“Had MacDonald wanted to write a Christian fantasy
for men and women, with a male God, sin, and a Christian message of salvation,
he likely would have done so without the many references to secular texts,
magic, multiple personal deaths and births, and a constant reliance on pagan
Greco-Roman myths”—Fernando Soto (St. Norbert College), Book Review of “Special
Annotated Edition” of George MacDonald’s Phantastes
“Something within me said: “Spear in rest, and ride at him! Else
though art for ever a slave.”
I tried, but my arm trembled so much that I could not couch
my lance. To tell the truth, I,…shook like a coward before this knight. He gave
a scornful laugh that echoed through the wood, turned his scornful laugh, that
echoed through the wood…and said…”Follow me”—George MacDonald, Phantastes, pg. 160
This scene in the woods that our protagonist shares with the
knight in Phantastes breaks a few of
the easy (and perhaps politically correct) readings we might give of this text
in half.
As the aforementioned quote from Soto contests with, a
purely Christian reading of the text is made difficult considering it in
context. For one, consider the factors of the knight scene being discussed: 1)
the two meet in the woods, which is typically a literary equivalent for evil or
mischief (just ask yourself where witches gather in these stories), 2) the
knight does not show evidence as being especially godly. We are not treated to
a long lengthy exaltation of the Divine here a la Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale. In fact, this warrior instills fear, he dominates whom he perceives the weaker.
This idea of domination in the woods lead me to ponder on
Chaucer once more, in this respect, on the Wife
of Bath’s Tale, which is centered around a knight choosing to physically
and sexually subjugate another.
Though I had not considered it upon my first reading of the
text, what transpires smells somewhat of gender transformation in accordance
with how MacDonald has presented the feminine throughout his text: Anodos is
emotional, weepy and helpless. Anodos then continues to make significant
references to Nature’s feminine qualities (seeing it clearer now), and as far
as this reader can tell, the first person with whom he identifies after self-imposed
captivity is a woman.
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