The Lais of Marie de France offers an inquisitive perspective on the nature of love and the sacrifices one must make in relationships and marriage. While reading, I encountered many examples of a man and woman in love who must suffer for one another. This collection of narratives contains characters in relationships in which each partner suffers equally for one another and characters in which one partner sacrifices more than the other.…
The Lais of Marie de France are a collection of short stories that depict situations where love arises. The author presents love as a complex emotion and demonizes it and praises it in certain instances. She is not always in favor of love as is described by the outcomes by some of the lovers in the story, such as when they either end up dead in the end or banished because of their love. The author presents this notion of love because she believes it is not always justified to love someone. In the book, two distinct types of love are shown. There is selfless love and selfish love which are compared throughout the multiple stories in The Lais of Marie de France. By comparing the two distinct types of love, a universal truth about love can be derived to explain when love is and is not justified.…
In this essay I will be commenting on the presentation of relationships in two poems. The first poem is ‘Les Grands Seigneurs’, in which the speaker remarks on her life before marriage, where she was adored and worshiped by men, and how it has changed after marriage. ‘My Last Duchess’ is a dramatic monologue in which the speaker comments on his late wife and her character, suggesting that she was unfaithful to him and hinting that he may have murdered her because of this.…
By culture meaning castles, horses, kings, queens, and even perfect gorgeous women. “ In the whole town, great men and small, old men and babies, came running just to watch the show, these folk knew her beauty was no joke”(lanval). This shows how then women did not ride horses, they were either walking or being carried in a carriage , but none of the men focused on her riding the horse herself , but her beauty being such a warm feeling when you lay eyes on her. Also the towns in the stories are fairly small, so therefore if something big is happening everyone is going to come out and see what it is all about. During the medieval times if you were to commit any kind of crime you would be locked away in the castle or killed, but to be rescued was never by a woman.” Arthur,” she said, “Now listen to me! And all your barons whom here I see. O King, I have loved your vassal, this one, here! I mean Lanval” (Lanval). Being in love was really big in older literature the way it was handled was strange, but it is the only way they…
Women’s role in the literary scene of the Venetian High Renaissance greatly erupted in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Women eventually became the most educated citizens in the city and were referred to as, “honest courtesans.” (Pg. 624) Our textbook outlines how women, “dominated” the literary scene with their fierce ability to be, “both sexual and intellectual.” (Pg. 624) Although there were many great poets of the Venetian High Renaissance, I will limit this essay to analyzing the amazing poems of only four very influential poets of this time. I will discuss how Veronica Franco intelligently transforms courtly love into sexual metaphor. I will identify the missing elements of chivalry and courtly love in Ludovico Aristo’s “Orlando Furioso”, and I will compare Lucretia Marinellas views in “The Nobility and Excellence of Women” to those of Laura Cereta’s.…
Since the beginning of written history, marriage is portrayed as a sacred vow by almost all religions and peoples throughout the Earth while adultery is almost always looked upon as wrong. Marie de France was one of the few female writers in medieval times which made her very influential and well respected. In her book titled “The Lais of Marie de France,” she gives the reader a look into the affairs and adultery that was going on in the medieval courts. It seems Marie de France does not particularly agree with adultery, but her style of writing leads the reader to see that it is not so bad, depending on the situation. It is almost as if she separates the lais into two distinct groups. The first of which are…
5. What concepts of courtly love are illustrated by the two lais of Marie de France?…
Throughout the Lais of Marie de France there are several themes presented as central to the various stories. Some of these themes are present in all of the lais. One such example is that of courtly love and it's implications. Courtly love being one of the more prominent themes in all of medieval literature, it is fittingly manifested in all of the lais as well. Another theme present in two of the lais is isolation. The theme of isolation plays a large role in the stories of Guigemar and Lanval. In each of these lais we see isolation as a factor in determining the fates of the central figures. Within each lai isolation is represented on several different occasions, each time having a direct impact on the outcome. These instances of isolation may be seen at times to be similar in nature and consequence, and different at other times. By sifting through both works these instances may be extrapolated and analyzed.…
In the poems ‘To his coy mistress’ and ‘In Paris With You’, both of the poets are speaking about a relationship with their lover and they present love through the use of language in many different ways.…
The power of love causes individuals to react in many different ways. In the Lais of Marie de France, each story of love produces a different outcome. For a story’s relationship, whether it involves lovers, siblings, or parents and children, there is one similarity hidden beneath the facades that make up each story; love. The characters involved make drastic changes to their lives in order for their relationship to survive. Throughout many of the tales, the protagonists succumb to the pain of love and the disappointments that may come along with it. In the “Lai of Milun”, the characters suffer greatly in hopes of one day achieving a fulfilled relationship, but their perseverance is rewarded in the end. Although Milun and his mistress…
Throughout Arthurian literature there is a constant struggle to find perfection and love in a world which was rich with war and calamity. Whether it be the Knight Lancelot full, of passion looking to steal the love of the great King Arthurs wife Gueneviere, or Percivals quest to become a supreme knight, each character is driven by his or her own distinct motive and each of them faces an uphill fight in reaching their goal. The middle ages were a dark time when there was little to rejoice in, however theses select stories surrounding King Arthur and the Knights of the round table find light in the dark by intertwining love and adventure into the otherwise grim story lines.…
The courtly love tradition came during a time when love emphasized nobility and chivalry. It originated with musicians called troubadours in the late eleventh century. Courtly love to promote a new form of paganism which people of the time called Gai Saber(means the happy wisdom or "gay science") It was practiced mainly by noble lords and women. Couples who were engaged in courtly relationships gave each other gifts and tokens of their affection. Before Courtly love established itself as a popular real-life activity, it first gained attention as a subject and theme in imaginative literature. Ardent knights, that is to say, and their passionately adored ladies have been already popular figures in song and fable before they began spawning a host…
The lyric poems of the Roman poet, Catullus, and the late Middle Ages poet, Petrarch, both trace the cycle of a love affair, but the nature of those affairs is quite different. Catullus depicts a passionate, lusty relationship, whereas Petrarch describes something more akin to worship from afar. The differences likely reflect not only their different experiences, but also the different times in which they lived. Catullus lived in pre-Christian Rome, and his writings evidence the Romans’ open and frank view of sexuality. Petrarch was a product of the Middle Ages, in which the Church dominated all aspects of life.…
Macklemore is an incredible rapper, one that has set out to change the way people view each other. The song “ Same Love” came out the summer of my sophomore year. I remember the nostalgic feeling that engulfed me when I was able to jam out to music that felt the same way about a social issue as I did. In fact, that the song was extremely popular that year showing that most people accept the issues that were in front of them.…
Beauty is a very indefinite concept, every person has a different idea of what they view as attractive. So when an entire civilization of people collectively define such a word; an automatic categorization of the physical appearances, personality traits, fashion sense, social class, and attitude of the people separates and divides them into what is acceptable and what is not. By doing this, we are taught to desire certain people that fit into these specific traits. But does that change the way we love? It creates a hesitation in the search for love, as well as a feeling of disobedience when going against the social expectations of how love should progress. But love can be experienced in different ways, and because of that, there are multiple…