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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
ZHANG Meng
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DOI:10.17265/2328-2177/2026.07.004
Nankai Universitry, Tianjin, China
The Mists of Avalon is widely regarded as a feminist retelling of the Arthurian legend: Set in the Middle Ages, it is infused with Marion Zimmer Bradley’s modern views on religion, sexuality, and gender, opposes the hierarchies epitomized by patriarchy, and seeks to overturn stereotypes of women. Yet the women Bradley portrays—and the Goddess religion she constructs—remain deeply conditioned by patriarchal culture. The priestess Morgaine can preserve the Goddess religion only by relying on male kingship, and her own subjectivity remains absent; the rivalry between Gwenhwyfar and Morgaine, though seemingly free of male presence, is at its core a contest for the support of male power; and Bradley’s own religious experience suggests that she advocated raising women’s status within religion on the premise of accepting Christianity—a religious revisionism rather than a rejection of Christianity. Analyzing the patriarchal shadow over the novel from these three perspectives, this paper argues that The Mists of Avalon is not a radically anti-Christian feminist work, and hopes thereby to alert readers to how deeply rooted social assumptions, taken for granted, may obstruct the healthy development of society.
The Mists of Avalon, feminism, Marion Zimmer Bradley, patriarchy, Goddess religion, subjectivity
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