Marie de France and Chivalric Romance Essay Example

Introduction

Marie de France is a France poet who wrote the two romance genres Lanval and Chevrefoil in the 12th century. The two narratives have almost similar themes with the theme of love being the most prevalent in both the two stories. Several perspectives of love relationships are considered showing how the diverse types of love can lead to happiness or unhappiness. On the contrary, the author also explains the theme of possessiveness or free agency/autonomy on others, especially that of the possession of wives by their husbands or the fathers been possessive over their daughters. This essay, therefore, focuses on the tension between human beings who strive to be social creatures and the other stubborn individualists who insist that they have free agency over others as well as how the romance genre tries to resolve this tension in the two narratives.

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Chevrefoil

In this poem, Tristram is struggling to get the attention of Queen Isolde and who is married to his uncle Mark. He is ready to take "risk of death and destruction" as he looks for the Queen to show that he is waiting for her and that his love for her is true. He travels to Cornwall the place where her beloved lives; leaving his land behind as he tries to live with the underprivileged people secretly to avoid been noticed. Tristam goes to the extent of hiding himself in the woods "Spying, trying to learn or hear" (Chevrofoil, 109). To wait for the Queens and writes his name on a hazel branch for the queen to see it and know of his undying love for her. The Queen notices him and also learns that Tristam left everything for her. They both enjoy each other's company as they cannot live without each other "Never you without me, me without you!" (Chevrefoil, 109)This clearly shows how the two lovers are struggling to fit in a group as they try to fight for their love.

The stubborn individualist who is possessive and against the two lovers is the king Mark who exiles Tristam from the kingdom after discovering that he is in love with his wife, Isolde. The King does this since he feels that he is the king and has full control over him as well as her Queen. This leads to unhappiness since the two lovers Tristam and Queen Isolde have to suffer, and they must overcome these sufferings before sharing their love.

Lanval

There are many ladies trying to get Lanval's attention like the fairy lady and Queen Guinevere, however, Lanval is against it; he does not want to fall in love with the queen because he is loyal to the king "I have served the king a long time; I don't want to betray my faith to him"(Lanval, 76). Lanval also states that he is in love with someone else (Lanval, 77) as for the beautiful maiden, Lanval feels it's like she doesn't exist in the real world. The author talks about a young and beautiful woman hero who tries to save the brave and good looking knight Lanval from unjust persecution and social isolation. This is after Lanval rejects the queen's intimate advances towards him making her lay force allegations about him; hence he is unfairly convicted.

The queen feels she has free agency over Lanval as she tries to force him to be intimate with her and when he turns her down, she lays false allegations against him because she has the power to be possessive over her minors. The incompetent king Arthur accuses Lanval of a great mistake after the queen complains to his husband that Lanval had seduced her. The king threatens Lanval that he will punish him by hanging if he doesn't defend himself in the court.

How the Tension is Resolved

In "Chevrofoil," the tension is resolved when the two lovers Tristram and queen Isolde meets their tragic end as they end up been separated and both take high risks as long as it will make them end up together. Their love story has a sad ending as they both end up dying since they could not be together.

In Lanval, the tension gets resolved when the woman hero speaks in defense of Lanval from the Queen's false allegations. This makes Lanval to became an honored man in the court with the queen been famed for her adulterous behaviors hence spreading up false rumors about Lanval that he is homosexual. The woman hero defends Lanval again from the queen's false accusation that he is homosexual; this leads to Lanval to fall in love with the lady, and they end living happily ever after in a real world but not in fairyland.

References

De France, M., & Rychner, J. (1925). Les lais de Marie de France. L'Edition d'art.