In her lais, Marie de France references love over and over again. After having read these lais, I have found that Marie seems to view love as something that tends to be found outside of marriage. In her lais' love is sacrificial and is so deep that one would rather die than live without the other. She also described love as something that is ,"discreet, but be not too discreet therein." I believe that her message lies in the fact that to Marie, love is sacrifical and deep and not often found in marriage. I have a hard time agreeing with Marie that love is not found in marriage however I feel that because of the time that I live in,romantic relationships are very different. I believe that love is a choice that each of us are able to make. It is the choice of choosing to care more about another person than yourself. Love is not just an emotion but a decision to put someone else before yourself. It is not something that is able to be described but rather something that must be experienced and treasured.
I agree with Anna's definition of love and also with her assumption that romantic relationships were viewed differently when Marie de France was alive. Most marriages at that time were pre-arranged and, at least for women, occured at a very young age. However, medieval and pre-medieval ideas of love and the concept of a soul mate caused some problems in these pre-arranged matches. It was believed that each of us possess an incomplete soul and somewhere in the world there is one person who can complete us. Souls would meet and meld when you looked into the eyes of your soulmate, and during a kiss. Unfortunately, the chances of the ideal arranged marriage involving your one true other half are slim indeed. Thus, courtly love was justified. I think the writings of Marie de France are a criticism of the loveless prearranged marriages of her day, and also of loving outside the marriage covenant. Both serve as destructive agents in her stories. IT seems to me that such blanant criticism of social institutions was a pretty gutsy move for a female poet.
we see the courtly love all the time in the stories of that time. i remember thinking that extra-marital affairs were something added in our time as acceptible in stories such as tristan and isolde (when I was younger) because my mindset had been that anytime before the 60s it was unacceptable to write about that. Of course, futher study says that isn't so. i agree with Katie, it seems to be a commentary on arranged marriages. I think it also says more about who Marie de France was. She had to be from the court, whether noble or not, to be familiar with courtly love and arranged marriages. Yes, commonfolk had arranged marriages as well, but it was less common than in the court because the kings needed to make alliances with other kingdoms (and what better way than to make an alliance than to offer them your daughter and make them family).
Marie de France had some rather interesting ideas on love. She obviously felt strongly about the idea of love, using the word several times throughout her works. I agree that Marie did not find a particular interest concerning love within marriage. Two of the stories dealt with a love discovered outside of marriage. The one that didn't deal with adultry killed the two lovers off. Marie's love is all about surrender and sacrifice, as she referenced to 'Christianity' several times throughout her works. I agree with sacrifical love. I feel that it can certainly be found within marriage, especially in modern times.
4 comments:
In her lais, Marie de France references love over and over again. After having read these lais, I have found that Marie seems to view love as something that tends to be found outside of marriage. In her lais' love is sacrificial and is so deep that one would rather die than live without the other. She also described love as something that is ,"discreet, but be not too discreet therein." I believe that her message lies in the fact that to Marie, love is sacrifical and deep and not often found in marriage. I have a hard time agreeing with Marie that love is not found in marriage however I feel that because of the time that I live in,romantic relationships are very different. I believe that love is a choice that each of us are able to make. It is the choice of choosing to care more about another person than yourself. Love is not just an emotion but a decision to put someone else before yourself. It is not something that is able to be described but rather something that must be experienced and treasured.
I agree with Anna's definition of love and also with her assumption that romantic relationships were viewed differently when Marie de France was alive. Most marriages at that time were pre-arranged and, at least for women, occured at a very young age. However, medieval and pre-medieval ideas of love and the concept of a soul mate caused some problems in these pre-arranged matches. It was believed that each of us possess an incomplete soul and somewhere in the world there is one person who can complete us. Souls would meet and meld when you looked into the eyes of your soulmate, and during a kiss. Unfortunately, the chances of the ideal arranged marriage involving your one true other half are slim indeed. Thus, courtly love was justified.
I think the writings of Marie de France are a criticism of the loveless prearranged marriages of her day, and also of loving outside the marriage covenant. Both serve as destructive agents in her stories. IT seems to me that such blanant criticism of social institutions was a pretty gutsy move for a female poet.
we see the courtly love all the time in the stories of that time. i remember thinking that extra-marital affairs were something added in our time as acceptible in stories such as tristan and isolde (when I was younger) because my mindset had been that anytime before the 60s it was unacceptable to write about that. Of course, futher study says that isn't so. i agree with Katie, it seems to be a commentary on arranged marriages. I think it also says more about who Marie de France was. She had to be from the court, whether noble or not, to be familiar with courtly love and arranged marriages. Yes, commonfolk had arranged marriages as well, but it was less common than in the court because the kings needed to make alliances with other kingdoms (and what better way than to make an alliance than to offer them your daughter and make them family).
Marie de France had some rather interesting ideas on love. She obviously felt strongly about the idea of love, using the word several times throughout her works. I agree that Marie did not find a particular interest concerning love within marriage. Two of the stories dealt with a love discovered outside of marriage. The one that didn't deal with adultry killed the two lovers off. Marie's love is all about surrender and sacrifice, as she referenced to 'Christianity' several times throughout her works. I agree with sacrifical love. I feel that it can certainly be found within marriage, especially in modern times.
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