Similarities Between Marie De France And Sappho

Love in The Lais of Marie De France and Sappho is seen as this complex source of emotion in multiple ways for their characters and themselves. In many ways, love is something the authors themselves are trying to understand, by grappling through the multi-faceted aspects of love. In both texts, love is characterized as a dichotomy; positive aspects of love—that are shown through the properties of pleasure and healing, and there are negative aspects of love—that are expressed through suffering and jealousy. While it is difficult to define what love truly is through the texts, the reader can better understand the multiple waves and dimensions of love as experienced people who serve it.

Love is remarked as something that is pleasurable by both De France and Sappho. In the story of Guigemar, when he finally finds his true love in a woman who shares the same level of admiration, they are overcome with affection for each other. The text states, “The lady realized he was telling the truth, and immediately granted him her love, then he kissed her. From now on Guigemar is at ease. They lie down together and converse, kissing and embracing often” (De France 161). Love

Sappho struggles with rationalizing how pain and love coexist. In a moment when Sappho loses her virginity, she experiences deep agony stating, “why am I crying, am I still sad because of my lost maidenhead” (Sappho 36). Her sorrow of her loss of virginity adds to the idea that a recognizable act of intimacy is painful. Furthermore, Sappho is honest and transparent in what the loss of her virginity meant to her. For Sappho, the loss of her virginity was something that she questioned and even possibly regretted. This sense of suffering further corresponds with the passion of jealousy. Sappho, experiencing an unconventional admiration for a woman, displays jealousy for the man she is about to marry. In a distinct moment, Sappho