Perhaps the author used this as a contrast to indicate that, while most social practices were ridiculous, it was appropriate to keep the useful ones. Another major theme in the poem is the perversion of stereotypical gender roles. Because Dame Ragnelle is a hag with no manners, she falls out of the expected female role. While Gromer is attempting to regain control of the land that he claims should be his, Dame Ragnelle simply circumvents the system. She manipulates Gawain with information in order to marry into a more desired class with a title, at which point she no longer needs to regain her family's land which would have gone straight to the male heir, Gromer, regardless. Ragnelle's power over others and in society generally increase through the poem; some scholars suggest she becomes more masculine in behavior and status as a result. In this reading her production of a male heir symbolizes the final stage or her gender perversion.