Romance of Tristan

1. Characterizations:

There were several situations in which I found Tristan and Yseut to be the atypical “knight in shining armor and damsel in distress”: first, the scene where Tristan rescues Yseut from the “strange knight” who took her away from Mark as his prize, and second, the scene where Tristan saves Yseut from the band of lepers. (There seemed to be a lot of scenes that featured women as the ultimate prize to be won.) However, there were several scenes where Yseut is proven to be a strong character, much less like the damsel in distress scenario that I was expecting. These scenes include when Yseut spots King Mark’s shadow and begins a clever ruse to divert his suspicions, and when she takes matters of security into her own hands and tries to have Brangain killed.

To me, it is clear that Tristan is being portrayed as the ideal man, but I am less sure that Yseut is playing the role of the ideal lady. She is in the same exact predicament as Tristan except for the fact that she is married. Therefore, I have to wonder if Yseut is the example of what husband’s might fear most from their wives – deceitfulness/disloyalty.

2. The Power of Language:

One thing that is clear from the text thus far is that the narrator has a clear bias regarding the virtuousness/villainy of the characters. It appears that anything stated in the text is expected to be taken at face value and without any skepticism (i.e. as when the narrator curses the barons and the dwarf for trying to reveal the truth to the king, but has nothing ill to say of Yseut when she tries to have Brangain killed). My thoughts are that in a time when there were much fewer literate/well-spoken people than there are today, speech of this level of eloquence had an advantage in that it was not taken with much skepticism. Therefore, it would seem that the power of speech was incredibly valuable at the time.

On sort of a tangent: It is also interesting to note that the only characters that have lied in story so far are Tristan and Yseut. I think that the love potion has an important role in the story here: one underlying message of the story may be the disastrous results of meddling with magic. Tristan and Yseut, as a result of the magic potion, went from being two of the most virtuous characters in the story to the most sinful. However, the narrator remains sympathetic towards them; this is probably because it is clear that they were influenced by magic unwillingly (that is the only reason I can think of why the narrator would ask us to sympathize with them). On the other hand, the narrator clearly despises the dwarf, who uses magic intently. If the theme of magic as a source of evil is what the narrator is trying to get at, then I can see the theme of repentance playing a part towards the story’s end.

I also found myself wondering why the townspeople in the story where made out to be sympathetic towards the lovers even though they had no knowledge of the love potion’s role in the affair. My guess is that the townspeople’s reactions are meant to represent how the audience should react towards Tristan and Yseut’s situation rather than be accurate portrayals of how commoners would realistically react towards an affair between the king’s wife and nephew.

3. Love:

This story clearly aims towards the theme of tragic, undying love. I found myself wondering while I was reading what role the love potion had to play in the theme of undying love, if not for the reason stated above. I wondered why Tristan and Yseut couldn’t simply fall in love on their own, without the aid of magic, as that might better represent true love. But then I thought that the use of magic as a facilitator might be the author’s way of exploring the nature and limits of a love that many people might never have the opportunity to experience. The sudden and limitless love between Tristan and Yseut does, after all, seem quite idealistic. The use of the potion also makes it easier to explore the results of uncontrollable desire in two otherwise pious people.

4. Sympathies:

At this point in the story I am most sympathetic towards King Mark, who has been deceived by the two people who should be his closest companions – his wife and nephew. Although, I cannot say that I completely dislike any of the other characters: Tristan and Yseut are under the influence of the potion, so they can technically be considered absolved of guilt, and the barons and dwarf are only trying to tell the king the truth. However, I find that the constant insistence that Tristan and Yseut are virtuous characters does more to make me skeptical of their virtuousness than anything else. Likewise, the narrator’s unfounded criticisms of the barons and dwarf make me wonder what the cause for his bias is. Mark is one of the only characters in the story towards which the narrator seems to be relatively neutral, which makes it easies for me to come up with my own conclusions about him.