Character Analysis
Given that this is a Victorian poem, where sex is almost never mentioned (only implied), Vivien is surprisingly sexy. Check it out. She wears a “robe / Of samite, without price” that reveals more than it hides and clings to her “lissome limbs” (“Merlin and Vivien,” 219-221). And it’s only through her narration that the explicitly physical aspect of Guinevere and Lancelot’s relationship gets expressed.
Her other defining characteristic is that Vivien’s totally got it in for the knights of the Round Table, and at first we’re not really sure why. What motivates her to tell Balin that horrible lie about witnessing a tryst between Lancelot and the queen, then leave his and Balan’s bodies for the wolves after they’ve killed one another? Our answer doesn’t come until “Merlin and Vivien,” when she tells King Mark that her father died in a battle with Arthur. She was born on that battlefield, over her father’s body. Vivien describes herself as “born from death” (“Merlin and Vivien,” 44), and her practice seems to be to sow death wherever she goes.
In perfect opposition to characters like Elaine and Arthur, Vivien always believes the worst about people. When a wandering bard sings about the purity of Arthur and his knights, Vivien scoffs that “there is no being pure” and brags to Mark that she can easily prove it: she’ll seduce all the men in Camelot (“Merlin and Vivien,” 51).
Of course, her attempt to seduce Arthur fails, and Merlin’s mockery of her awakens her fierce pride and vengeful nature. Her tryst with Merlin reveals her to be quite the seductress: she flatters and wheedles, teases and tempts, draping herself around Merlin “like a snake” (“Merlin and Vivien,” 240). She eventually learns the charm with which she imprisons him in the oak tree, fulfilling her insatiable lust for power.
And that is Vivien in a nutshell.