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Ecocritical Reading of Game of Thrones Series
Ecocritical Reading of Game of Thrones Series
around 255 awards till date is roughly based on George R.R. Martin’s novel A
Song of Ice and Fire. The drama series is set on the fictional continents of
Westeros and Essos which very much resembles the Middle Ages of Earth —
The show depicts the civil wars fought for the Iron Throne and control
houses involved in this civil war are the Starks of Winterfell, the Lannisters of
Casterly Rock, and the Baratheons of Dragonstone. As the series begin, the
Baratheons under King Robert Baratheon, control the Iron Throne. However,
with the death of the King, the Lannisters seize power with King Robert’s wife
Cersei Lannister becoming the queen-regent after her son assuming the throne
and her brother, Tyrion Lannister, becoming their chief advisor. After that, many
of the other houses rise up to fight Lannister, control and claim their own right to
and last surviving heir to House of Targaryen which takes place in Essos. House
of Targaryen were the powerful rulers who ruled the Seven Kingdoms before
Westeros to reclaim the Iron Throne. At first Daenerys is sold into marriage to
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the Dothraki tribal leader Khal Drogo by her older brother who was later killed,
and Daenerys becomes a powerful queen who has in her possession three dragons
— a species thought extinct since the rule of the Targaryens. With her dragons
and the massive army she’s building, Daenerys plan to cross the Narrow Sea,
which separates the two continents, and defeat those who deposed and killed her
father.
The third storyline takes place in the Northern part of Westeros at the
massive ice structure called the Wall, which protects the southern lands from the
“wildling” humans and supernatural creatures such as White Walkers that live
“beyond the Wall.” Jon Snow, the illegitimate son of Ned Stark (head of House
Stark) enlists with the Night’s Watch, the small army stationed at the Wall that is
charged with protecting the southern lands. With the approach of a long winter,
the Wall and the Night’s Watch are under siege from wildling invaders who seek
readings as it deals with controversial issues like gratuitous sex, rape, fake
lesbianism etc. The female characters are powerful yet masculine and in a way
highly stereotypical. Almost all the characters are archetypes and even nature is
presented as a character.
Eco criticism as a critical study emerged during the 1990’s and it is the
critical theory it paved way for us to consider nature as an essential part of our
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existence. Man from time immemorial has been leading a life close with nature
as part of it. The advent of Christianity brought forth a drastic change in how man
saw nature, unlike olden days. Christianity considered man as supreme creation
for whom God created the entire universe with all its natural resources. Based on
established a dualism of man and nature but also insisted that it is God’s will that
man exploit nature for his proper ends”(Garrard 38 ). This idea of man as supreme
being even though made of clay and which has resemblance with God paved way
into the destruction of nature. Man became the masters and nature became the
slaves. “In the early Church, and always in the Greek East, nature was conceived
primarily as a symbolic system through which God speaks to men: the ant is a
sermon to sluggards; rising flames are the symbol of the soul's aspiration”
(Glotfelty 11). But the modern church disregarded these ideas and so with them
the nature. God no more recites the hymns of nature and it takes natural calamities
religions which valued nature above everything. They received signs from nature
and had unnamed gods and goddesses. The ‘old gods’ are one of the gods of the
religion which is nature-based and animalistic. They’re seen as part of the earth,
manifesting in the trees, stones, water, and animals. The other God ‘Great
Stallion’ was an important religious figure in the first season of Game of Thrones,
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god, named the Great Stallion, representing the role- horses play in their lives
and culture. Most of the other religions are also closely associated with nature
exhibits motherly qualities and also because of its close associations with
reversal of this concept of ‘mother nature’ as Daenerys takes up the role of mother
of three dragons namely; Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion. There is a unique bond
between the mother Daenerys and her dragons who are born out of fire. The fiery
creatures go around like kittens and mother-child bond is evidently seen in the
series. There are many instances where Daenerys addresses the dragons as ‘my
children’. The sheer truth that Daenerys comes out of fire unscarred gives insight
into the purity she possess, as fire is traditionally considered to have cleansing
properties. The mother and her children are pure and righteous and it is from the
birth of dragons that Dothraki tribe entitle her as their true ruler. Thus from the
birth, fire becomes a symbol of purity which naturally existed in the universe.
series of adjoining and overlapping areas which move gradually from nature to
Area two: ‘the scenic sublime’ (e.g. forests, lakes, mountains, cliffs)
Area four: ‘the domestic picturesque’ (e.g. parks, gardens, lanes) (Barry
246) among which some are easily identifiable in the series. The entire series
takes place in ‘the country side’, ‘the scenic sublime’ and ‘the wilderness’. Being
a medieval tale it lacks the more refined, man intervened ‘domestic picturesque’;
which has parks, gardens and lanes. The series begin at a snowy uninhabited area
which is haunted. There is a sudden shift in scene towards the pastorals where
House of Starks live. The human inhabited areas are mostly ‘the country side’ or
‘the scenic sublime’. The area where ‘night walkers’ live and ocean between the
Targaryens and the Iron throne can be considered as visual representation of ‘the
wilderness’. These areas play a pivotal role in forming the inhabitants of those
where gods and demons reside. In Bible, Old Testament God often appears in the
form of fire or thunder in huge mountains and other uninhabited places. The area
where man less intervene makes it pure for Gods stay. And in Game of Thrones
The relationship human characters share with animals in the series are
yet another important eco critical view point. The Stark Family pets giant wolves,
who are faithful than kith and kin. Bran Stark, the youngest of the stark house
children finds them in the woods and requests to keep them instead of killing and
each sibling pets a wolf , including the illegitimate son; thus making direwolves
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symbol of Stark family. It is often stated that; “The boundary between human and
capacity for suffering that only ‘the hand of tyranny’ could ignore” (Garrard 137).
The giant wolves in the series share an emotional and mental connection
with their owners and continuously act as their protectors at the time of need.
Baratheon when he attacks her, the other direwolf ‘Summer’ owned by Bran
protects him from ‘night walkers’ and accompanies him through his journey as a
etc; which becomes the characteristics of their human companions, to the extent
that the future of human character is presented through the direwolf. Killing of
Sansas’ direwolf ‘lady’ marks her early separation from family while Jon Snows’
‘Ghost’ who is different from other direwolves in many ways represent him, who
is an illegitimate child. The animals or creatures used in the series are mostly
unrealistic and vulnerable like the fiery dragons and giant direwolves. And by
including them instead of usual pets, the series producers and the writer gives an
insight into how a beastly animal can be more faithful and fearless than the human
characters. They literally become their protectorates and benefactors even to the
The climate is another aspect of the series, which has the capability to
dominate the minds of the characters. The most common description about the
series; “Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for
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the Iron Throne has begun” (Game of Thrones ) indicates the association it is
blessed with to denote the intervention of nature in the series. The climate in
southern Westeros and Essos is of the usual, altering ones; while the climate in
Northern part of Westeros with ‘Wall’ has long winters; like the long winter in
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which is
possessed by the ‘White Walkers’ thus making a clear cut association of how
unaltered. Humans live as a creature in GOT rather than as ‘the creature’. Animals
and seasons are given a superior position along with green nature even in the
absence of talking animals and moving trees, which are common features in
picture of nature; it also provides an insight into how it can alter our daily lives
for good. All characters good or evil are in one way or another developed with its
interactions with nature and animals. And the most projected to nature are the
human need, this series provided an innate nature which dominated the world and
humans were just one among the several beasts. To protect nature is now an
essentiality and by presenting nature in series like these, the humanity would feel
more compassionate towards its natural beings. It takes more than a flood or an
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land erosion to make humans realize the value of nature these days and to protect
them still seems out of question with the only possible outcome as human
intervened nature. Movies, novels, poems, series like GOT with crude nature
gives an insight into the long lost nature which decorated the world once. To be
more benevolent towards nature would make apocalypse seem like a distant
dream and thus indicates how nature and humanity share an intertwined destiny.
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Bibliography
< https://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones>.