Comparing Tristan And Isolde Vs. Lancelot And Guinevere

Tristan and the Queen’s attraction is vast. Because of this, the metaphor for their love as a honeysuckle and hazel tree symbolizes them as being inseparable and codependent on each other. This is due to the fact that:

Love is a powerful force that bonds people together through anything and everything. Love will make people do anything for the ones they love and sometimes can’t see the bigger picture. In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, two young lovers in “fair Verona” from rival families come together in love. They instantly fall in love as soon as they lay eyes on each other and have to marry each other after only knowing each other for twelve hours. Romeo and Juliet have no idea what is to come due to their actions. Young love often results in a selfish isolation from the rest of the world which causes impulsive decisions that bring unintended consequences.

Tristan finally represents the change of social norms in the twelfth century. One major change of the social norm would be the quest of real love rather than arranged marriages. Isolde and Marke’s marriage was a literal arranged marriage, and as it was shown in the romance, neither one of them were truly happy. With “true” love of Isolde and Marke, they were much happier. While it only affected the nobility and people of upperclass, it encouraged the desire of finding true love, and not just

In the Medieval times during courtship, woman seems to be in control of the relationship and men would show their devotion to her with his heart and hope that she would notice. I believe with older lover, the aspects of Courtly love still exist in our cultural today. However, the medieval time, men would also accept challenges and travel great distance to express his love for a woman. One example from the book stated (pg353) that Lancelot faces many challenges and temptations as he defeated the Knight Sir Maleagant of Gorre, by virtue of his love for Guinevere. In today’s culture, men will undertake different challenges either by songs or dances the gain the interest or the love of a woman. In a documentary on some parts of Africa cultures

Guinevere: “I am unsure if my love for you is still there. Lancelot has surely caught my eye. He looks rather bored, sitting over there. Perhaps, things are not going well for him.”

The writing style of De Troyes, the author of The Knight and the Cart, and Henderson, The author of “The Farewell of Lancelot and Guinevere, differs because De Troyes is a romanticist and Henderson is a realist due to the period of time in which they lived. De Troyes was a well known romanticist during the Middle Ages and many of his stories, including The Knight of the Cart are sprinkled with romanticist ideas, and Henderson, being an early 20th century writer, wrote the play “The Farewell of Lancelot and Guinevere” in a realist style because that was the most common style of writing during that period of time. In De Troyes story, as he is talking about Lancelot he says, “The man who is a perfect lover is always obedient and quickly and gladly

This piece depicts Tristan and Isolde drunk the the potion and fell in love. In some versions, they drink it by accident. In some other versions, they drink it on purpose. However, Isolde married to King Mark, so the triangle between Tristan, Isolde and King Mark is an example of courtly love. Throughout all the different versions, Tristan and Isolde was ended with a tragic ending. Looking at their facial expression and their action, they looks like they enjoy the potion and drink it purposely. Also, Isolde was frowning, it made me feel like she is thinking the marriage to King Mark since she fell in love with Tristan. On the other hand, Tristan looks like he wants Isolde so much that he cannot wait when they go back to Cornwall.

Love is something that cannot be helped, unless it is an accident. The legend of Tristan and Iseult is a love story that ends in tragedy. The star-crossed lovers, who accidentally fell helplessly in love by drinking a love potion, run into issues while trying to hide their love. Throughout time, the many authors of stories about Tristan and Iseult changed parts of the story to fit the time period the stories were written in. Audiences in the different time periods appeal to different kinds of entertainment. Therefore, the changes that occur in different versions of the story over time are due to different audiences appealing to different things.

Queen Guinevere has been presented in innumerable Arthurian tales, all with various accounts of her legacy. Her portrayal in the legends changes with time going from a dreadful sinner and unfaithful wife in Chretien de Troyes' Knight of the Cart to someone with feminist ideals in Sallie Bridges “The First Meeting of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere”. The reason for such a dramatic change in her character derives out of the increased fight for women's equality from the 12th century to the 19th century.

The Arthurian legend of Tristan and Isoud is a timeless tale of two people in surreptitious love. Tristan being the nephew of King Mark and his obligation to the chivalric code are the couple’s greatest hurdles inhibiting their relationship from prospering. Isoud and Tristan’s legend changes from merely being means of entertainment about two forbidden lovers in Le Morte D’Arthur, by Thomas Malory, to having a deeper purpose in Cornwall’s Wonderland, by Mabel Quiller Couch. Couch’s version of the tale provides perspective on not only what the couple goes through, but also makes the story relatable to her readers during the time of World War I and women’s rights being limited.

Unrequited love kills those in the Arthurian legend because the continuous pain amongst them crushes their hearts, It is like taking on the full force of a fast moving locomotive. Unrequited love leads to the tragic death of the characters in many cases: it indirectly happens between Guinevere and Arthur; Lady of Shalott and Lancelot; and lastly it happened between Lancelot and Elaine. In all three cases it is always the one who loved the other who dies. Additionally,their death proves their love for their “lover,” which makes unrequited love the most tragic of all. In Arthur’s case his love for her proved that he wanted her back. The Lady of Shallot knew the consequences when she gazed upon Lancelot’s imagery; and Elaine realized that she was so depressed she didn’t see the point of living without Lancelot. Contrary to the popular belief that Is it better to have loved than lost, all three characters in these tragedies thought that it was definitively better to have lost than

Tristan is more sympathetic because his meeting with Isolde arose solely because he was following the orders of the King, to whom he faithfully and honestly served for a long time. A magical drink became the cause of all the subsequent misfortunes of a young couple because they no longer had a choice. Thus, the central conflict arises between the vassal and his king, who would not allow the adultery to his wife. Additionally, the king was Tristan uncle, that made his service more thick and durable. Thus, the moral reflections and despair of Tristan are caused solely by the inability to continue to perform the devotional service to his suzerain. In fact, he can run away, to let someone kill him in a battle, but his love for Isolde will not diminish.

In the world of literature you can get to find several very popular literary works regardless of the era in which they were published. For me one of them has to be the legend of Tristan and Isolde that arose in the Middle Ages enough. This story of love, tragedy and all the drama that this couple had to go your way to be a joy and blessing to this couple, love became something totally unexpected, the curse of death. This story conveys the reader a lot of emotions and feelings that are expressed by these two characters as well as the unexpected things that happen to this couple in the course of history. Several people say that this story is apparently the mother of the history of the famous writer Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet as these two works,

Stories of true love have been told throughout history. In “The Lias of Marie de France”, translated by Robert Hannign and Joan Ferrante, Marie tells stories of true love. In the two stories of Lanval and Yonec, there are many things that point to the love being a figment of the character’s imagination. In both stories, the characters are depressed and lonely. This leads them to make up someone to love. Both imagined lovers to have many traits that make them seem to real to be true. Additionally, both characters have some boundary that they cross to meet the lover in their dream world. In both instances others seem to see the lover, this is most likely a result of the others knowing the lover is not real. Based on the stories of Lanval and Yonec in “The Lias of Marie de France”, true love is only possible through imagination.

Based on psychology, our feelings and emotions of love have derived from past experiences. Tristan and Iseult supposedly fell in love spontaneously because of the potion they drank. I disagree with that statement because De Rougemont believes the "potion was just an alibi for passion" (48). There were signs in the story they were interested in each other, such as the incident when she was taking him a bath after being injured from killing the Morholt.