1 - Performance and Power : The Letter as an Expression of Masculinity in Game of Thrones

Summary

Abstract

Game of Thrones (HBO, 2011–19) has been intricately bound with epistolary forms since it first appeared on television, using social media as a means of engaging with audiences and giving rise to busy global communities. However, the subtle use of letters in the pseudo-Medieval diegetic storyworld of Westeros has attracted limited academic attention. Letters are vital in bridging narrative arcs and are key elements in the construction of masculinity and the projection of power within the televisual text. This chapter interrogates the epistolary performance of Tywin Lannister's (Charles Dance) letters and Ramsay Bolton's (Iwan Rheon) ‘Bastard Letter’, arguing they are used as a means of reinforcing and amplifying hegemonic masculine identity via the construction and projection of a masculine self-image.

Keywords: Game of Thrones; television; masculinity; letters; gender performance

‘Roslin caught a fine fat trout. Her brothers gave her a pair of wolf pelts for her wedding. Signed Walder Frey’.1 Ostensibly about the masculine pursuits of hunting and fishing, this three-line letter is one of the most memorable written communications in HBO's Game of Thrones (2011–19). Sent to King Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson) in the final episode of the third season, the activities are metaphors for the murders of Robb Stark (Richard Madden) and Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) at the Red Wedding, the spectacular and profoundly shocking closing moment of the previous episode, ‘The Rains of Castamere’ (3:9). However, the news of the ambush, as communicated by this letter, also crystallizes the intersection of epistolary discourse, gender, power, and performance that gives momentum to the narrative through the construction of masculinity. The letter written by Walder Frey (David Bradley) is just one example of Game of Thrones’ use of the writer as a trope of masculine performance. There are numerous other letters that frame the show's complex relationship between epistolarity and masculinity.

In this chapter, I analyse the content and significance of some of the most important letters sent and received in Game of Thrones, including Tywin Lannister's (Charles Dance) use of letters to conduct strategic operations against the Stark family and exert control over Westeros in the third season, and Ramsay Bolton's (Iwan Rheon) ‘Bastard Letter’, which was sent with the purpose of goading Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) into battle in the sixth season.