monstrous because of his dwarfism, and pares herself to her late husband in an attempt to his own family views him with the same ideas feel the power and sexual aggression he felt to- of monstrosity. Tyrion’s father, Tywin Lannister, wards her, but fails in that moment to assume the hates him, refuses to acknowledge Tyrion’s claim kingly husband role, remaining emotionless in the to their home estate (Casterly Rock), and often re- act. Cersei attempts to imagine herself as a beast marks that Tyrion is a lecherous beast. Tywin’s in an attempt to achieve the masculine power she rejection of Tyrion’s lawful right to Casterly Rock desires; Martin writes that Cersei “imagine[s] that stems directly from Tyrion’s role in society and a her fingers were a boar’s tusks, ripping the Myr- dwarf – a monstrous curse to someone as power- ish woman apart from groin to throat” (A Feast for ful as Tywin. The text presents the rejection of the Crows 693). However, this attempt fails, and she child by the father as truly monstrous, rather than admits to herself, “it had never been any good with presenting the deformity as inherently monstrous. anyone but Jamie” (A Feast for Crows 693), which Furthermore, the rejection of Tyrion’s birthright

Published by eRepository @ Seton Hall, 2018 7 Locus: The Seton Hall Journal of Undergraduate Research, Vol. 1, Iss. 1 [2018], Art. 8

connects to an observation that Tyrion makes in A he is not engaging in the cruel action of murder, he Game of Thrones. While Tyrion is talking to Jon enacts heroic justice on the monster who harmed Snow, Ned Stark’s bastard son, Tyrion remarks, him. He brings Tywin low in his final moments, “All dwarfs are bastards in their father’s eyes” getting revenge on the man who tormented him (47). It is the acknowledgement of his own inher- for his entire life. The story of the bastard get- ently abject state, paired with the reader’s knowl- ting revenge on the cruel father resonates with the edge of Tyrion’s character in contrast to the way audiences for A Song of Ice and Fire and Game he is perceived by society that creates sympathy of Thrones, because, unlike Cersei or Richard’s for his character. Tywin goes so far as to sentence methods for uprooting their family, the audience Tyrion to death when Tyrion is found guilty of is able to view Tyrion as an intelligent and well- regicide, despite seeming to know that Tyrion had meaning underdog/hero figure, in contrast to his nothing to do with the crime of which his family abusive and cruel father. Unlike Richard’s child had been accused. Therefore, when Tyrion finds killing or Cersei’s incest, the text does not suggest his father on the privy, as Tyrion is escaping prison that this is a moment of monstrosity, cruelty, or before being beheaded, Tyrion takes this moment uprooting, rather, the otherwise monstrous act is as an opportunity to kill his father. His father’s defined as an act of justice. lasts words him are “You ... you are no ... no Despite the text and the audience supporting son of mine” (A Storm of Sword 1073). This mo- Tyrion, the overarching culture of Westeros de- ment confirms what Tyrion and the audience al- spises him because of his outward deformity. De- ready know – Tyrion was nothing more than a bas- scriptions of Tyrion and other dwarfs as lusty and tard in the eyes of his father. sinful animals are persistent throughout the text, Tywin quickly becomes known throughout the and seem to reflect genuine medieval attitudes to- narrative as one of the primary villains in West- wards little people. Consider the description of the eros, and Joseph Young explores the text’s treat- dwarf of Chretien´ de Troyes’s romance Lancelot: ment of Tywin in “‘Enough about whores”: Sex- the Knight of the Cart: “the dwarf, low-born and ual Characterization in A Song of Ice and Fire,” ar- disgusting” (352-53), meant to cart around crim- guing that “[Martin] uses sex as a way of encour- inals, and more than anything else, stands in the aging readers to consider the way his characters way of the knightly heroes completing their quest interact with the world” (47). Young’s argument to save the queen. Although the dwarf is not carries into a discussion of Tywin’s sexual prac- a major player in Chretien’s´ romance, he serves tices and his roles in the narrative, Young writes, to represent the negative ideas of impishness in “By the time Tywin actually appears ... he is ... al- medieval literature and culture. These negative ready cemented in the reader’s minds as a villain. attitudes towards dwarfs have been maintained His subsequent follies ... demonstrate the brittle- in Martin’s Westeros, and are not unfamiliar to ness of the persona he hides behind. His tryst with Tyrion despite, in contrast to Chretien’s´ dwarf, Shae [a whore and Tyrion’s lover] settles the is- his noble birth. The text utilizes this medieval sue. Lannister’s sexual imagination moves Mar- perspective in conjunction with Tyrion’s point of tin’s critique of the man up a gear, depicting him ... view, allowing him to become a more sympathetic as an actively hypocritical villain” (50). The text underdog character that modern audiences root for establishes Tywin as a villain, especially in op- opposed to the medieval monster that the West- position to Tyrion—his power and cruelty mimic erosi society has deemed Tyrion to be. Tyrion and exceed Cersei’s to such an extent that he be- tells Jon Snow to “...never forget what you are, for comes the one the narrative considers the monster, surely the world will not. Make it your strength. rather than Tyrion. When Tyrion kills his father, Then it can never be your weakness. Armor your-

https://scholarship.shu.edu/locus/vol1/iss1/8 8 Parise: “You are not on trial for being a dwarf”: Monstrosity in Medieval

self in it, and it will never be used to hurt you” to acknowledge him as a hero to her. Tyrion’s (A Game of Thrones 47). Tyrion’s recognition chivalry contrasts with his physical deformity, pre- of society’s treatment of him allows him to “ar- venting him from being seen as the hero to the so- mor [himself] in it,” and resist Westeros’s simplis- ciety that he resides in, but allowing the readers tic labeling of him as monster. Other than his and viewers to understand him as one of the pri- physical deformity and some indulgence in wine mary protagonists of the series. His dwarfism pre- and whores, Tyrion does not embody medieval or vents him from being the perfect medieval hero, modern anxieties over rule and power. Instead, but modern audiences do not necessarily seek the Tyrion represents a desire reject the “lover-villain” same romantic stories that Sansa does. Modern binary established by Richard III, allowing his de- audiences, rather, appreciate and root for a char- formity to armor and protect him, allowing Tyrion acter who has the odds stacked against him, and to be recognized as a hero character in the series still manages to embody the best parts of chivalry, to the modern audience. often with a glass of wine in his hand and whore A Song of Ice and Fire, in direct contrast to in his bed. Tyrion, then, becomes both the modern its medieval society, ultimately comes to uplift hero and the anti-monster. In this way, the series Tyrion as the closest thing to a medieval knight in utilizes its modern context and medieval setting to the text. The narrative often challenges the idea of redefine ideas of monstrosity and chivalry, making medieval knights by painting the knights of West- the monstrous body of Tyrion the ideal knight, and eros as cruel and abusive. In the article “Tyrion’s the beautiful queen the monster. Gallantry,” Jamie Hovey describes the ways in Tyrion’s character starts to break down, how- which the narrative consistently rejects chivalry by ever, when the social perception of him as mon- putting forth knights who are cruel, violent, and strous leaves him accused of killing King Joffrey misogynistic (86). Hovey writes, “Martin teaches . Tyrion, prior to being accused, is the victim of us to read chivalry with a critical eye while never jokes and mild cruelty, but now his deformity al- entirely losing sight of its ideals, and his best char- lows the people in Westeros to quickly turn against acters also learn to see through the reifies illu- him, and stand up willing to condemn him. In this sions of romantic chivalry” (88). His discussion moment, his ability to use his dwarfism as his ar- of Martin’s portrayal of courtesy complements the mor fails him, as it cannot stand against the actual ways in which the narrative challenges ideas of legal system of Westeros. In season four episode monstrosity through Tyrion. The moments where six, “The Laws of Gods and Men,” at the end of knights are contrasted with Tyrion tend to revolve his trial, Tyrion says: around Sansa Stark, a young girl who is abused I saved you, I save this city, and by Westerosi society nearly as much as Tyrion all your worthless lives ... I’m guilty. is. Sansa holds onto romantic ideas of knight- Guilty, is that what you want to hear? hood, chivalry, and courtesy, thinking, “Knights ... I’m guilty of a far more monstrous are sworn to defend the weak, protect women, and crime. I’m guilty of being a dwarf ... A Clash of Kings fight for the right” ( 490). How- I’ve been on trial for that my entire life. ever, it is often Tyrion who comes to her aid, ful- ... I did not do it. I did not kill Joffrey, filling her romantic fantasy of knighthood in every but I wish that I had. Watching your vi- aspect except stature. When Sansa is beaten and cious bastard die gave me more relief stripped of her clothing, Tyrion calls an end to the than a thousand lying whores. I wish I A abuse and escorts Sansa back to her chambers ( was the monster you think I am. I wish Clash of Kings 486-494). Tyrion saves Sansa, but I had enough poison for the whole pack she struggles to see past his deformity, and refuses of you. I would gladly give my life to

Published by eRepository @ Seton Hall, 2018 9 Locus: The Seton Hall Journal of Undergraduate Research, Vol. 1, Iss. 1 [2018], Art. 8

watch you all swallow it. I will not give in which Tyrion’s treatment has become a “cul- my life for Joffrey’s murder, and I know tural response” (Cohen 9) to deformity. Oberyn, I’ll get not justice here. So I will let the however, sees through this cultural response to so- gods decide my fate. I demand a trial by called monstrosity: “[Cersei] unveiled the freak. combat. Your head was a bit large, your arms a bit small, Here, chivalry fails him, as he has no one to de- but no claw, no red eye, no tail between your legs, fend but himself; he is aware of his treatment by just a tiny pink cock. We didn’t try to hide our society, and cannot maintain chivalry and survive, disappointment. ‘That’s not a monster,’ I told Cer- because the society of Westeros will not see past sei, ‘that’s just a baby.’” (S4, E7). Oberyn, here, his dwarfism to accept him as a knightly hero. He makes an important distinction between outward establishes a difference between their perception and inward monstrosity. He recognizes the hu- of him and his actual character; he articulates that manity of Tyrion in this moment, and, despite his he is only being held for trial because of his phys- poorly proportioned body, marks the body as dis- not ical form not because of evidence against him. tinctly monstrous, just simply a little different, When his father protests that “you are not on trial but still human. Oberyn acknowledges something for being a dwarf” (S4, E6), Tyrion retorts with that the audience of the show has been conscious the knowledge of his social status as scapegoat – of the entire series – Tyrion is not the monster to Richard III a social standing that only exists because of his be feared, even if, like , he stands in external form, and has nothing to do with his in- front of the audience physically deformed. ternal strengths. When chivalry fails him in this Monsters reflect the fears and anxieties of the moment, there is nothing left for Tyrion to do but cultures that create them; for Shakespeare these to fall back on the monstrous perception of him, are early modern fears, and for Martin they are demanding death for the people who seek to con- modern fears. However, both authors graft their demn him. This desire likely stems from the re- fears onto the medieval setting of the War of the alization that, no matter how much he embodies Roses. The fears of instability and the unknown in chivalric idealism, he will always fall short of so- the political sphere can easily be explored through cial expectations, and remain a monster in the eyes this medieval war because the period itself is open of society. to monstrosity. As the War of the Roses destabi- Following Tyrion’s trial, the show extends a lized monarchy in the Middle Ages, it became an scene from the books, where Oberyn Martell, the unstable period that can breed projections of mon- prince of Dorne, agrees to be Tyrion’s champion strosity and fear in the medieval, early modern, or in his trial by combat. Oberyn tells Tyrion the modern era. The society has become perceived as story of the first time they met, when Tyrion had so unstable in its century of war that stories like Richard III A Song of Ice and Fire just been born: “All anyone talked about was and grow al- the monster that had been born to Tywin Lan- most naturally out of the conflict. When the War nister” (S4, E7). The people of Westeros had of the Roses uprooted one king after another, the come to define Tyrion as monstrous because of integrity of the monarch became suspect. Once his physical deformity from his first days alive. the king was suspect and civil war broke out, the Oberyn continues to describe the list of deformi- period became an opportunity for modern ideas of ties people had ascribed to Tyrion, including claws instability and the unknown to be explored. The and a tail. Like Richard’s deformity in Shake- War of the Roses established ideas about uncer- speare’s play, the culture of Westeros adds de- tainty in politics, the problems with monarchy, as formities to Tyrion, making him more monstrous well as providing an image of the Middle Ages as than he is, allowing the show to explore the ways a period immense violence. The conjunction of

https://scholarship.shu.edu/locus/vol1/iss1/8 10 Parise: “You are not on trial for being a dwarf”: Monstrosity in Medieval

the instability of England during the War of the Representation of Rule.” Parliamentary Affairs, Roses with ideas of monstrosity and violence in vol. 64, no. 2, Apr. 2011, p. 233. the Middle Ages allowed Martin and Shakespeare to develop a “stabby” Middle Ages in their recre- Hovey, Jaime. ”Tyrion’s Gallantry.” Critical ations. These writers use the fictionalized Middle Quarterly, vol. 57, no. 1, Apr. 2015, pp. 86-98. Ages as a place to set their violent monsters and conceptions of instability. Monstrosity, to these “The Laws of Gods and Men.” Game of Thrones, authors, is defined not by a physical form, but by written by David Benioff, s. 4, ep. 6, HBO, 11 an ability and desire to maintain instability, rather May 2014 than a development towards peace found at the end of the war or the end of the game. Martin, George RR. A Clash of Kings. Bantam Books, 1999. Works Cited A Feast for Crows. Bantam Books, 2005. Carroll, Shiloh. “Rewriting the Fantasy Archetype.” Fantasy and Science-Fiction Me- A Game of Thrones. Bantam Books, 1996. dievalisms – From Isaac Asimov to Game of Thrones. Cambridge UP, 2015, pp. 59-73. A Storm of Swords. Bantam Books, 2000.

Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. ”Monster Culture (Seven “Mockingbird.” Game of Thrones, written by Theses).” Monster Theory: Reading Culture, Davin Benioff, HBO, S. 4, Ep. 7, 18 May 2017. Jeffrey Jerome (ed. and preface) Cohen, U of Minnesota P, 1996, pp. 3-25. Pugh, Tison and Angela Jane Weisl. Me- dievalisms: Making the Past in the Present. Chretien de Troyes. Lancelot; the Knight of the Routledge, 2013. Cart. Translator Burton Raffel, Yale UP, 1997. Rodgers, Amy. ”History as Echo: Entertainment Dean, Paul. “Shakespeare’s Henry VI Trilogy and Historiography from Shakespeare to HBO’s Elizabethan “Romance” Histories: The Origins of Game of Thrones.” Shakespearean Echoes, Adam a Genre.” Shakespeare Quarterly, Spring 1982, (ed. and introd.) Hansen and Kevin J., Jr. (ed. and vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 34-48. introd.) Wetmore, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, pp. 142-154. Palgrave Shakespeare Studies (Palgrave Frankel, Valerie Estelle. Women in Game of Shakespeare Studies). Thrones - Power, Conformity and Resistance. McFarland and Co., 2014. Shakespeare, William. Richard III. The Arden Shakespeare, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2009. Finn, Kavita Mudan. ”Bloodlines and Blood Spilt: Historical Retelling and the Rhetoric of Walker, Jessica. “Just songs in the end”: His- Sovereignty in Shakespeare’s First Tetralogy.” torical Discourses in Shakespeare and Martin.” Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England, Mastering the Game of Thrones: Essays on 2017, p. 126. George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. McFarland and Co., 2015, pp. 71-91. Finlayson, Alan and Elizabeth Frazer. ”Fictions of Sovereignty: Shakespeare, Theatre and the Weid, Alison. The Wars of the Roses. Random

Published by eRepository @ Seton Hall, 2018 11 Locus: The Seton Hall Journal of Undergraduate Research, Vol. 1, Iss. 1 [2018], Art. 8

House, 1995.

Young, Joseph. ”’Enough about Whores’: Sexual Characterization in A Song of Ice and Fire.” Mythlore, no. 2, 2017, p. 45.

https://scholarship.shu.edu/locus/vol1/iss1/8 12