'For that I shold be dishonoured': The Narrative Economy of Sexual Aggression in "Le Morte d’Arthur" Aline Dolinh College

Amidst all the enchanted quests and ardent love affairs of Sir Thomas Malory’s seminal 15th-century romance Le Morte d’Arthur, it’s often easy to forget that the thrilling adventures of King Arthur and his famed Knights of the Round Table originate in an act of unsettling and decidedly unchivalrous violence: Uther Pendragon’s rape by deception of Lady Igrayne, King Arthur’s mother, committed with the assistance of the sorcerer Merlin. Throughout the text itself, Malory’s attitude towards rape remains oddly ambivalent – while he treats the circumstances of Igrayne’s violation as more or less justified, he also emphasizes the Knights of the Round Table’s ethical obligation to treat women with respect. Likewise, in this paper, I am not seeking to formulate any definite or unified theory of how Malory believed rape should (or should not) be punished. Rather, I want to examine three pivotal moments of sexual violence against women in the text – specifically, the deception of Igrayne, King Pellynor’s rape of Torre’s mother, and the Giant of St. Michael’s Mount’s abduction of the Duchess of Brittany – in order to determine exactly how Malory deploys this kind of violence as a narrative device. While each of these assaults might be...