You can also read this on Medium (featuring awesome Renaissance art!) here: https://medium.com/@emilystepp12/lanval-and-the-amazonians-how-power-is-gained-by-women-and-what-those-methods-reveal-about-them-759f548eb345
Within Marie de France’s Lanval and Christine de Pizan’s The Amazons, one sees two different ways in which a woman may perform a power reversal within her society or culture. It is interesting that while both of these involve a woman possessing more power than her male counterpart, the power is gained in a perhaps unconventional way in Lanval. This particular woman’s preferred method of gaining control over a male figure within her patriarchal society provides an interesting challenge to the role of women that is found in other texts.
Before discussing Lanval in more detail, however, it is worth mentioning the women in The Amazons as a comparison. In this story one sees women take full control over the social hierarchy, effectively making men subordinate to them in the same way women have historically been made subordinate in patriarchal structures. This in turn puts these Amazonian women in a strange, perhaps complicated position – in turning the social structure on its head, one could argue that they in turn take on more traditionally masculine traits, rather than using their femininity within their new social structure to enact change in their world.
Consider one of the first things one learns of these women: “It was their custom that, by a technique known only to this race of women, the most noble of them would have the left breast burnt off at a very early age in order to free them up to carry a shield… they took such pleasure in the pursuit of arms that they greatly expanded their territory by the use of force, thus spreading their fame far and wide,” (de Pizan, 2006). Not only do these women physically remove part of the biological components that (traditionally) indicate a female, but their actions within the world are fueled by a love of weaponry. This love of weaponry and domination over territory is also a traditionally masculine action, usually seen on a historical level within patriarchal structures; it is more often than not men who start wars rather than women.
From this one sees that while the Amazonians possess power within their social structure, it appears that in order to obtain this power they must take on more traditionally masculine actions and appearances. This, one could argue, serves to complicate their femininity and their role as women – if they are powerful women, why must they take on masculine traits and mannerisms in order to gain power outside of their society? Why can they not retain their femininity while also affecting change and gaining power outside of their own society?
In Lanval, however, one sees something entirely different; the woman that Sir Lanval falls in love with is a woman who uses her own femininity to influence others. When Lanval first encounters her, she is described like this: “She lay on a beautiful bed – the bedclothes were worth a castle – dressed only in a shift. Her body was well shaped and elegant… she had thrown over herself a precious cloak of white ermine covered with purple alexandrine,” (de France, 1410). Not only is this woman objectively beautiful, she is exceedingly rich. This is a deadly combination in a woman – her good looks serve to charm unsuspecting and lustful men, while her riches ensure the world is at her beck and call.
One could argue that this makes her character simply a “snake in the grass”, an enchanting woman who swindles men out of their honor and livelihoods; but if one looks closer, one may find that this woman is more than a simple archetype. She is beautiful and rich, yes, and she uses this to her advantage in order to tarnish Sir Lanval’s reputation. But her story does not end there; rather, she returns and clears his name: “I have loved one of your vassals… he has been accused in your court – I don’t want him to suffer for what he said; you should know that the queen was in the wrong. He never made advances to her,” (de Pizan, 1420).
So instead of a woman who uses her femininity and wealth to ruin Sir Lanval’s life and then run away, one sees that this woman uses these same attributes to enact change within a male-dominated social structure; she stands in the court of King Arthur among his knights, possibly the most masculine place imaginable for a medieval woman. Yet she recognizes the power and command she possesses over men, and uses the fact that they will listen and respect her opinions as a woman of influence in order to save Sir Lanval. She enacts change not by taking on a masculine role or appearance, as the Amazonians do, but by actively using her own feminine power and means of wealth to command authority and change things within her male-dominated culture.
Both of these provide a stark contrast to other readings one may find, in which women are often portrayed as either quiet and humble, or as some form of meddling snake who deceives men. In these, if a woman possesses a certain power within a male-dominated structure, she is an evil witch or a jealous lover – especially those who attempt to use their beauty and charm to sway others. Or if a woman tries to exert physical strength on a man, she is perhaps patronized, her physical strength made small in comparison to a male’s.
Within each of these stories one sees complications, as in The Amazons, and challenges, as in Lanval, to those common characterizations of women. And out of these complications and challenges, one sees examples of women who are strong and beautiful, respected and feared, and ultimately take on roles that serve to flip the script on what a woman can be in society.
Works Cited:
De France, Marie. Lanval. Norton Anthology of Western Literature, translated by Robert Hanning and Joan Ferrante, Ninth Edition, Vol. 1, W.W. Norton & Company, 2014, New York, NY.
De Pizan, Christine. About the Amazons. Norton Anthology of Western Literature, Ninth Edition, Vol. 1, W.W. Norton & Company, 2014, New York, NY.
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