I would just like to
start off this blog post by expressing how frustrated I am with these readings.
I genuinely felt, after finishing all three readings, that at least one
character in each story had irritated me (which I also think is a good thing…I
mean imagine if we were reading something boring). AND then I got to reading
about Erec and Enide in The Complete
Romances of Chretien de Troyes. When I first started reading I absolutely loved
it because here was a guy who fell in a love with a girl, not only because was
is beautiful but also because she is intelligent, and to top all of that off,
she is not wealthy either. However, once I continued reading I got more and
more frustrated with how Erec treats Enide. He is endlessly controlling of her
when he feels like his manhood is threatened and it irritates me to no end.
Nearly halfway through the reading on page 36 Erec says to Enide, “’What! What
have you said?’ Erec exclaimed. ‘You have too little respect for me now. I gave
you a command, forbidding you to speak. How very bold of you to disobey! This
time you shall be pardoned, but should this happen again, you will not be
forgiven.’” What is the point of being that controlling? Erec is supposed to be
the most perfect, most humble knight in all the land, or at least he was given
enough praises saying so. If they are true why is he being so rude to his
lover? The power trip he holds over her is ridiculous. (Even though she defies
him time and time again by speaking out which I love).
In addition what about
La Fresne?! We did not get to talk about La Fresne that much in class but this
was actually the story that frustrated me the most because the maiden in the
story is so good natured. Throughout the whole Lais I was rooting for her
because she was abandoned by her awful mother, and then when she finally got
the attention of the heroic man, he abandoned her because the other knights did
not think she was of noble birth. If the “hero” of the story had really loved
her like he said he did, there is no way he would have tried to be married to
the (unknown) sister of the first maiden. Then, by the end of the story, when
it is found out that the original girl is in fact of a noble birth, he calls
off the engagement and marries her instead. The feminist in me leapt up at this
point and said, “WHAT?! First he abandons you and you take it because you are
just that nice, AND then when he figures out that you are in fact good enough
for him…he takes you back and there are no complaints at all?!” Yeah I was very
incensed about this.
Transitioning off of
that frustration, I would like to smoothly (or not so smoothly) head into my
potential topic for this upcoming essay and the frustration I am going to use
to build it. You know how Dr. MB had us pick from one the topics from the board
last class? Well I picked gender and power and I was thinking of using some of
stories (I have not decided which ones) from The Lais of Marie de France, as
well as some of the laws from courtly love and the story of Eric and Enide to
demonstrate that the lack of power that women had in this time frame.
I definitely liked the fact that there was more to this girl than beauty. It was nice knowing Erec really appreciated her, especially for being so wise. Now the next step is for a man to fall in love with a wise, poor, average looking girl. But that's probably too much to ask for. I do not understand why Erec began acting the way he did. It was annoying, but I guess something had to go wrong. It would be boring if he was that perfect I guess.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with how ridiculous it was that the man in Le Fresne just left her and then came back to her like it was no big deal. Actually, that's not okay and these women need to start standing up for themselves!
Going with a combination of the post above and Jaime's comment, would a story with a knightly women (for example [and no I do not know about her, other than that she had respected authority to a degree] Joanne of Arc) either pursuing a man and/or abusing her lover work to the same degree? Especially for a story set in the time period that these we have read are? We are always empt to look at the guys in our current readings and say "WTF man!" but I feel we would not necessarily feel the same way if the gender roles are reversed. At least in my mind, I would think: 'Wow, that dude is a serious masochist!'
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