Stereotypes

Ah, cliches. We've all seen them- the "dumb blonde" jokes, the "asshole jock"...every society has its own way of stereotyping people to portray certain personality traits. I was interested to see which ones medieval cultures used, and within a couple pages of reading Erec and Enide it was clear that people back then had some bad attitudes towards short people.

Early in the story, Erec encounters a dwarf who the author must've spent a good amount of time portraying him to be the biggest dick in the whole kingdom. Here are some of just a few words the author described this dwarf as:

"full of wickedness"-pg. 3
"evil, base-born"-pg. 3
"a monster"-the queen, in reference to him, pg. 3
"disagreeable and provoking"-Erec, pg. 4

Granted, Chretien describes all of his characters in painstaking detail, but still, those are some strong words for such a minor character. It doesn't help that he describes the maid herself as disliking him for the sole fact that he was short either:

"having great contempt for him...because she saw how small he was"-pg. 3

As for the dwarf's behavior itself? He refuses to allow Erec or the maid any help despite their courteousness in asking him, and even whips the maid when she pushes on.

And I thought people in Jersey were rude....