Perceval’s sister in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur and Juliet in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet act as disruptive guides in spiritual quests by contradicting the expectations placed on them as women characters.
Though women are banned from the quest for the Holy Grail, Perceval’s sister accompanies the Grail knights as an authoritative spiritual guide and a symbol of the Eucharist. Previous critics have not recognized Perceval’s sister as a fundamental disruption to the systemic misogyny of the Morte or her Eucharistic significance. She challenges both the chivalric misogyny that sees her as an object of rescue and the spiritual misogyny that sees her as a detriment to holiness.
Though Romeo wants to use Juliet as a saintly conduit for his Petrarchan and Neoplatonic enlightenment through love, Juliet poetically resists her own canonization because she knows that being a saint means being dead and distant from Romeo. Past readers have not understood the necessity of Juliet’s death in Juliet’s sainthood or her poetic disruption of Petrarchan spiritual love. Shakespeare critiques Petrarchism in Romeo and Juliet by showing Juliet’s death as a result of Romeo’s poetic habits and showing Juliet as a disruptive poet who is aware of the danger.
","abstract_html":"<p>Perceval’s sister in Sir Thomas Malory’s <em>Le Morte Darthur</em> and Juliet in William Shakespeare’s <em>Romeo and Juliet</em> act as disruptive guides in spiritual quests by contradicting the expectations placed on them as women characters.</p> <p>Though women are banned from the quest for the Holy Grail, Perceval’s sister accompanies the Grail knights as an authoritative spiritual guide and a symbol of the Eucharist. Previous critics have not recognized Perceval’s sister as a fundamental disruption to the systemic misogyny of the Morte or her Eucharistic significance. She challenges both the chivalric misogyny that sees her as an object of rescue and the spiritual misogyny that sees her as a detriment to holiness.</p> <p>Though Romeo wants to use Juliet as a saintly conduit for his Petrarchan and Neoplatonic enlightenment through love, Juliet poetically resists her own canonization because she knows that being a saint means being dead and distant from Romeo. Past readers have not understood the necessity of Juliet’s death in Juliet’s sainthood or her poetic disruption of Petrarchan spiritual love. Shakespeare critiques Petrarchism in Romeo and Juliet by showing Juliet’s death as a result of Romeo’s poetic habits and showing Juliet as a disruptive poet who is aware of the danger.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Benskin, Joanna"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Interdisciplinary Studies","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Charles Ross","Dorsey Armstrong","Angelica Duran","Paul W. White"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016-12-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2016-12-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:54:09Z","subjects":["Language literature and linguistics","Social sciences","Eucharist","Morte darthur","Religion","Romeo and juliet","Saints","Comparative Literature","Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies","Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/943","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Charles Ross","Dorsey Armstrong","Angelica Duran","Paul W. White"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Benskin, Joanna"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Interdisciplinary Studies"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Language literature and linguistics","Social sciences","Eucharist","Morte darthur","Religion","Romeo and juliet","Saints","Comparative Literature","Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies","Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/943"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Perceval’s sister in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur and Juliet in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet act as disruptive guides in spiritual quests by contradicting the expectations placed on them as women characters.
Though women are banned from the quest for the Holy Grail, Perceval’s sister accompanies the Grail knights as an authoritative spiritual guide and a symbol of the Eucharist. Previous critics have not recognized Perceval’s sister as a fundamental disruption to the systemic misogyny of the Morte or her Eucharistic significance. She challenges both the chivalric misogyny that sees her as an object of rescue and the spiritual misogyny that sees her as a detriment to holiness.
Though Romeo wants to use Juliet as a saintly conduit for his Petrarchan and Neoplatonic enlightenment through love, Juliet poetically resists her own canonization because she knows that being a saint means being dead and distant from Romeo. Past readers have not understood the necessity of Juliet’s death in Juliet’s sainthood or her poetic disruption of Petrarchan spiritual love. Shakespeare critiques Petrarchism in Romeo and Juliet by showing Juliet’s death as a result of Romeo’s poetic habits and showing Juliet as a disruptive poet who is aware of the danger.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Perceval's sister and Juliet Capulet as disruptive guides in spiritual quests"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Charles Ross","Dorsey Armstrong","Angelica Duran","Paul W. White"],"dc:creator":["Benskin, Joanna"],"dc:description.abstract":["Perceval’s sister in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur and Juliet in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet act as disruptive guides in spiritual quests by contradicting the expectations placed on them as women characters.
Though women are banned from the quest for the Holy Grail, Perceval’s sister accompanies the Grail knights as an authoritative spiritual guide and a symbol of the Eucharist. Previous critics have not recognized Perceval’s sister as a fundamental disruption to the systemic misogyny of the Morte or her Eucharistic significance. She challenges both the chivalric misogyny that sees her as an object of rescue and the spiritual misogyny that sees her as a detriment to holiness.
Though Romeo wants to use Juliet as a saintly conduit for his Petrarchan and Neoplatonic enlightenment through love, Juliet poetically resists her own canonization because she knows that being a saint means being dead and distant from Romeo. Past readers have not understood the necessity of Juliet’s death in Juliet’s sainthood or her poetic disruption of Petrarchan spiritual love. Shakespeare critiques Petrarchism in Romeo and Juliet by showing Juliet’s death as a result of Romeo’s poetic habits and showing Juliet as a disruptive poet who is aware of the danger.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/943"],"dc:subject":["Language literature and linguistics","Social sciences","Eucharist","Morte darthur","Religion","Romeo and juliet","Saints","Comparative Literature","Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies","Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America"],"dc:title":["Perceval's sister and Juliet Capulet as disruptive guides in spiritual quests"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Interdisciplinary Studies"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:54:09Z"}