ABSTRACT
George R. R. Martin shifted the stigmatized protagonist from a tragic model involving villainy and death to a heroic model in which the character’s experience with stigma strengthens his or her personality, leading to an “overcoming narrative” and a happy ending. Daenerys Targaryen herself started out stigmatized as a woman in an oppressive system of patriarchy. The stigmatized protagonist was probably the most important literary trope Martin inherited from Shakespeare when he wrote A Song of Ice and Fire, but Martin adapted the character in several ways. Martin disseminated the stigmatized protagonist to his three main characters: Jon Snow, treated poorly because he is a bastard; Tyrion Lannister, treated poorly because he is a dwarf; and Daenerys, treated poorly because she is a woman. Peter Dinklage, who plays Tyrion, portrayed Shakespeare’s Richard III a few years before shooting Game of Thrones.
