The Lais Of Marie De France: A Literary Analysis

In her book she challenges the government of France and their ideas that women should not be exposed to the same education as men. She gives warning that women will not forever be satisfied with only domestic concerns, and she demands justice for the female race.

During the Medieval time period, a woman would generally be forced to depend upon a man for her livelihood. However, in the world of courtly love, some could say that this was the first idea of goddess worship. Where the man is unable to survive without his beloved. As a result of this, her love causes him to achieve noble deeds, and become obedient to her in hopes of winning her affection. In The Lais of Marie de France, specifically Chevrefoil and Yonec, the author does not follow all of the rules of courtly love, yet she does illustrate to the reader the relationship between the man and his woman. She describes the beauty, intelligence, and wisdom of her female characters, giving them power over the men who love them. While Marie de

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

The women described in the Lais of Marie de France often commit traditionally sinful deeds, such as adultery, murder, and betrayal. However, with a few exceptions, the protagonists often end up living happily with their beloved for the rest of their lives. The Lais advocate for situational judgement rather than general condemnation of specific acts, which can be seen through Marie de France’s treatment of sinful heroines.

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.

Although the Lais of Marie de France may seem to be ordinary tales of knights and chivalry, each explores the complicated issues surrounding love, loyalty, and gender. Marie uses four stories in particular to make statements on the relationships between men and women of that time.

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

According to American mythologist, Joseph Campbell, “The greatest love was during the Medieval Ages, when noble hearts produced a romantic love that transcended lust” (Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers [2001]). The Lais of Marie de France are primarily concerned with this idea of love--specifically, courtly love--between a man and a woman. Courtly love, a union modeled after the feudal relationship between a knight and his liege lord, became a popular convention in the 12th century (“Backgrounds to Romance: ‘Courtly Love’”). Instead of proving loyalty to a lord, the man would have to prove his love to a woman. Marie de France, however, focuses not just on the idea of love, but also on the differing kinds of love that existed in medieval society. She recognizes love as a force that cannot be avoided and that can be executed correctly or incorrectly; not all love is equal. Marie begins her collection of lais with the stor y of Guigemar, a noble knight who is cursed with the task of finding true love to heal a physical injury.

In The Lais of Marie de France, the prevalent themes of betrayal, vanity, and shame are evident all throughout the tale of Bisclavret. Even though Bisclavret assumes the form of a werewolf, he still remains a better human being than his wife, due to the presence of shame and inner beauty in his being, which is lacking in his wife. Bisclavret’s wife concerns herself with external appearances and uses hers’ to her advantage, while Bisclavret learns to control his beastly nature, despite transforming into a werewolf. The way in which Bisclavret chooses to attack his wife mirrors the major themes of betrayal and vanity present throughout the work. To begin, immediately after Bisclavret’s wife learns her husband’s secret of transforming into

Robertson discusses the representation of women in the Lais of de France and how they were constructed around the feudal society and were meant to represent the female agency. Robertson goes on to explain the feudal society and how it is a social ladder where everyone gets their opinions from who is on the very top—this being the “Church and the aristocracy” (Robertson 68). Robertson makes the point that these are two facets that are least acquainted with women. Robertson notes that medieval people also elevated the status of women at the same time as decimating it. Women—ladies—were compared to the Virgin Mary, who represents all things a woman should be: chaste, delicate, beautiful, modest, and so on. Marie de France wrote her lais so they could be enjoyed by both men and women, but she did explore the gender inequalities that existed in her time and still exist today!

Boom! The door flies open and a handsome knight runs into the room and yells, “Come my lady we must go now, for he is on his way”. The lady jumps to her feet and says “My love whom is on their way?” he responds, “your husband is on the way and he has heard of our romance”. The couple joins hands and quickly runs through the castle hoping that they are not seen. Suddenly the king jumps from a dark shadow, stops the couple in a sudden halt, and says, “Where do you think you are going?” With no response from the lady, the king reaches to his side and pulls a rope that releases a large bucket of acid onto the queen and her secret lover, which eats their bodies flesh within minutes only leaving the two skeletons holding each other’s hands. This

The more time that passes the more our views of the past are distorted. Our modern concepts and beliefs tend to lead to the inaccurate portrayal of the past. The two books, The Lais of Marie de France, by Marie de France and The Wolf Hunt by Gillian Bradshaw are prime examples of how our modern beliefs cause this distortion. The modern version of the novel, which is The Wolf Hunt, portrays the story differently than the Medieval novel, The Lais of Marie de France. The Wolf Hunt has modern themes in it, while the Lais has genuinely medieval themes.

The emotional states that find expressions in the lais of Marie de France is when they have to separate, they are both sorrowful. Tristan and Isolde were in love with each other, but the problem was that Isolde was married to Mark and Mark was Tristan’s uncle the king. The King then banishes Tristan, but he is willing to give up his life to see his love again. Tristan travels to the queen and plans to see he, he hides in the woods and he writes his name on a hazel branch. The hazel branch represents their love and is what brought them together to see each other. The queen sees his name and meets up with him and they appreciate their time together, and express their love. The time they spent together is the happiest time of their life, their

The Canterbury Tales was written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1392, during the medieval period in Europe. Three important aspects, his family’s ties to the court, his schooling and working for royalty (XI), and his love for reading and learning (XII) all combined and enabled him to create his greatest work, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer includes many different characters, pilgrims, all from very unique walks of life. Although there are not as many women included as men, their stories give some extraordinary insights on Chaucer’s views on the roles of men and women in medieval times. Christianity is the most common characteristic discussed, and clearly very important to Chaucer. The Prologue gives the reader a general over-view of each of the characters; he separates each character by his or her social class, religious life, and morality. The Prioress and The Wife of Bath tales further reveal his opinions on women 's roles and position in society. Chaucer makes it clear that men and women have very different roles and expectations; but they all either serve themselves, or others; and this is the trait that Chaucer uses to characterize a morally “good” or “bad” character, his characterization is not stipulated by social class or sex.

Therefore, it is evident that literary techniques are utilised to exploit the Beauvoirian idea of women “denying [their] feminine weakness” in order to justify their strength, while the “militant male... she wish[es] to be” however, Marlene accepts femininity and only wears a skirt to work.