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Popular Culture Review
Uther’s appearance as Cornwall), but she also reinforces her dominance over
Arthur by telling him after she has revealed her identity, “I could kill you now,
Brother, but I want you to live to see our son be king!” Thus, she reinforces her
power over Arthur’s physical being and at the same time informs him that his
power as king will one day be taken from him. If Guenevere represents Arthur’s
inadequacy as a husband (and ultimately his emasculation), Morgana represents
Arthur’s future impotency as a ruler. Lacy delineates the reasons for Arthur’s
loss of potency and the coming of the wasteland: “the crisis of the Arthurian
world in Boorman’s vision involves Arthur’s ineffectiveness (and the later
decline of his health and vigor), the lassitude and indolence of the knights,
Lancelot and Guenevere’s fall into adultery, Merlin’s departure, Morgana’s
treachery, and Mordred’s eventual treason” (35-7). Although some of these
reasons are not phrased as though women had something to do with them, most
are actually due to female interference. Certainly, Merlin did not simply
“depart” but is entrapped by his own spell by Morgana, and Mordred does not
plan treason on his own but has been controlled throughout his whole life by his
mother Morgana. While the knights’ “lassitude and indolence” may be partly
their own faults, certainly the loss of the knights is due to their quest and then
the gruesome murders of them by Morgana, as we see them hanging from trees
and hanging in her fortress. In addition, Morgana and Guenevere cause the
trouble that they do through the power of magic but also through using their
physical attractiveness.
Morgana’s symbols of power are mixed, however, since previous to this
scene she appears youthful and beautiful and at the same time wears a feminine
parody of the masculine armor. Morgana’s “armor” barely covers much of her
breasts and abdomen and is fashioned to emphasize her anatomical features. In
the same way, Mordred’s more practical golden armor is shaped to emphasize
his highly masculine and virile anatomical features of the chest and abdomen.
The feminine version of the armor, however, is a poor imitation of the male
version since it does not actually protect the body as armor is meant to do.
Morgana’s armor, as well as her whole wielding of power in the movie, seems to
imply that use of power by women is a poor imitation of the exercise of power
by men, and is destructive rather than beneficial to society.
A similar theme pitting the feminine against the masculine is highlighted in
the NBC miniseries from 1998 titled Merlin since Merlin’s nemesis, as in so
many of these films, is an evil female. However, the male aggression is toned
down in this film, in favor of non-violence to solve problems. Although the role
of female nemesis usually belongs to Morgan, in this case the evil female is
Mab. Overall, the character of Mab is very much like that of Morgan le Fay in
Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d ’Arthur because they both share the qualities of
ruthlessness, deceit, and enmity towards the main male characters. Nevertheless,
even in Malory, Morgan is shown to care about two lovers, Accolon and
Hemison, whereas Mab seems to care about no one but herself.