It is difficult to evaluate and study the mythical character of Robin Hood without considering his better half, the beautiful Lady Marian. Although Mariana does not appear in the original legend, in the 16th century she becomes an essential part of the tale. A common theory suggests that Marian appeared because the Robin Hood character was growing in class stature: “[T]he first time a role of substance for a woman emerges in the outlaw myth is when its hero became a lord , and therefore needs a lady, both as part of his gracious lifestyle and to provide the continuation of the landed line” (Knight, 59). Marian, however, plays a more significant role than that of the hostess. Two important works that gave Marian an identity are Thomas Love Peacock's 1822 short story Maid Marian and the ballad Robin Hood and Maid Marian. In these two literary passages Marian appears both as a strong intellectual role model for women and as a neglected and sexualized subordinate compared to her male peers. This dichotomy raises questions about possible biases that may have influenced the myth into modern times and the type of feminist hero Marian has the potential to embody. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In Peacock's Maid Marian, the title character "is drawn from Peacock's ideal of femininity and owes more to her author than to the legends" (Knight, 61). Peacock was influenced by Mary Wollstonecraft's Awaiting the Rights of Women and "came to believe that female intelligence should be defended from its contemporary depreciation" (Barczeweski, 192). His Mariana "represents vigor and activity" and displays "unquenchable energy" and determination in both body and mind (Ibid., 151). She refuses to “be constrained by male authority” (Ibid., 192), disobeying her father to spend time with the merry men in the forest while being a decidedly unladylike heroine,” (Ibid., 190), Maid Marian by Peacock is not so unfeminine as to challenge gender assumptions by Marian is a good example of how Peacock finds a balance between the unconventional and socially appropriate excellence in archery, which requires great skill but not great muscle , physical contact or male clothing. In other words, it can be unfeminine, but only up to a point. One reason Marian must seem sufficiently feminine is that her purpose, in some analyses, is purely sexual. . He may exist as a character solely to assert Robin Hood's heterosexuality and sexual prowess: "With Marian as his lady, Robin is both a lord and, undemonstratively, a lover" (Knight, 61). Peacock portrays Marian as a strong, independent woman, but downplays those qualities by blatantly sexualizing her. As “one of the young romantics,” Peacock's “sensual personalization and masculine point of view are clear” (Ibid., 120). Almost all the male characters in the novel are sexually interested in Marian: “[T]he text makes it clear that no red-blooded male could resist him” (Ibid., 120). Peacock undoubtedly gleaned much of its narrative power from the ballad Robin Hood and Maid Marian, as "The eighteenth-century ballad...is the primary source of [Marian's] frequent appearance in many later versions of the legend" (Lux, 191). This is an action-packed ballad in which Marian's "disguise, disguise, and revelation become the means of defining the female hero's identity" (Lux, 192). Her appearance in this ballad is one of the first, as "women remain largely on the periphery of early ballads and tales of..