著者

松本 祐子

出版者

聖学院大学

雑誌

聖学院大学論叢 (ISSN:09152539)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.11, no.4, pp.133-143, 1999-03-25

---

Ursula Le Guin's The Tombs of Atuan is full of sexual imagery. The half-ring hidden in Tenar's dark underground world like an enormous womb is connected with the other half brought from the outside by Ged, which suggests fertilization. The romance between Ged and Tenar, however, does not follow as expected. Since the Tombs of Atuan is one volume of the series whose hero is Ged, Tenar, as a minor character, seems to be left alone and driven away from the stage at the end of the story so that Ged may continue his heroic adventure. It is never the weakness of women, however, that Le Guin lays emphasis on. The extraordinary power which fills the underground world of "Nameless Ones" symbolizes the unlimited energy of the nameless women oppressed for generations. Tenar, who combines directly opposed images of "a captured lady" and "the monster Minotaur", has acquired authority by accepting the conventional system, but her way of life is thoroughly passive. Tenar, as Arha, "the Eaten One", is robbed of her true name and personality and forced to be ignorant in exchange for false authority; then her oppressed curiosity is released by Ged and, with this as a trigger, Arha's identity collapses and that of Tenar's is restored instead. Tenar is charmed with Ged's magic power which is obtained by knowing the true nature of things, but in Tehanu, the last volume of "The Earthsea Quartet", the fact is shown that the magi's power obtained by neglecting their own sex is not the one Tenar should aim for. Le Guin attempts to give a new definition of power, describing an ordinary woman who struggles to be a perfect woman and have power and responsibility at the same time. The Tombs of Atuan is the story of beginning in which Tenar begins to walk in order to get power as a woman by leaving another self who was the innocent and ignorant "vessel of evil".