After now having read “The Knight of the Cart” in its entirety,
I have to admit that the story has certainly grown on me. However with that
being said, I also must confess that it took every bit of concentration I had
to read until the end.
The main reason I had such a difficult time making my way
through this particular tale was in large part due to Chretien’s writing style.
Like I mentioned in one of my previous comments, the entire time I was reading
I felt like there was a barrier between the story and myself and no matter how
hard I tried I could not seem to bypass it. Every time I thought I understood
what was going on a new event or twist in the plot would prove me wrong (such
as when Lancelot gets “deceived” by the dwarf on pg. 232). Usually I am intrigued
by plot twists, as they work to build tension and suspense, but in this case I
was simply left confused and wondering what was going on in Chretien’s mind
when he wrote this story.
It was quite a challenge for me to follow the main plot of the
story all the way through to the end, as I couldn’t quite shake the feeling
that what I was reading was simply a bunch of random / invented events all
strung together in order to craft a complicated tale. I almost feel as though
there were so many things going on that I couldn’t become overly invested in
the story itself because I was too busy / distracted by trying to keep all of
its parts straight! Now don’t get me wrong, there were definitely a few moments
throughout that I did have the pleasure of being able to connect with and
enjoy, such as when Meleagant finally met his doom on pg. 256 or when Guinevere
had to restrain herself from embracing Lancelot too openly in front of Arthur’s
court on pg. 253. However on the whole this story left me feeling very incomplete;
as if I even though I had read the entire thing I was still an outsider looking
in who didn’t quite get it. (Of course this is true to a certain degree, as I
am not the original audience this tale was intended for, yet I believe that
there is more to it than that.)
Overall I have come to the conclusion that Chretien’s writing
style drastically affected my ability to relate to, enjoy and become invested
in his story. Not only was it difficult for me to follow the plot in general
thanks to the many twists and turns the tale took before its conclusion, but
the questionable intelligence of Chretien’s characters (hello, can we talk
about that dwarf / how daft Lancelot is for a moment?!) significantly turned me off thanks to the many
distracting questions their decisions raised in my mind. The only character
whose actions I never questioned was Meleagant, as it was always very clear to
me why he acted the way he did, however in general I often found myself wondering what the hell everyone was thinking. I know that by reading this tale over a few
more times its charm would only increase (since I did find it easier to read
through the second half than I did the first), yet the overcomplicated and
cumbersome style of Chretien’s writing doesn’t make that task seem too
appealing…
I completely understand what you mean about his writing style. I also have a hard time with it, but for me it helps to imagine myself in that time period. This is a larger than life story has Dr. MB mentioned today and it is filled with ridiculous events, but once you get past that it gets easier to read. I think that the point of Chretien's disconnect is the joy he must have gotten in wrapping it all up at the end of the story. As the reader you find yourself going...oohhhhh that's what that was or that's why that happened, it makes sense now.
ReplyDeleteIn "Erec and Enide" I found I was able to skim many parts of the story because of the description, but in this one, I would get completely lost if I did that. However, I thought this one was more interesting because there was more action than descriptions. It's funny, someone us complained about the descriptions, but now we want them back, because at least we can follow what Chretien is saying. I think maybe this was the point though. Perhaps this is a literary technique to make us connect with "the knight" or "Lancelot." He spends the first half of the story being controlled by Love and Reason, and so on. I would imagine that's pretty confusing on him, too. The only thing he is sure of is that he has to rescue his lover. And that's the only sure thing we have, too. The second half of the story is easier because the characters are clear, and their intentions become clear, too. I'm simply speculating, and this could be totally off the wall, but I think it's an interesting thing to consider.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. When we first started reading this story, I was completely lost. I hated the term "knight" at this point because I just didn't understand. Chretien has a style of writing by explaining things here and there, or just jumping to the next event. That part definitely got be confused because their was just too many people doing something at the same time. Second part of the reading was much better. We got to learn the names of the people, as well as the falling action. I kind of had to picture myself in the story doing some of the actions the characters were doing in order to understand. I know that may seem a little silly, but it helped!
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