Answer two of the following:
Q1: In “Equitan,” the two
chivalric lovers are punished in the end of the tale by being scalded to death
in boiling hot water (a ghastly end!). Is this story tonally different than the
others? Is Marie de France criticizing or satirizing the chivalric ideal? Is
this story less tolerant of adultery than the others? Or is there another
reason for the lovers’ unfortunate end?
Q2: In “Guigemar,” the knight
suggests that “if you remain faithful to each other, the love between you will
be right and proper” (49). In general, do these stories support the idea that faithful
love between two lovers (by necessity, not a married couple) is morally sound
and desirable? Is the narrator’s sympathy with the lovers—or is she merely
recording the quaint customs of another people in another land?
Q3: How does the manner of
storytelling and the development of the characters in these Lais compare
to what we encountered in The Saga of the Volsungs? Do they seem to come
from a similar culture/mindset? Or does Marie de France do more (or less) with
her mythic material?
Q4: Since chivalric love
places an emphasis of love outside of marriage, how do these stories treat
marriage itself? Is marriage a necessary evil? Or just an evil to be avoided?
Since most of the people reading her lais would be married, how would
they seem themselves presented in the tale?
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