The Anatomy of the Heart In Chrétien de Troyes’ Cligès, lovers can effectively communicate with their eyes. While “the eye is the heart’s window” (708-709), unlike the eye the heart appears as less a physical organ than a mental entity that is capable of commanding one’s action. However, when Alexander falls in love with Sordamour, he bemoans that this unrequited love brings him the pain that goes to his heart, although he cannot see any wounds (687, 697-698). Since the heart is susceptible to pain, it is also corporeal despite its mental power. Such intangible wounds, therefore, suggest that in Cligès the heart is, on the one hand, a physical organ, and on the other hand, the source of desires. This duality is an enigmatic and incoherent
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As Fenice confesses that her heart is different from Cligès’ in that “his heart is the master, and [hers]/ is servant”(4483-4484), the old slave-and-master relationship between Fenice and her heart does not vanish, but merely transform into a similar one between her heart and Cligès’. Therefore, when Fenice thinks she is losing her heart, she merely ceases to delegate the desire-generating function to her heart. Although she chooses to be subjected to Cligès, she does so only in order to enjoy love better. As she indulges in her desire for Cligès, she is even released from those basic needs such as food and drinks (4366-4368). The speaker’s observation that “whoever’s a servant of love / must make him his lord and master” (3871-3872) suggests that the awe-inspiring quality, which is the nature of attraction, is not inherent in the object but generated by the viewer. Cligès needs to make Fenice formidable, because it is exactly this fear that makes Fenice desirable to him. One’s lover has to be grander than oneself and to be something that one does not have in order to retain one’s …show more content…
Just as one makes one’s lover a formidable master that devours one’s all desires, one makes the heart a temporary habitat for desires before one is determined to invest everything in a specific lover. Hence, the slave-and-master relationship between characters and their hearts is in fact the opposite. When Sordamour complains “my eyes see nothing / except what my heart tells them / to see” (503-505), she is not abused by her heart. Rather, she constructs this notion of a relentless yet truthful heart to take away her own agency and convince herself of the inevitability of her falling in love with Cligès. By holding the heart responsible for all the pains and desires, Fenice also exonerates herself from any necessary immoral measures in order to be with Cligès, since she cannot control her heart. Also, by persuading herself that Cligès’ heart has already taken hers, she trades possible retreats for courage. As speaker notices, “the heart sits in the body / like a candle set inside / a lantern. Blow out the candle / and there’s no more light in the lantern” (713-716), Fenice creates her heart as a candle to see through the darkness. Yet, since the perception of her heart is imaginative and subjective, the light emitted by her heart is only visible to her. When Fenice thinks
As Fenice confesses that her heart is different from Cligès’ in that “his heart is the master, and [hers]/ is servant”(4483-4484), the old slave-and-master relationship between Fenice and her heart does not vanish, but merely transform into a similar one between her heart and Cligès’. Therefore, when Fenice thinks she is losing her heart, she merely ceases to delegate the desire-generating function to her heart. Although she chooses to be subjected to Cligès, she does so only in order to enjoy love better. As she indulges in her desire for Cligès, she is even released from those basic needs such as food and drinks (4366-4368). The speaker’s observation that “whoever’s a servant of love / must make him his lord and master” (3871-3872) suggests that the awe-inspiring quality, which is the nature of attraction, is not inherent in the object but generated by the viewer. Cligès needs to make Fenice formidable, because it is exactly this fear that makes Fenice desirable to him. One’s lover has to be grander than oneself and to be something that one does not have in order to retain one’s …show more content…
Just as one makes one’s lover a formidable master that devours one’s all desires, one makes the heart a temporary habitat for desires before one is determined to invest everything in a specific lover. Hence, the slave-and-master relationship between characters and their hearts is in fact the opposite. When Sordamour complains “my eyes see nothing / except what my heart tells them / to see” (503-505), she is not abused by her heart. Rather, she constructs this notion of a relentless yet truthful heart to take away her own agency and convince herself of the inevitability of her falling in love with Cligès. By holding the heart responsible for all the pains and desires, Fenice also exonerates herself from any necessary immoral measures in order to be with Cligès, since she cannot control her heart. Also, by persuading herself that Cligès’ heart has already taken hers, she trades possible retreats for courage. As speaker notices, “the heart sits in the body / like a candle set inside / a lantern. Blow out the candle / and there’s no more light in the lantern” (713-716), Fenice creates her heart as a candle to see through the darkness. Yet, since the perception of her heart is imaginative and subjective, the light emitted by her heart is only visible to her. When Fenice thinks