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Popular Culture Review
creation of Arthur and thus for depriving her of her rightful inheritance” (57). It
is also possible that Morgana also notices because of the fact that Merlin raises
Uther’s son he thus has power over Uther, an observation that she later uses to
her advantage when she raises Arthur’s son and uses him as a weapon against
Arthur.
All Morgana’s motivations are negative rather than positive: again
according to de Weever: “Morgana makes clear that her motives are threefold:
to avenge her mother’s rape by Uther Pendragon, to produce a god-king who
will displace Arthur, and to achieve power” (57). Her version of power is a
negative one as is seen when she achieves her second goal. She tells Merlin that
she wants to learn more magic because it would give her great power, and she
temporarily achieves enough power to trap Merlin himself. After learning magic
from Merlin, Morgana only appears to act from a need for power, and no further
inner conflicts or concerns are presented. She is simply the evil, one
dimensional antagonist of Arthur and Merlin.
Besides Merlin’s magic, that Morgana also learns, there is power in armor
and swords, principally Excalibur, in the film; this power is primarily a
masculine power. As Norris J. Lacy points out in his discussion of Excalibur
itself, “here there is an additional link, between the king’s sword and his virility.
Arthur is without the sword .. . left to him by Uther, and accepted as the symbol
and instrument of his authority” (37). As emphasized in this quote, the sword is
associated with men in its symbolic value. However, Uther originally acquired it
from the Lady of the Lake, so its origin appears to be feminine not masculine.
Although the Lady is there to bookend the beginning and ending of the sword in
the film, all the other symbolism of the sword in the film is masculine, and
decidedly so. An example of this is when Arthur discovers that Lancelot and
Guenevere have betrayed him. When Arthur discovers the two lovers lying
naked in the woods, he thrusts Excalibur into the ground between them, and
leaves in anger. Leaving his sword behind, Arthur has become impotent, and has
become the Wounded King and the land is turned into a Waste Land: Lancelot
exclaims in horror, “The king without a sword, the land without a king!” After
Lancelot also runs away, Guenevere is left with the sword, which she encircles
with her naked body. The phallic nature of Excalibur is never more clear than in
this scene. The lovers have cuckolded and emasculated Arthur. He does not
regain his potency until Perceval brings him the grail. Later, wearing the
masculine symbol armor again and on his way to confronting Mordred on the
battlefield, he visits Guenevere. The two forgive each other and make peace, and
Guenevere returns Excalibur to him, which Arthur draws from the white cloth in
which she has wrapped it, as if from a scabbard. Thus, Guenevere returns to
Arthur the masculine potency—represented by Excalibur—of which she had
previously robbed him.
However, considering the film’s use of the character of the Lady of the
Lake is where a modem film has reduced and devalued an important and even