Marie de France

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. The first story follows the tale of a knight named Guigemar. Despite his noble qualities and popularity, “he never displayed the slightest interest in love” (44). This all changes one day when Guigemar goes hunting. He

In Bisclavret, one of the lais written by Marie de France, the protagonist was a baron from Brittany, who had to leave his otherwise normal life for three days each week and roam the woods as a werewolf. The gender norms represented in Bisclavret by Marie de France were so critical to the atmosphere of the story and the struggles of the protagonist, that when they were ripped away, the baron was so thoroughly emasculated that it occurred on a physical, emotional, and social level. The clothing was

“The Two Lovers” by Marie de France is about a father and a daughter and the many issues that they have. For one, the King believed that his daughter could not marry just anyone. He comes up with a plan where the one who wants to marry his beautiful daughter would have to carry her up a very high mountain. Right away, we begin to see the problem with this idea. Every man who tried to accomplish the task did not succeed. I feel like most of the men that volunteered to do this were just doing it to

The Lais of Marie de France The Lais of Marie de France serves as a collection of stories that independently convey different romantic tales, each having their own unique presence that come together to create a successful romantic work of literature. The collection’s tales encompass many aspects that can be found throughout the romance genre as a whole and represent some of what make romance a diverse and utterly distinctive genre. In her different accounts of love stories, de France showcases tales

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

The Lais of Marie de France follows muse-like protagonists through twelve narratives to illustrate proven love, its triumphs, grief, and demonstrations to overcome these aforementioned circumstances. At the close of the 12th century, Marie uses The Lais as a hospitable medium to interject feminist literature into a predominately male community. Her works challenges the traditional medieval tales that limit women to appurtenances of knight’s and chivalry and instead casts them as influential, intellectual

A Comparison of Sei Shonagon and Marie de France      Though more than two hundred years have separated Sei Shonagon and Marie de France, the scene is much the same. A courtly lady sits in a candle-lit room, with her writing hand poised above a book of parchment. Her face brightens in an instant of inspiration and she scribbles furiously onto the paper. This woman is closely associated with the royal court and is something of an anachronism, a woman author in a male-dominated world. The scene

armor, for example, always saves the lady. This is shown in fairytales like Cinderella, written in the 17th century and Rapunzel, written in the 19th century. No matter what the problem is, the man has to save the day or else he is not a man. In Marie de France’s Lanval, written in the twelfth century, the witty lai satirically challenges the stereotypical roles of women. Evidently, every story does not contend male dominance. Also the other characters do not live up to their expectations either;

him in boiling water (59). Unfortunately, for Equatin and his lover, the king discovers there secret and the two are scorched to death. Furthermore, what would love be if one could not gather any satisfaction from this event? In The Lais of Marie de France the happiness of love is a very significant factor, it is the determination that drives the passionate relationships that flourish within the lais. In the story of “Laustic”, the lovers are never in physical acquaintance but seem to gaze at each

The tales of Marie de France, shed light on the romantic relationships and chivalry of this time period. This is very insightful for modern people to be able to read and understand the culture of that time. Knighthood and chivalry were respected by some, but many times they were disregarded for passion. Love and marriage are largely connected to physical attractiveness of the person and the passion involved. Marriage is not a very serious commitment and will be disregarded whenever another presents