More allusions to Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights in Red Dead Redemption 2, including themes, character and mission names, and more.
On the face of it, the writers' choice to use Wuthering Heights to shape the narrative of Red Dead Redemption 2 was a promising one. Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar explain, is “a radically corrective ‘misreading’ of Milton . . . with the fall from heaven to hell transformed into a fall from a realm that conventional theology would associate with ‘hell’ (the Heights) to a place that parodies ‘heaven’ (the Grange)” (189). RDR2 attempts a similar project, with Arthur’s fall into knowledge being not the path to sin, but to redemption.
The flawed beliefs about gender that Dan Houser, Michael Unsworth, and Rupert Humphries demonstrate through RDR2 harm their efforts to write characters of both the genders the game depicts. They dismiss the women and damn the men rather than allow them to act in ways the Western codes as feminine. If they were able to understand that women are not lesser beings, perhaps their minds would be broad enough to imagine other endings for their male characters. But they aren't: women are not written well in RDR2.
Homophobia often shares roots with misogyny: patriarchal constructs define male homosexuality as inherently feminine, which patriarchy believes is bad, because, naturally, women are less than, other, prone to evil, etc. Rockstar's portrayals of women in Red Dead Redemption 2 don't significantly diverge from this viewpoint.
Paradise Lost and Arthurian legend are both so steeped in misogyny that removing it would transform either work unrecognizably. Eve, as Milton infamously writes her, is a dim-witted, sexy doll, if a doll could also be evil. This conception of Eve connects directly to the chivalric treatment of women. Many people take offense at the idea that chivalry is misogynistic because they think of it as “being nice to women,” when its real function is to infantilize and patronize women based on the presupposition that they are lesser beings that must be guided and taken care of – Eves who must be protected from their own sinful nature.
The remaining allusions to King Arthur in RDR2 that didn’t fit into essays elsewhere: what's up with Kieran's beheading, why Arthur sees a deer in his honor visions, Pleasance, and much more.
My apologies for the lack of updates this week and last; I’ve had a lot going on. I’ll also be taking next week off for the U.S. election. You can always check my Twitter or Bluesky for status updates (I’m readdeadreader on both). I still have a ton of information I’m looking forward to sharing, so don’t forget to check back to read it! New here? Visit the Table of Contents to read the essays in order, or the Index & TL;DR to explore the site by topic. New essays are published Wednesdays at 1 p.m. E.T./10 a.m. P.T. Sharing the site is always appreciated!
Many characters from the legends surrounding the Knights of the Round Table inspired counterparts in Red Dead Redemption 2. This post discusses Molly O'Shea, Susan Grimshaw, Kieran Duffy, and more.
In Arthurian legend, during the quest for the grail, the knights often have dreams, visions, or strange adventures that they relate to religious figures, who then interpret their meanings (which is not dissimilar to the way Sister Calderón gives Arthur guidance). In one instance in Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur, Sir Bors tells an abbot about odd events that have befallen him. The abbot’s explanation of what they symbolized illuminates an aspect of Red Dead Redemption 2:
At the same time as a version of the fall of King Arthur’s court unfolds, another allegory plays out in Red Dead Redemption 2: the quest for the grail. More than King Arthur, perhaps even more than Lancelot, Arthur Morgan resembles another character: Perceval, the grail knight.
