he central female character of The Water of the Wondrous Isles
seems at first to be a traditional model of the female. A
lovely, gentle girl living in a magical, quasi-medieval world,
Birdalone superficially resembles the "damsels in distress" who
populate the Arthurian romances, especially since her adventures
are narrated in a deliberately archaic prose style. However,
there's more to William Morris' fantasy than appears on the
surface: in fact, Morris uses his characterization of Birdalone
to subvert contemporary ideas about appropriate female roles. To
get an idea of what makes Birdalone stand out, consider the
historical context of the novel: It was a time of "unprecedented
changes in the way people perceived traditional gender roles"
(Michalson 176) in England. However, these changes did not reach
as far as one could wish; there was a long way to go toward true
gender equality. As Michalson notes, "as important as these
advances were in a society in which the legal status of married
women had been that