Testosterone in Action
Vanissa Tsang
Masculinity is reflected based on society expectations and role of the men. In Gregory’s History of the Franks, he writes about men with the role of royal kings, while Marie de France write poems about knights. My main argument is that Gregory’s form of masculinity reflects on the aggressive approaches to obtain power to ensure one’s social power, while Marie’s masculinity reflects on the satisfaction of individual’s need for companionship.
The relationships in Gregory’s History of the Franks are superficial, lacking affection for the queen and acting what favors the king’s interest most. For instance, Chilperic remarried Fredegund after the death of his second wife following an argument regarding the …show more content…
However, in Marie, while the women rely on knight for affection, the woman would play a greater role at shaping the man’s life. In Guigemar, the lady is crucial to saving Guigemar’s life due to a curse from a stag that was shot by Guigemar (The Lais of Marie de France, Guigemar, pg 44). While this can be forced due to the circumstances, the knight and the lady’s encounterment was by chance. The lady held power over the knight’s life. This mutual dependency is lacking in the relationships portrayed by Gregory, where marriages were done for the benefit of the nation rather than the individuals themselves. This masculinity is related to love rather than power, paralleling to an earlier paragraph of how knights are more affectionate. The connection is due to the two-people fulfilling each other’s needs rather than using each other for their own benefit and satisfaction. In Yonec, the lady was given the control over her own fate and her lover’s honor; she raised their son to avenge her lover by killing her legal husband (The Lais of Marie de France, Guigemar, pg 93). While it was the son who truly avenged them both, the lady was given the responsibility and choice to act upon her interests. She felt as though her life was wrongfully spent by being held captive and deprived of human affection and romantic interaction despite being married. She placed her hopes onto her son by choosing to be persistent. In this time women ideally were given the same expectations as a man would have in terms of strength. Again, this masculinity revolves around love, where here it is the love for the knight as well as self-love for herself. By killing her husband, she can release herself from the shackles that bounded her to an unwanted
Vanissa Tsang
Masculinity is reflected based on society expectations and role of the men. In Gregory’s History of the Franks, he writes about men with the role of royal kings, while Marie de France write poems about knights. My main argument is that Gregory’s form of masculinity reflects on the aggressive approaches to obtain power to ensure one’s social power, while Marie’s masculinity reflects on the satisfaction of individual’s need for companionship.
The relationships in Gregory’s History of the Franks are superficial, lacking affection for the queen and acting what favors the king’s interest most. For instance, Chilperic remarried Fredegund after the death of his second wife following an argument regarding the …show more content…
However, in Marie, while the women rely on knight for affection, the woman would play a greater role at shaping the man’s life. In Guigemar, the lady is crucial to saving Guigemar’s life due to a curse from a stag that was shot by Guigemar (The Lais of Marie de France, Guigemar, pg 44). While this can be forced due to the circumstances, the knight and the lady’s encounterment was by chance. The lady held power over the knight’s life. This mutual dependency is lacking in the relationships portrayed by Gregory, where marriages were done for the benefit of the nation rather than the individuals themselves. This masculinity is related to love rather than power, paralleling to an earlier paragraph of how knights are more affectionate. The connection is due to the two-people fulfilling each other’s needs rather than using each other for their own benefit and satisfaction. In Yonec, the lady was given the control over her own fate and her lover’s honor; she raised their son to avenge her lover by killing her legal husband (The Lais of Marie de France, Guigemar, pg 93). While it was the son who truly avenged them both, the lady was given the responsibility and choice to act upon her interests. She felt as though her life was wrongfully spent by being held captive and deprived of human affection and romantic interaction despite being married. She placed her hopes onto her son by choosing to be persistent. In this time women ideally were given the same expectations as a man would have in terms of strength. Again, this masculinity revolves around love, where here it is the love for the knight as well as self-love for herself. By killing her husband, she can release herself from the shackles that bounded her to an unwanted