For Wednesday, read the next four stories: Bisclavret, Lanval, Les Deus Amanz, and Yonec. Then answer two of the following:
Q1: Behind many of the chivalric romances are earlier, pagan stories of magic and witchcraft--notably in Bisclavret and Yonec. How sympathetic is the narrator (or Marie herself?) to these throwbacks to earlier times and cultures? Are they used as a contrast to the more "cultured" people in the stories? Or do they provide a more "pure" or "natural" road to Love?
Q2: Many of the lovers die or are punished in these stories, notably the wife in Bisclavret, and both lovers (eventually) in Les Deus Amanz and Yonec. Are these stories critical or satirical of the ideals of chivalric love? Or do the deaths make the forbidden love more meaningful and sacrificial?
Q3: Many Christian writers were at pains to marry their faith to the pagan glories of old, as in Beowulf and The Saga of the Volsungs. Marie de France is often in the same boat, as in "Yonec," when the wife warns her bird-lover that "she would make him her lover, provided he believed in God, which would make their love possible" (88). Do the stories offer a logical way to reconcile the two religions? Or is it a case of "taking the best of both worlds"?
Q4: Given that the author is a woman, how are the female protagonists depicted in the stories? Is Marie de France more sympathetic to women? Does she offer them more range and characterization? Or is she merely transcribing the stories as she found them, with little attempt to make them more "feminine"? Could a man have written these stories just as well?
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