RITUAL AND AUTHORITY

⭐ Ritual as Social Control

Using Catherine Bell’s theory of ritualization, Game of Thrones presents rituals not as passive ceremonies but as strategic actions that produce, maintain, and contest power. Rituals become tools of hierarchy, purity, and public discipline.

1. Cersei’s Walk of Atonement

This scene draws on medieval Christian penitential traditions where confession and bodily humiliation functioned as technologies of moral correction. The High Sparrow frames the walk as “atonement,” but the political reality is clear: ✔ The ritual reinforces the Faith Militant’s control ✔ It publicizes moral authority ✔ It transforms Cersei’s body into a canvas of shame ✔ The crowd’s participation resembles Durkheim’s collective effervescence

Thus, ritual becomes both spectacle and punishment, revealing how religious institutions manipulate holiness to dominate political structures.

2. Melisandre’s Fire Sacrifices

These rituals engage with themes from real-world religions (atonement theology, purification through fire, prophetic sacrifice). They raise questions important to Religious Studies:

• Who determines the boundary between “faith” and “fanaticism”?

• How do rituals justify actions that would otherwise be morally unthinkable?

• When does sacrifice become sacred, and when does it become murder?
  

By presenting fire as a purifier and revealer of “truth,” Melisandre’s rituals show how sacred violence functions in mythic narratives, echoing Girard’s theory of scapegoats.

⭐ Ritual and Embodied Power

Across the series, ritual becomes a way to shape bodies, identities, and communities. Whether through:

• Anointment of kings

• War blessings

• Ritual burning

• Public confessions

• Vows (Night’s Watch, Kingsguard)

Each ritual constructs a social order that characters must navigate — or resist.