Courtly Love Or Woman As Things Character Analysis

Modernizing a Medieval Motif In Courtly Love, or Woman as Things, Slavoj Žižek addresses the idea that “the tradition of [the] Lady as the inaccessible object is alive and well in our century” (2413). In The Hunger Games, the character Peeta exemplifies the knight within the courtly love motif but with a modern twist. Peeta, who is in love with the unattainable Katniss, pursues her despite the fact that her heart already belongs to another. A love triangle forms among the characters Katniss, Peeta, and Gale that continues throughout the remainder of the series, which causes confusion and tension among them. This conflict, which is popular in contemporary plot structures, utilizes the archetypal characters of this medieval motif to portray the tensions that arise when love is expressed by one individual, but it is not returned. When …show more content…
In the first novel, the two are forced into the deadly Hunger Games competition, in which only one of the twenty-four contestants survives. As the story develops, their mentor uses a star-crossed lovers strategy to make it appear as though Katniss and Peeta are in love publically, but privately Peeta maintains a chaste relationship with Katniss, despite his genuine feelings for her. This innocent pursuit of Katniss is glamorized by Peeta’s character and shows young females how a proper young man should act, as dictated by modern culture. His genuine feelings for Katniss make these readers swoon and reinforce Peeta’s role as Katniss’s servant and guardian. Throughout the novel, Peeta does not act upon adolescent desires unless prompted to do so for the cameras. Instead, he respects Katniss and her talents. “He stages his own servitude” (2410) by placing Katniss on a pedestal and vowing to protect her at the risk of his