The Mists of Avalon

“If you seek to avoid your fate or to delay suffering, it only condemns you to suffer it redoubled in another life.”

Igraine says that this is a philosophy that Viviane teaches to all the young priestesses. It gives the reader a sense of Viviane’s priorities and offers insight into the customs of Avalon. In particular, it establishes the idea of fate as something that the Druids take extremely seriously and connects it to the cyclical patterns of existence.

“What wise God would consign a man to Hell for ignorance, instead of teaching him to be better in the afterlife?”

Igraine poses this as a rhetorical question to Uther to comfort him after his mentor Ambrosius’s death. Rhetorical questions often highlight problems that are unanswerable or at least lack a simple solution. Zimmer Bradley’s usage of a rhetorical question demonstrates the complexity of the struggle between Druidism and Christianity, forcing both Uther and the reader to reconsider their preconceived notions of each belief system.

“[W]hat he called honor; he would deprive all Britain of her High King, leave the land naked like a woman to be ravished by the Saxon hordes—all because he was not man enough for his wife and feared that Uther would be.”

Igraine compares the land to a woman, saying that Gorlois should protect both with the same intensity. By saying that his pride is causing him to dishonor the land, Igraine is also speaking to his conduct as a husband and alluding to the disrespect he shows her. She also taunts him for a perceived lack of masculinity, weaponizing the gender roles she finds so frustrating to her advantage.