Perhaps the most prominent theme throughout the plot of the story is Yvain's love for Laudin. It is the conflict between this love, whose "wound is more enduring than any inflicted by lance or sword- , and Yvain's longing for an honorable reputation that shapes De Troyes' story. While his love for Laudin demands that Yvain stay with her, his sense of duty commands him to leave her and look for adventures. When faced with this conflict, Yvain chooses honoring his name over his love, and re-commences his ventures. Leaving his heart at a "good abiding place- , Yvain sets off for a series of external conflicts, promising to return in a year's time. In a manner which has resemblances to Sufism, Yvain finds the solution to the problem of balancing duty and love through a journey which starts and ends at Laudin's castle. Catalyzed by this first conflict of love and duty, many others arise throughout the course of the story.
During the year in which Yvain stays away from home, he "jousts wherever tournaments are held."" . These tournaments reflect another conflict which Yvain has to face. Apart from the obvious conflicts with the knights he fights against, these tournaments should also raise an inner conflict for Yvain. Although these tournaments were common during the twelfth century, they were prohibited by the Church. Thus Yvain's departure from home is followed by an act against the wishes of the church. .
Even though the banning of these tournaments is not mentioned in the book, the historical evidence, and Yvain's apparent attachment to religion seen through his adventures demonstrate a major conflict. While tournaments are banned by the Church, they also are manifest only when Yvain is away from his lady. Thus this conflict resolves when he returns home, along with the one between love and duty.
When Yvain realizes that he had broken his promise to Laudin, his love leads him into another conflict.
The narrator of Yvain portrays Love in the most idealistic terms. ... Once he has given up his heart to her, Yvain is discribed as completely conquered. ... When he realizes his error, Yvain is "bereft of reason." ... When Yvain encounters his lady's spring, he is torn by remorse and sorrow. ... Upon realizing this, Yvain immediately proclaims himself defeated. ...
Yvain is a tale of chivalrous exploits and a romance from which chivalry was of great importance. ... We may argue that Yvain's situation is unique and that he may have been unaware of the commitment one must give to one's spouse. ... As readers we are divided between our empathy with Yvain's knightly duties and his responsibility to his sworn word to his life-mate. ... In the courtly life of Yvain the noble status of the knight is found everywhere. Despite the ambiguities of Yvain's ability to fulfill his knightly duties and the tendencies of the reader either to overl...
So, he simply turns pale and silent when he learns of Lancelot's affair with Guinevere in the Mort Artu, whilst in Chrétien de Troyes's Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, he is unable to stay awake after a feast and has to retire for a nap.[77] Nonetheless, as Norris J. ... Erec and Enide and Cligès are tales of courtly love with Arthur's court as their backdrop, demonstrating the shift away from the heroic world of the Welsh and Galfridian Arthur, while Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, features Yvain and Gawain in a supernatural adventure, with Arthur very mu...
Sexuality in Medieval literature Rules of medieval society clearly depict that it is a man's world, but medieval literature seems to reverse this notion. In medieval text, fiction or non-fiction, the reader can expect the foundations of the characteristics of the main character to be the same. Y...
SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT" An anonymous author wrote Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in the 14th century. It was written in a dialect from Northern England. The poem uses alliteration similar to the Anglo-Saxon form of poetry. Alliteration uses a repetition of consonants. The poem ends the way it begins. ...
