Consequences of Passion Exposed in The Romance of Tristan and Iseult
The story of Tristan and Iseult celebrates the triumph of adultery. When looking vaguely at this romance, readers may think the potion of love that they both drink is the one that makes them to commit adultery. However, this is only a representation of the power of passion and lust Tristan and Iseult have for each other.
To better understand this love story, one must realize that Tristan is a marshal hero who volunteers to take a battle against the King of Ireland, in order to redeem the people and the monarch of King Mark. It would therefore, be suitable to say that King Mark has given his nephew the trust to accomplish the mammoth exercise. In Ireland, Tristan
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This is where the story of Tristan and Iseult takes a twist because the reader knows enough that Tristan, if given the chance, would like to have Iseult for himself. It is fascinating therefore, when Iseult’s mother entrusts Tristan with the potion of love that should only be shared between King Mark and Iseult. By this time, Tristan and Iseult have developed passion in each other, and the potion they would drink only enhances the chemistry that is already existent. To not drink the potion, which Tristan knows would cause Iseult to love him even more, is attempting to remain dishonest to his true self. Tristan is not just an ordinary man; he is a war hero seducing the would-be- queen of Cornwall. Because of this predicament, Iseult as the wife to the king is to engage in adulterous affair with Tristan to reinforce the courtly love value, while Tristan gains access to Iseult through chivalrious prowess. The potion of wine therefore, serves as a big temptation for both, and the Christian ideal that is forced into the situation by the hermit stands as an experiment.
How then can all these three values be reconciled in this story? I think it is not only the flaw displayed by medieval people like Tristan to succumb to the temptation of fulfilling sexual desires. The concept of "eat, drink and be merry" comes into play in this story and quite evidently, even in our contemporary society, we have not
Fear of cuckoldry is widely known theme in medieval and Renaissance English literature. Fear of cuckoldry was also a widespread fear in English society during those eras. Men often treated their wives as possessions. Once men and women married, divorce was almost impossible, especially since it was almost impossible to prove that one had been cuckolded. If one were cuckolded and one’s wife had another man’s child, one might spend decades taking care of that child and passing on one’s money and belongings to that child without ever knowing that one had been deceived. Unmarried women are seen as their fathers ' property and the play 's two marriages are marked by jealousy and cruelty. Most
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Romeo and Juliet explores the tragic outcome of ‘true love’. In Romeo and Juliet, the two main characters (Romeo and Juliet) die because of their love for each other. What happens in Romeo and Juliet is that Juliet is meant to marry Paris but she doesn’t want to so she drinks a poison that is meant to show all of the signs of death for a certain amount of time and then she would
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After Tristan and Iseult have fallen in love, they exhibit all of the virtues that the Humanists of the Renaissance admired. They focus on the joys of this life instead of focusing on death and the afterlife. When