The values of values like loyalty, courtesy, generosity were widely adapted as a secular chivalric code that was applied to the King Arthur’s knights. Over the course of the authorship of his Arthurian romances, Chretien’s opinion of secular chivalry changed and he began to critique the system more and more blatantly. Chretien wrote during the High Middle Ages, where a newfound focus on commercial value and Christianity was taking a much stronger hold in broader communities. Adoption of secular chivalry denounced these Christian values, or at least just lessened their importance. Chretien de Troyes’s attitude towards secular chivalry developed throughout the narrative of his Arthurian romances; he moved from a complete adoption and glorification
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Here, Chretien discounted the notion of love (“love is reduced to empty pleasantries” (295)), even as he wrote the love story of Yvain and his fairy lover Laudine. The fact that Yvain met Laudine in the first place was a testament to his chivalry, as her handmaiden Lunete only helped him for he had “honored and served” (307) her at King Arthur’s court and for that he she would now give him recompense. Gawain undermined the importance of the love story in this case, who keeps Yvain at tournaments past the time allotted to him by Laudine. This betrayal caused him to be characterized by his wife as “that liar, that deceiver, that unfaithful cheat” (329) which directly contradicted the chivalric values that he was supposed to uphold as a …show more content…
Yvain’s lion, a “noble and honorable beast” (337) became a symbol for the very virtues that Yvain was fighting to recover at the time that he crossed paths with it in the forest. Once Yvain recovered enough that he finds his way back to Arthur’s court, his level of virtue has recovered enough that he can be equated to Gawain, who fought with him and then attempted to surrender to ensure that Yvain had the honor of winning the battle but “they were both so honest and noble that each bestowed and granted the wreath of victory to the other”
Here, Chretien discounted the notion of love (“love is reduced to empty pleasantries” (295)), even as he wrote the love story of Yvain and his fairy lover Laudine. The fact that Yvain met Laudine in the first place was a testament to his chivalry, as her handmaiden Lunete only helped him for he had “honored and served” (307) her at King Arthur’s court and for that he she would now give him recompense. Gawain undermined the importance of the love story in this case, who keeps Yvain at tournaments past the time allotted to him by Laudine. This betrayal caused him to be characterized by his wife as “that liar, that deceiver, that unfaithful cheat” (329) which directly contradicted the chivalric values that he was supposed to uphold as a …show more content…
Yvain’s lion, a “noble and honorable beast” (337) became a symbol for the very virtues that Yvain was fighting to recover at the time that he crossed paths with it in the forest. Once Yvain recovered enough that he finds his way back to Arthur’s court, his level of virtue has recovered enough that he can be equated to Gawain, who fought with him and then attempted to surrender to ensure that Yvain had the honor of winning the battle but “they were both so honest and noble that each bestowed and granted the wreath of victory to the other”