*crickets*
Well, apparently in this story, one cannot have their cake and eat it too. Not only do people fall in love with those they are not married to, but those who are betrothed do not love who they are married to as much as they should. What do I mean? While people in this class have been ranting about the hoe-bag Guinevere is (a point that is not altogether untrue), King Arthur does not love his wife nearly as much as he should. He is tricked out of giving away his wife by the evil Meleagant (whose name has an uncanny resemblance to Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty). What does he do? He basically says "my bad," suffers "great sorrow," and then sends Gawain and Lancelot to win her back.
Has Arthur gone soft since he's become king? Is some kind of tradition preventing him from rescuing his own queen? Make excuses all you want, Arthur, but I won't buy it.
I won't buy it.
Now, let's look at Lancelot. He stops at nothing to rescue his lady. He cherishes everything about her, even her hair, and resists the temptations of a woman who literally throws herself at him. Is that not enough for you, ladies? He crawls on a giant sword...yes a GIANT SWORD to get to her, and breaks through iron bars to make love to her (look back at the text: their time together is described as making love, and not just a one night stand). Compare him to Arthur and...
Well...if I were Guinevere, I'd fall for Lancelot too.
Perhaps that is why women identified with this story so much. Guinevere was like them: a woman married to a powerful man, but without the same passion in her marriage she wished for. Lancelot comes along, and not only is that s victory for Guinevere, but the female readers as well.
To wrap things up, I'll reference a story in which courtly love does result in marriage, and that is one of my favorite movies, The Princess Bride. It is because of this that I swoon every time my boyfriend says, "As you wish!"
The Princess Bride is a classic in my household. We're really cool people who quote every line from this movie. I know, we're awesome. I agree that this movie is very similar to the courtly love found in the Knight of the Cart. He does seem to overcome some weird obstacles along the way like Lancelot did too.
ReplyDeleteI know and...his mustache. I picture Lancelot with an awesome mustache. I'd also say both couples have a similar love-hate relatiomship.
DeleteYeah I agree. It's that stand-off-ish kind of love, but they come together at the end. I guess that's the happy ending women look for though which is why these stories have a similar plot I'm sure.
Deletei see where you are coming from in this, I also referenced a movie A Knight's Tale. I feel like the relationships that are seen in Lancelot and in both movies, would do exactly as you say and then even give women perhaps a sense of hope that there could perhaps be a Lancelot character out there waiting for them seeing as marriage is little cause to stop such love. This power of hope and wishing is granted in Lancelot and I completely agree with you're argument of Arthur not going to save his wife and barely being affected other than to send two knights after her.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it really shows that Arthur and Guinevere may be in only a political relationship by his lack of compassion. Or, if he has compassion for her, it may be in the same way he has compassion for everyone else in his kingdom.
DeleteI totally agree, I don't think there's much love. To bring another movie reference in, in Camelot Guinevere tried to run from her marriage to Arthur.
DeleteI agree with you that most of the women back in these times only marry for the power and there is no passion in the relationships we see. Maybe this is why so many women had affairs as we see in The Saga of the Mantle.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, or maybe they dod not have much choice in the matter?
DeleteMy question is why? Why couldn't they marry someone they loved? Damn the rules! This frustrates me.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. Oftentimes, women did not have the ability to choose their husbands.
DeleteI wrote my position paper on the topic of marrying for love instead of power and wealth. It just makes so much more sense! I know that wasn't how society operated but man... the number of issues that it would solve would have been crazy.
ReplyDeleteWhile yeah, maybe cheating on her husband the king wasn't the best plan Gwen has ever come up with I can kind of understand. She didn't marry for love, or if she did it's probably faded. She isn't Arthur's priority by any means, he's a bit more focused on his knights and his kingdom. Along comes Lance who is loving and devoted, you can see why she strays. Not to mention that she isn't the only unfaithful partner in their marriage. At least she didn't end up with a demon spawn kid who is trying (and succeeding) at taking down the government and killing her, because Arthur sure did. Oh hey there Mordred. It is easy to judge her but none of us were in her place and now we're looking at her 1500 years later with a totally different set of values and morals. I can't say I totally blame her for what she did.
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