Lovers From The Lais Of Marie De France As A Children 's Book

The Lais of Marie de France is a collection of poems that tell enchanting stories of handsome knights, kings, queens, and romance. Although the lais varied in content; the subject of romantic love is the common theme. Since romantic love is the central theme of the lais it is important to define the term. According to the article, The Social Psychology of Love and Attraction romantic love is defined as, “a love that is supposed to stand the test of time, enduring all hardship. Romantic love emphasizes being in love with a certain individual” (Braxton-Davis 1). In the lais Bisclavret, Equitan, Laustic there is a conflict between love and moral responsibility. Many of the characters experience love and tragedy; yet, Marie de France provides a witty insight into loves immoral issues. In the lais loneliness, greed, excitement, and lust are the motivations for many of the characters reckless actions. Marie de France demonstrates how these characteristics combined with romantic infatuation, passion, and a yearning desire; influences corrupt behavior. This behavior then manifested into character traits such as betrayal, adultery, and cruelty that are revealed throughout the lais.

Books are some of the best teachers we have “they teach us vocabulary social skills and new ways of thinking”(leigh). It’s also true that textbooks could teach a child this, but not in the way they would learn from a story. When a child is really engaged in a story they will learn a lot more than they think. “Books teach us history ”(leigh). and many books are based on certain time periods or cover certain events. When a child reads these stories, they will retain the

Since the view of childhood changes in the nineteenth century, the potential of children’s literature becomes evident. With the reference to the sources of children’s literature, they can be traced back to alterations in translation and in the literature for adults, where a child or childhood are essential concepts; moreover folk literature is concerned to be a wide source for this literary genre. According to Peter Hunt

Reading the story as told by a young child gives the audience a deeper understanding about what the next

Parents often say, “Listen to your elders.” This cliché can make some people apathetic, but when looking back, most appreciate the wisdom of their elders. The knowledge imparted to children is crucial for their ability to understand and improve the world. In XIV by Derek Walcott, the speaker uses imagery, metaphor, and other literary devices to convey the storyteller’s significance to his life.

In “A Barred Owl” by Richard Wilbur and “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins, the authors both argue that innocence is necessary to cultivate the ideal child via their protective tones, deceptive plot, and contrasting rhyme schemes.

During the medieval times, Marie de France, unlike the male writers of her time, wrote courtly stories that depicted women who were predominantly featured in the primary roles with empathy and questioned the sexist predicaments women were often subjected to. Women often times struggled to find their voice, but her stories told the perseverance and progress within those constraints. Instead, she wrote of men idealizing wealthy, powerful, independent, beautiful women. She inserts the thoughts and feelings from a woman’s perspective. In a sense, giving women the voice they strived to have heard in a male dominated time period. As Damon stated in the article “Marie de France: Psychologist of Courtly Love,” “Contemporary readers might have noted that the characters departed occasionally from the established laws of courtly conduct; none the less, as all such departures were towards reality, they were welcomed.” She opened the door for women’s self-expression and individual achievement. Marie de France’s popular adulterous love stories bring about many fascinating ethical questions.

The admiration of courtly love is no more prevalent theme in Marie's lais than on “Yonec” and “Lanval”. These two lais are showing very aristocratic views on socially states; love of nobility. A love that cannot be explained by a commoner or peasant that cannot show status has nothing to offer, for courtly love because a peasant has no chivalry. This courtly love is often secret in that a knight and a lady are not married to one another but to a different partner making the story adulterous. That secret at the end makes the story ecstatic and tragic; the adhesive of the story is the passion of love that is displayed making the store ecstatic and the secret is the tragedy that love cannot be acknowledged. The principal argument of this essay is to understand courtly love in Marie de France’s lais.

Children’s literature has existed for as long as there have been stories to be told to children. Stories, books, songs, poems are all made for children. Children’s literature does not have a definite definition of what it is; basically, it is anything a child reads (Lerer, 2008). Children begin to learn what reading and writing are used for before even knowing how the system works. Children recognise the function of written language by seeing examples of written language that are being used around them. Many children know the difference between reading and talking, they are aware that written language is used to do things in this world (Emitt, Zbaracki, Komesaroff and Pollock, 2015). Quintilian, John Locke, Saint Augustine and Doctor Seuss speculated on the ways children learn the Australian language and learn about their lives from literature (Lerer, 2008). In fact, Lerer states that “the history of children’s literature is inseparable from the history of childhood, for the child was made through texts and tales he/she studied, heard and told back,” (2008, p.1). Children’s literature nurtures an understanding of narrative structures and visual images played in storytelling, this helps develop

De France, Marie. The Lais of Marie De France. Trans. Glyn S. Burgess and Keith

In the 1600s, critics saw the increased production of books as a threat to society, because they feared that people would not be able to keep up and process the information at the same rate as it became available. Others feared that new books would outshine the classics, and as a result the society would plunge into a primitive state with masses of uncultured people. Ann Blair offers quite the opposite perspective in her article titled “Reading Strategies for Coping with Information Overload ca. 1550–1700,” where she demonstrates that the plethora of books, rather than numbing the minds, in reality cultivated new learning methods while making reading a more personal and intellectually stimulating experience.

Marie de France is concerned with living the good life which consists of following true love. In her story entitled “Lanval,” Marie de France describes a knight who is envied by many because of his “valour, generosity, beauty, and prowess” (295). Although many people are envious of Lanval and his

The best picture books, are warm, humorous, and can be read again and again. There must be something new to take away each time you read it. It has to hold up to multiple readings. There must be substance, depth, and layering.

Encourages children to read familiar stories independently by relating illustrations to the text. (Vukelich & Christie, 2004, p.8)

Reading has at all times and in all ages been a source of knowledge, of happiness, of pleasure and even moral courage. In today's world with so much more to know and to learn and also the need for a conscious effort to conquer the divisive forces, the importance of reading has increased. In the olden days if reading was not cultivated or encouraged, there was a substitute for it in the religious sermon and in the oral tradition. The practice of telling stories at bed time compensated to some extent for the lack of reading. In the nineteenth century Victorian households used to get together for an hour or so in the evenings and listen to books being read aloud. But today we not only read, we also want to read more and more and catch up