Marie Antoinette

their family and friends, where they live, and even the food that they eat. Every time period has different beliefs, clothing, and governing bodies that give hints as to what the culture would have been like during that time. In the poem "Lanval," Marie De France writes about these differences. Culture is not just the surroundings people live in; it is truly what makes them who they are and what they do in life. The clothing people wore in medieval times was an example of the culture that they…

A deep self-conflict appears in her presentation as both mysterious and involved in the courtly love tradition. Malory’s work showed an English preference to steep the queen’s sexuality in mystery when he removed Guinevere’s explicit scenes from Le Morte D’Arthur and Vives’ aimed to erase women from society after the loss of virginity. Mystery implied innocence through ignorance, while the courtly love tradition acknowledged sex as the end goal of a Courtly flirtation. Capellanus’ argument that…

In Marie De France’s “Lanval”, It is interesting how, in spite of a woman’s common status as a tool toward greatness or moral poverty, the fairy queen is still technically a positive character because she raised Lanval to greatness, even though her interference in Lanval’s life appears to consume his personality and identity. In the beginning, Lanval does have some semblance of personality, indicated with the lines “For his valor, for his generosity, / his beauty and bravery” (21-22) which…

Since the early days of writing and even spoken word, stories often tell of the time in which they were first told, even if that story may be about dragons, mythical kings, or even magical beings. We learn from these stories and the insight they have to offer us in modern day education and observation. We learn how things operated, how people were treated, the views on religion, and sexuality, and in this particular case, women’s sexuality. It is no surprise that in history women are more than…

depended on the situation the lovers were in, or the person telling the lover’s tale. Marie de France paints these two opposite views in two of her lays— the “Lay of Yonec”, and the “Lay of the Werewolf.” She also shows readers how the two opposite views on courtly love are sparked due to varying situations. Courtly love is seen in some cases to be just and beautiful while marriage is selfish and cold, but Marie flips these ideals showing also the “bad” side to courtly love and the good of…

I have often wondered about the it in the statement, you can have it all. What does it mean to have it all? In the essay “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All”, Anne-Marie Slaughter, an international lawyer, a foreign policy analyst, former Dean of Princeton, and the Director of Policy Planning of the U.S State Department, elaborates on what it is to her when she describe the reasons she why had to leave the job of her dreams focus more on her family. She discusses the inequalities between men and…

this, died. In Marie de France’s “Yonec”, the knight, son of a married woman and an ideal knight, satisfies this fate with his father’s own sword against the disgraced husband. On the other end of the spectrum, fulfilling physical requirements, but with lacking reputation, the ‘real’ knight Lanval only takes on the image of an ideal knight for a moment, but still holds on to the reputation of a chivalric knight despite his teetering masculine reputation. In “Yonec” and “Lanval,” Marie de France…

For most people, love is known to be a powerful emotion. For some, it can drive people to do honorable and inspiring actions. Others however, can use it for malicious intentions. In the novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and the film adaptation of Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, civil unrest in connection with the French government’s increasingly unwarranted rule allowed these traits of love to be illustrated. Sydney Carton, a brilliant but depressed Englishman makes great sacrifices…

In Marie de France's "Bisclavret", the werewolf is more man than animal because of the deep-level of understanding between Bisclavret as a werewolf and the townspeople and the application of humanistic traits and actions rather than using appearance to describe the werewolf. A defining feature of all species is their use of speech to communicate with each other. In Bisclavret, when he is turned into a werewolf for good, there is no mention of him verbally making any noises-speech, growling, or…

There are no more powerful demons in the world than pure infatuation, and no angels that are sweeter than love. In Marie De France’s lai Le Fresne I see elements of maternal and romantic love. In This Lai, I’d define love as strong affection that results in caring for another, even if it leads to no advancement in society. Le Fresne’s mother judged her neighbor who birth twins, claiming that she had to have slept with two men. However, when she gave birth, she too had twins. Le Fresne’s mother…