Yvain (Part 2)

1) Gawain’s speech and it’s outcome:

“Indeed, you would suffer afterwards for her love if it caused you to lose your reputation, because a woman will quickly withdraw her love – and she’s not wrong to do so – if she finds herself hating a man who has lost face in any way after he has become lord of the realm” (326).

Gawain’s speech has strong echoes of the Erec and Enide tale, except for the fact that Enide did not stop loving Erec when his supposed reputation declined. This, as well as the later outcome of Yvain’s departure, suggests that Gawain does not speak Chretien’s true thoughts here. Not once did Enide stop loving Erec after she heard that he had “lost face.” This may suggest that Gawain is Chretien’s way of showing one view (the appearance-based view) of marriage, while Chretien seems to believe in love in marriage. When Yvian actually does lose his reputation, it is not because he dishonored his fellow knights or king, but because he dishonored Laudine: “But the love I have for you will become hatred, you can be sure of that, if you should overstay the period I shall set for you. Be assured that I’ll not break my word” (327). Therefore, Chretien may be suggesting, as in Erec’s case, that Yvain should have honored the commitment he made to his wife.

“But pleasures grow sweeter when delayed…. The joy of love that is deferred is like the green log burning: it gives off more heat and burns longer, since it is slower to get started” (327).

I think that this part of the speech suggests, though Gawain doesn’t know it, that Yvain may have stronger feelings towards Laudine than Laudine does for him: Yvain is like the “green log burning” because he was pining over Laudine before Laudine had even met him or decided she wanted to marry him. Therefore, his love for her “grew sweeter” because it was delayed.

There is also the fact that Laudine was able to give him permission to leave so easily, and up to year at that. Yvain even said that a year would be too long (327). Laudine seemed very stoic throughout the agreement, while Yvain “wept profusely upon taking [his leave]” (328). This suggests that vain would not have even considered leaving Laudine if Gawain hadn’t convinced him to. (I was very surprised when Laudine told Yvain he could spend a year away from her; I thought she would have allowed him a week at the most. A year seems entirely too long.) I found it interesting when it was said that one of the ladies Yvain met on his journeys “would never have given him [permission to leave] had he agreed to take her as his mistress or his wife” (336), while Laudine gave Yvain leave to go relatively easily. I think this further suggests that Laudine’s love for Yvain is not equal to Yvain’s love for Laudine.

2) Yvain’s shame:

The year seems to pass quite quickly, during which time Yvain builds up his honor and esteem again and again in tournaments, battles, etc: “The year passed meanwhile and my lord Yvain did so splendidly all year long that my lord Gawain took great pains to honour him; and he caused him to delay so long that the entire year passed and a good bit of the next…. The previous evening they had returned from a tournament where my lord Yvain had fought and carried off all the glory” (329). It is immediately after this that the damsel comes to tell Yvain that he has broken his promise to Laudine and will never be allowed to see her again. This build-up of glory, followed immediately by a great downfall, seems to compare the worth of Yvain’s knightly prowess to the value of his love. Clearly, the message is that his love is of more value. This seems to be symbolically displayed when the damsel takes back the ring, which until that point made Yvain invincible (“Yet now this miracle happened, for Yvain remained alive without his heart”). It is only after this point that we see Yvain repeatedly getting injured so that he may prove his worth. Unlike in Erec and Enide, however, which has similar tones, Yvain is trying to prove his worth to his wife, not to anyone else. Yvain is, at the same time, proving his worth to the audience as well.

3) Yvain’s reaction:

When Yvain reacted the way he did, I was reminded of the peasant in the clearing from the beginning of the story, who said he was a man who was lord of the beasts. When Yvain goes insane, he seems to become an uncontrollable wild animal. This leads me to believe that the tame lion presented later on in the story is symbolic of Yvain becoming the lord of his own inner beast.

His time of insanity in the woods is also the mark of a kind of re-baptism. He is stripped of clothing and, when he is finally healed, is covered from head to foot in a healing ointment. Later on in the story, he gives himself a new name. Therefore, it seems that Yvain was ‘born-again.’

4) The snake/dragon and the lion

The first thing I though of in this scene was “Slytherin vs. Gryffindor!” But then I got serious. Lions are often used to symbolize bravery, while serpents seem to be used as representations of forbidden knowledge (Adam and Eve), a source of evil, or rebirth (because the snake sheds it’s skin). Going along with the last of these three interpretations, this seems to back up my earlier theory about Yvain becoming re-born and re-baptised.

When Yvain first comes across these two animals, he is unsure of who to slay at first. If the snake as seen as representative of evil, then Yvain’s decision to slay it means that he fights for good as opposed to evil. After the snake is killed, Yvain turns to the lion and makes the same mistake about it that Calogrenant made about the peasant in the woods: he assumes that it is going to harm him, when in fact it never intends to do so.