I’m sure this decision is the result of extensive meetings, votes, paperwork, and tea drinking, because the number of voices that need to be addressed in 2011 is large. Women were involved in the decision-making too, which is in direct contrast to their level of involvement in the decree Evan passed.
The power of the males in Silence is audible. With a sentence, King Evan took away the rights women, and Cador banished all the minstrels in the land. Their words are potent enough to alter the fabric of society, which is too bad, because they’re usually spoken impulsively -- the men make bad decisions in obedience to Nature.
So far (halfway through the poem), I can’t tell if having a voice is something women should be rewarded for in the author’s opinion. The only time a woman says something that has the same lasting effects as the men’s words is when Cador’s cousin announces that Silence is a boy. Not only is this a lie, but it’s not even stated in her own words -- they’re Cador’s words coming out of her mouth. Because she’s not speaking naturally, her own voice is basically still silent. This might be beneficial to Silence if she’s able to inherit her parents’ land, so it seems like her silence is to be applauded.
When Silence sings (beautifully, apparently) she’s punished for it by the minstrels who want to kill her. While everyone else may enjoy it, it’s dangerous to Silence. It would appear that the author is saying, again, that vocality equals trouble.
The only vocal females are the abstractions (Nature, Nurture, and Reason), and their voices are generally just banter. They tend to muddle together until they become noise, sort of canceling each other out. Their words are ineffective (on the characters, not the narrative itself), and the men’s words aren’t well thought-out. So from the author’s point of view, is it “bad” to speak?
I'm conflicted over whether I think the author is progressive about women's rights or not. On the one hand, the protagonist is a woman who defeats men in what would have traditionally been considered their own territory. Additionally, since the main obstacle for Silence is the disinheriting of women, and part of the happy ending is the repealing of the same, the reader is somewhat automatically placed in opposition to this subjugation of women.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, all of this is written as something unnatural. And in order to compete with the men, Silence must be a man. When her gender is revealed at the end, nature restores her to her "true" condition. The question really isn't if a woman can be as good as a man, but if a woman can become a man, in order to become as good as one.
The other thing that is somewhat problematic is that it is actually Merlin who solves the problems in the end. Despite all of her talents, and having been the protagonist of the piece, Silence is not the one to save the day. A man has to do it. Furthermore, he has to save the day from a woman, the Queen. While Evan, who disinherited women in the first place, seems totally forgiven by the author, the final antagonist is a woman. This makes it very difficult to wholly see Silence as feminist, despite its strong, capable, female lead.