Memory, Gender and Recognition in Le Morte Darthur

Abstract

This article examines recognition motifs in earlier English romances to better understand female perception and the use of recognition tokens in Le Morte Darthur. Drawing on the work of Mary Carruthers and Elisabeth van Houts on medieval concepts of memory and emotion and Anne Lester on women’s association with the care and keeping of relics, as well as the social and legal roles of women preserving knowledge of familial and sexual relationships, this article argues that medieval English understanding of disguise-perception was gendered and that in medieval culture women were considered to be better at recognising individuals than men. The use of recognition tokens in Middle English romance reflects this gendered view of perception; recognition scenes in Le Morte Darthur uphold this view. In addition, the materiality and efficacy of the recognition tokens in romance denotes the nature of the relationship between the perceiver and the disguised or transformed individual. Thus, when Malory introduces a recognition-token exchange scene between Isolde and Tristan and then frustrates their later recollections and recognitions of each other, he infuses Tristan and Isolde’s relationship with a sense of unease that foreshadows their tragic end.