Ellen

Ken Follett takes a wry look at gender politics in the twelfth century in The Pillars of the Earth. Ellen of the forest is an independent woman in an era where this was unthinkable. Rather than be subjugated to the masculine power structure, she chooses to depend on no one but herself for many years. When her lover is unjustly hanged for a crime he did not commit, the pregnant Ellen repairs to the forest. Here she bears her child, alone in the dark. Here she creates for herself and her son a comfortable home; she teaches her son to read and write, and she also teaches him the masculine arts of hunting and riding that she learned from her own father. She is more capable and educated than most men of the nobility, yet as a woman, Ellen finds herself stranded in the forest, unable to rejoin society. No man will hire an unmarried woman regardless of her qualifications. She is completely barred from society, and only marriage allows her to re-enter civilization. When she falls in love with Tom Builder, it seems her problems are solved. When the hypocritical Prior Philip learns that they have been living together as man and wife without benefit of legal marriage, Philip brands Ellen a fornicator and banishes her once again from society. Ellen refuses to accept this unfair treatment, for Philip makes no move to punish Tom, and in fact hires Tom to be the master builder on Philip's cathedral. Ellen is the only one who seems to notice that this double standard is unjust.