In Yönec and Bisclavret by Marie De France, the element of the supernatural is used to emphasize virtue. Those who embrace the supernatural are portrayed as worthy and morally upright, while those who are repulsed by the supernatural are portrayed as evil and immoral. In Bisclavret, the lord's supernatural situation draws attention to the virtues of love and loyalty. In Yönec, Muldumarec's shape-shifting abilities are used to emphasize the virtues of courtly love. Muldumarec's prophecy before his death establishes him as a character who is so virtuous that he is blessed with prescience. In both tales, those who stand between a supernatural being and their pursuit of virtue are severely punished.
In Bisclavret, the supernatural lord is, “a good knight, handsome, known to be / all that makes for nobility. / Prized, he was, much, by his liege lord; / and by his neighbors was adored.” (De France 17-20) His virtue is established before his mythical curse is revealed. His wife, “a worthy soul, / most elegant and beautiful” (21-22) is concerned that his is breaking his marriage vows and has taken a mistress. She pleads, “Tell me, dear husband; tell me, pray, / What do you do? Where do you stay? / It seems to me you've found another! / You wrong me, if you have a lover!” (48-52) In order to convince his wife that he is innocent, he tells her of his condition. Upon hearing his confession, “Terror, she felt, at this strange tale. / She thought what means she could avail / herself of how to leave this man. / She could not lie with him again.” (98-102) She is so disgusted by the concept that her loyal husband is not purely human, she agrees to be the lover of a chevalier if he will help her distance herself from the beast she imagines her h...
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... seen as unholy and and frightening, while the powers of men are natural and gifts from God himself. The author was quick to show that women's virtues are to be displayed through obedience, beauty, and piousness. The lord's wife in Bisclavret fails to support her husband and is tortured by the king, the wolf, and later by the genetic deformities of her offspring. The seigneur's wife in Yönec accepts the gifts of Muldumarec and is blessed with fleeting happiness and the postmortem adoration of her son's subjects.
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Despite the fact that this lady was supposedly untouchable due to her status as “taken” this man or rather knight made it his mission to win her over or it was his mission to please her. This Knight would go to great lengths sometimes setting into long journeys, battling other knights and going into chivalric adventures in what is known as the other world. This knight or the courtly lover is like a slave to this passionate, romantic love for example in the tale “Le Chevalier de la charrette”, a courtly romance whose hero obeys every imperious and unreasonable demand of the heroine. A slave willing to put his own life at risk in order to show his love and passion for this one woman. For example, In “Lancelot, the Knight of Cart” Lancelot first part is a physical quest though driven by love, the knight tries to rescue Guinevere. However, once he finds her, he does not stop, he continued to quest in order to deserve her love. Even after they consummate their relationship in the tower, he must continue to do her bidding, suggesting that the quest for love never ceases. We see this untouchable love through his love and adulterous feelings for the queen, Lady Guinevere, this lady made untouchable through her marriage to King
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Women were often subjects of intense focus in ancient literary works. In Sarah Pomeroy’s introduction of her text Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, she writes, “Women pervade nearly every genre of classical literature, yet often the bias of the author distorts the information” (x). It is evident in literature that the social roles of women were more restricted than the roles of men. And since the majority of early literature was written by men, misogyny tends to taint much of it. The female characters are usually given negative traits of deception, temptation, selfishness, and seduction. Women were controlled, contained, and exploited. In early literature, women are seen as objects of possession, forces deadly to men, cunning, passive, shameful, and often less honorable than men. Literature reflects the societal beliefs and attitudes of an era and the consistency of these beliefs and attitudes toward women and the roles women play has endured through the centuries in literature. Women begin at a disadvantage according to these societal definitions. In a world run by competing men, women were viewed as property—prizes of contests, booty of battle and the more power men had over these possessions the more prestigious the man. When reading ancient literature one finds that women are often not only prizes, but they were responsible for luring or seducing men into damnation by using their feminine traits.