Silence of the Lambs and a thanks for a great semester

Hi Doctor Ealy,
I'm not sure if you'll get this but I had been thinking about what we had brought up in our last class (prior to the writing workshop) about different grail quests and I happen to have just finished up a paper on The Silence of The Lambs by Jonathan Demme. It struck me that if you look at the film without the killing etc. it very closely parallels the grail quest we find in Small World, Buffalo Bill (the killer on the loose) seeks to transfigure himself while Clarice Starling seeks to become an FBI agent. All of the characters seek something and it just reminded me a lot of the conversation we had had in class and the literary story of Small World. Especially the ending where Hannibal Lecter is seen on the loose once more, creating the same (never) ending that was in both Perceval and Small World. I would like to thank you for a great semester and for helping to get me transitioned into college. I hope you have a great winter break.

Thank you for your time,
Thomas Keegan

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

1) I would like to speculate a little as to the title of the film. It's fascinating that the movie would steer away from the original grail legend and move on to the tales of the crusades, however it does make sense because the grail legend was mixed into the crusades. This makes sense to me because if there was a grail search today it would more than likely involve the latest grail search, which would have been the search's done during the crusades. All-in-all I believe the title of the film as "The Last Crusade" may be more due to the fact the writers used mostly crusades lore when writing the movie although I find it fascinating that a few of the ideas of Perceval made it into the movie.

2) The ideas that made it out of Perceval are many in number although there are a few major ones that I would like to point out. One is the entire idea of the grail being "unattainable", while the Jones do find the grail and drink from it they lose it in the end. It heralds the Perceval legend by never allowing the world to truly grasp the grail. The other interesting parallel is the use of numbers in order to present clues, for instance Jones Jr. found the second knights tomb in the library by using the numbers on the wall.

Day four Small World Pt 4-5

Describe Persse and his actions towards the end of this story.

Persse seems to be very confused and although he persues Angelica to no end he seems to switch to Cheryl, persuing her with just as much intent. I think it's safe to say that Persse found out the truth about his original grail and decided to switch it for a new one that looks ever so brighter. "the grass is always greener on the other side" seems to be the words Persse lives by, he thinks the academic world of confrences, for instance, is so amazing before he really jumps into it but then he finds the perverted and often crazy people to be not what he expected.

small world day 3 pt. 3

make your own question's
1) sex, while present throughout the book, has taken a literary grandstand in part three. Why do you think this is?

A) Persse was never really introduced to the world of sex and pornography, so as Persse becomes more and more familiar with the art of making little kids so does the reader. It's sort of a "pants off" coming of age.

2) many quests are introduced here to various characters, pick one. Discuss what it means to the character, to the story, and how it relates to the other texts we have discussed.

A) Persse has self proclaimed the quest of finding, and perhaps saving, his (not so) fair maiden Ms. Lilly. As in other texts he is willing to do anything to fulfill his task, even spend his thousand dollar prize in the pursuit of this maiden. It must be said that perhaps, due to the parrallels between Persse and Perseus, this story will never end. Will he ever be happy? Will he ever find his "grail"? If this maiden is truly his grail then maybe he will never find her again but will fruitlessly search the world of scholars only to find that while he may not get the girl he does gain a little something.

small world pt. 2

1) What is the role of Cheryl Summerbee as matchmaker? where have we seen this before?

Cheryl Summerbee is a very interesting character in that she is very much like the matchmaker Celestina, the way that the two are connected is that they are almost opposites. This seems to be a theme of this story, clashing ideals such as the continuing conflict between deconstructionism and structuralism. In the text Cheryl plans on staying virtuous while Celestina plans out the opposite in every way. Cheryl also matches people based on the good and the bad while Celestina simply looks at the lust of each person and figures out how best to get them both in bed together.

2) We meet several new characters, almost all unfaithful, who may just be parallels between other characters we've met. Describe a couple of these new characters and their connection to the other texts we've read.

For one we have the silly, yet stupid, Howard Ringbaum who managed to get tricked into believing that he could join the mile high club by simply doing his wife in midair. There is also the greatly respected english teacher who (like the monks in the Decameron) is secretly doing a young girl even though he is old and really unable to do much in the way of love.

Perceval Day 3 (460-499)

4) We know of Chretien that he follows what he likes and what he believes the audience likes, therefore I believe that he realized that in order to make this story into a plausible and enjoyable story he needed to add the story of Gawain. Gawain is a recognizable name in that we see it repeated in many of Chretien's tales, it can almost be said that he is a more famous person and gives the people reading this a familiar face. But more than that I believe it adds credibility to Perceval and the grail quest because Gawain manages (we suspect we don't know as the story ends so abruptly) to introduce Kig Arthur and his court into the mix and really get them involved.
5) The thing that makes the least sense to me is that Chretien leaves off mid-sentence. It seems to me that any writer creating a work of art such as this would take the care to at least finish the sentence before stopping. It's for this reason that I believe that there is more of a reason behind his actions than just the fact he died, he did after all manage to complete his thought within the sentence. There may have been no ending but I believe that we can determine the ending based on the rest of Chretien's works. I think Chretien knew he was dying and left off here for that reason, he knew that he would not be able to give us the whole story so he instead gave us just enough to be able to give the story our own ending and little enough so that the ending is still determined for us.

Perceval Day 2 (419-460)

1) Blancheflor, or white flower, is a very symbolic type of person. Her name stands for two thing, white often stands for purity while the flower stands as something delicate or untouched, almost innocent in a way. She resists the knights advances and goes no further than a kiss and feeding the knight.

2) Perceval is literally shown the grail and yet he has no idea what he's looking at, he sits at the table with all of this magic and weirdness surrounding him and he says nothing. He asks not of the lord's injuries and he asks nothing of the bleed lance, but most importantly he asks nothing about the golden grail that is being passed around and nothing as to why it was carried into the room with an honor guard. There where a million white flags, and as we find out, if he had asked a question of the lord than he would have saved the lord and made him great once again.

Perceval Day 1 (381-419)

1) Chretien made several specific references to the Bible and "the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing". This may be foreshadowing the large part the church may be taking in the rest of the story and possibly the continuing use of the bible as justification for what is about to be done. The reference to the "right hand not knowing what the left is doing" is more clear in that one branch of characters in the upcoming story will probably be hiding what they are doing from the rest of the characters.
2) Perceval believes that the knights are at first devil's, and then he thinks them to be angels. He sees them as beautiful and worthy of wonder, to which he asks a great many questions although he fails to answer the knights questions. The knights who he meets seem fair enough but they continue ask their questions at the same time as answering those of young Perceval, they keep their patience while still pursuing their quest. This possibly foreshadowing Perceval's own quest for the grail, his curiosity will most definitely slow him down and may be his ultimate downfall.
3) Perceval ignores his mother for the most part, he simply asks her questions and only retains the information that he seeks. His mother tells him that all of his siblings and his father where all killed as knights but he ignores her. His mother freaks out but her son just seems to be this single minded child, once he gets his heart set on something there doesn't seem to be any way of moving him to another path.

That Obscure Object of Desire

1) An "obscure object" could refer to something small or hidden that is owned or possessed. It points to the fact that for this couple love is not the reason for what they do but it is instead lust and desire, the small thing that they both posses which eventually drives them both crazy. The love is possesed, never held or thought of pationately therefore it is not true love but is instead a desire for each other, a lust for want.
2) Terrorism is almost a parallel to the couples relationship, the act of blowing something up for political reasons is nothing more than a desire to reach an end. Both the couple and the terrorists would like to get that which they desire and are more than willing to fight for it. It is no mistake that the terrorists kill the couple in the end, because it isn't the terrorists that kill them it is the desire that both parties share.
3)Both of the actresses for Conchita bring a different attitude to the screen, one is the lusty love bird while the other seems almost reserved and reluctant to fulfill her desire.
8) The burlap sack seems to be a symbol that something is about to happen, each time we see it a main event occurs in the film such as traveling to meet Conchita "accidentally" or his taking her up to his secluded house in the country

Celestina Day 4 Act 18-21

2) The only real love we see is Pleberio's love for his daughter, he does reveal in his speech that he is sad because he can't sell his daughter as a wife to some guy but his words seem to reveal more than just his own desires. Melibea is saddest because she has so embarrassed her father and destroyed her own honor, not only that but she has no one to have sex with at night now. I find no love in her motives, only lust and stupidity.
3) As we see with the two servants who get their heads chopped of there is the obvious symbolism with the head standing for intelligence. None of the characters used their intelligence and therefore they all lost their heads in some way or another, also all of the dead characters suffered some kind of fall. A fall from grace, honor, or some other ailment but they all fell nonetheless, this fall was the thing that either killed them or immediately preceded their deaths.
5) The major victim in this tale are Melibea's parents, they may have been wrong in not paying more attention to their daughter and stopping this affair but I think they are the only ones who never really knew the truth. Melibea's father is not told of the entire business until right before his daughter kills herself and her mother isn't told until Pleberio tells her. The most blaim can be placed on Celestina, she's literally a pimp so it was no mistake on her part that the two lovers got together. She planned this sort of thing almost daily and it was really the publicity of the affair that got the couple killed , which was a result of Celestina's involvement.

Day four Celestina (12-17)

1) There are many complex feelings that I would expect someone in Calisto's position to be feeling. He just lost his two best servants, took his lovers virginity, and still has to contend with his own issues. He desires much that is reflected in his soliloquy as well, he desires longer nights with Melibea and revenge for what he considers the murder of his two companions. In about the middle of the soliloquy Calisto ties together his two ramblings about the murder of his companions and his love with Melibea. "Remember that the absent are never in the right, here both parties before you pronounce the sentence." (act 4 page 200) When taken out of context Calisto may arguably be talking about both main issues in one line, both the murderers and the prosecution pronounce the violant truth just as both Calisto and Melibea vocalize there specific crime.

Celestina Day 3 Act 7-11

1) Areusa complains about a pain that she can't seem to get over that started when her lover left, shes complaining because of lack of sex. This isn't really to surprising seeing as she's saying it to the notorious pimp Celestina, but the surprising thing is the old ladies response. The old woman touches Areusa to see if she knows what the ailment is, in a way that the sickness would have to be "...higher up, over the stomach". Celestina seems to be willing to do anything involved in the sexual arts, with no shame and no hesitation.
2) Sex is being spoken of as if it where as normal as eating breakfast, not just sex but sleeping around with multiple people. Areusa and Elicia talk about Melibea as a fat and inexperienced young player, they almost sound jealous but it is my belief that there's something more in their dialogue. When the men in their life start to talk about Melibea as if they themselves where in love with her, Areusa and Elicia have no problem with sleeping around until the possibility arises that their lovers are doing such a thing.

Celestina Day 2 (3-6)

1) I think that Celestina has done enough of this match making work to know that it has a chance of not succeeding. She sounds cautious in everything that she does as she does here, she usually does not speak in definites but instead in possibilities. For her trade to succeed she must always be trusted and by never giving any sincere promises or possibilities without skepticism she keeps her so called "good name"

2) Everyone seems to know Celestina and their feels on her are those of their feelings of her trade. Lucrecia knows what the old woman does for a living and accepts it, but she far from enjoys having her own people tricked by this pimp. Melibea seems to know at least a rudimentary amount about the old woman's trade but she still lets her continue and is eventually led into a situation that might find her in Calisto's bed sometime soon.

Celestina Day 1 (Acts 1-2)

1) A garden can symbolize a literary setting much as that of The Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden represents the birth of a species, so here this garden may represent the birth of the book or of some other form of literary "life". Here is the two possibly main characters of the tale, whereas there meeting may set the stage for the rest of the book The Garden of Eden supposedly set the stage for the rest of human kinds existence. Melibea is unique in this scene due to the fact that she shows no true wish to be with the good Calisto, most tales that we have read thus-far typically starts with or contain a love that is somewhat desired by both even if that fact is only hinted to in the text.

2) It is clear that even though Sempronio is Calisto's slave he still values his advice at least a little bit, he confides in him that he is suffering from this affliction of love and shows his true face as the type of person he is. The conversation starts out one sided with Sempronio only really caring because he might get in trouble and not going to outright stop him because "maybe he'll leave me something in his will", true friendship is in a complete recall here and we see nothing but a slave covering his own butt. We see a direct quote in this conversation "...the ancient curse that drove Adam out of the delights of Eden;" that really points to the conversation in the garden between Calisto and his would be lover as being that of a biblical standing. This also points to the value he puts on Melibea as not only a woman but as a demon as well, willing to love and sin but not with Calisto.

Day 6 / 9.2, 9.3, 9.5, 9.6, 10.10

9.2) The nuns seem to all suffer from the same ailment, that being sin. The Abbess and the nun both follow the same sin of the flesh and when they discover each other come to an agreement as to what to do. The Abbess, upon being found out, began as if the sins of the flesh where natural. This, in a way, says to me that the church is corrupt and the legality of the sins is based on the highest power, here because the Abbess would be in trouble as well for the sin of sex it is immediately accepted to have men in your chamber at night.

9.3) I think this story just has a lot of dumb and evil minded people, no one is really entirely at fault her. Calandrino is perfect willing to blaim his wife for everything and the friends show no compassion when openly making fun of him in such a way. The only thing I can really say is that I feel very bad for the wife, she is the victim in both stories and she has her most intimate secrets shown to the world by her own husband. In this we see her role as once again an almost servant like position in that her husband treats her secrets like dog poop and blaims her for his sad state of affairs.

Decameron Day 5 / 7.3, 7.4, 8.3, 8.7, 8.8

7.3_ Boccaccio keeps coming back to the unfaithful Friar, this figure of great respect is constantly doing one person or another and getting away with it. What does this say about the Friars in the tales and how does this particular Friar use his title to get away with having sex with his friends wife?

This Particular Friar (Rinaldo) set out from the very beginning to get into bed with Madonna Agnesa, his neighbor's wife. As we carry on he eventually begins to honor the position of Friar and he no longer wishes to lay with his neighbor's wife, although, like several other Friars in The Decameron, Rinaldo soon gives into the "sins of the flesh" and starts to have relationships with the mother of his godchild (Madonna Agnesa). Obviously something weird is going on with Boccaccio in that he seems to target Friars as dumb and/or lusty men, previously we saw a Friar tricked into being the middle man between a married lady and a "good looking man". I believe that it might not so much that he has something against Friars but simply that they have such a high position that it's only natural that their trespasses be well known. We also see two of our Friars using their position to get what they want, In one of our first stories a Friar tricks another Friar into sleeping with the same woman in order to have something to hold against him. Here we see Rinaldo using his position as Friar to excuse his being in the bedroom with Madonna Agnesa.

8.7) We see a great example of "The Code of Hammurabi" with an eye for an eye sort of story, we also see this in the following story which end's vastly different than this tale. What is the difference between 8.7 and 8.8 that makes this "eye for an eye" style come out so diversely?

In both stories our main character is first hurt by the one he loves (or thought he loved) and is then scorned by she that they most care about. Instead of simply leaving the woman or revealing her treachery the scorned men instead plan vengeance, although both of them have different intent. We can clearly see this in the pages prior to the actual incident of their revenge, one man (8.8) is trying to keep his friend by simply returning the trespass done against him while the other wants his former lady to first realize what she did to him and understand what she put him through (8.7). In both cases the revenge is successful although I am reminded of what Mahatma Gandhi said in that "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind", we can see this best in the first of the two stories where both the scorned and the later scorched ended up near death. If the whole world carried on with this sort of vengeance then at some point most of us would end up in a situation much like this ladies where someone we have hurt in the past uses a situation against us.

Decameron day four / 5.8, 5.9, 5.10, 6.7, 6.10

1) In 5.8 and 5.9 we see two almost rags to riches stories, what are the similarities between them and what makes them so different from other stories we have read before?

In both stories we see men who loved a woman more than he loved him self and gave literally everything to please the person of their dreams, but neither love was mutual and the men ended up going broke with absolutely nothing to show for it. Here is really where the stories split, Nastagio in 5.8 decides to use a horribly disgusting display in front of a large group of people to scare his lady into marrying him. Federigo is a seemingly more noble guy in that he gave everything he had to woe this woman and was only willing to give more, in the end the lady saw that maybe a man like Federigo, who was willing to do anything for her, would be worth the trouble.

2) In 5.10 we see a very different type of story, one that includes not just one big sin but multiple sins. What makes this story so different and how do you think it fits in with the other two stories?

In 5.10 there is a very obvious plot difference from the other two day five stories in that instead of a man trying to woe a wife it was the woman trying to get something from a man, any man. In the end we find all three people, the two men and the woman, doing a threesome. In every way this ending is just completely off base, typically we find ourselves with a still sinful but morally satisfying ending. Here there are no morals and the entire ending is just completely off from typical moral standards.

decameron day 2

2.6) This specific text has much to do with how noble the lady was and the respect that nobles of the day where shown. What could get a servant killed or imprisoned seems to get a noble married. we see this with the son who gets caught (as a slave) making love to this guys daughter behind her back and is imprisoned. this seems to be generally accepted until it is revealed that he is a noble, now things change and we see him returned to glory. the King now, instead of killing the guy doing his daughter, is gaining a new son-in-law and the "wild-woman" mother is also returned to her former glory.
2.7) we never really hear that it was the woman who was doing the act, it was always the guy tricking her into making love. either that or it is lust that guides her unwillingly to her fate, she seemed so virtuous until her first time. After that she seemed to sleep with just about all the nobles she came across, she even sleeps with non-nobles and thinks nothing of it. The message here may be that by possibly hiding your wrongdoing you might live happily ever after. Although this woman lived for so long in times of great misfortune she lies about having sex and gets to be returned to her former glory and live forever in happiness.

Decameron Day 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.3

1.1) "Dearest Ladies, it is fitting that everything done by man should begin with the marvelous and holy name of Him who was the creator of all things;I intend to start with one of His marvelous deeds,so that when we have heard about it, our faith in Him will remain as firm as ever and His name be ever praised by us." This quotation is not unlike the opening of many of our other stories such as Tristan and Ysolde in that it is a brief description of events to come and gives us (the audience) an idea of what the basis of the story is. After this first page about holy men and this person who reached such a status as Saint was simply a manipulative fraud and yet may have been all the more holy, after this page we only hear about how bad of a person he is. But we know that all of the tell of how holy this guy would pretend to be was going to come into play somewhere. It's like a foreshadowing prologue that reveals the true meaning of these first tales as nothing more than spoken stories from one noble to the others, meant for entertainment.
1.3) "The Jew willingly gave Saladin as much money as he desired, and Saladin later repaid him in full; in fact, he more than repaid him: he gave him great gifts and always esteemed him as his friend and kept him near him at court in a grand and noble fashion." As we already know that these tales are being told to a group of nobles by other nobles this quote gives us an eye into how corrupt the government of the day was. This man Saladin had put great effort into tricking this other man and when the other man found out he not only turned the trick against him but gave the man more than he would have had he fallen for the trick. The idea that a man would give another man everything he wanted without a seconds thought simply because he tried to trick him into giving him money seems to be the conjuring of twisted logic. Could this be foreshadowing the rest of the book?
1.4) Having completed her story, Filomena fell silent and Dioneo, who was sitting close to her, without awaiting any further order from the Queen (for he realized by the order already begun that he was the next to speak) started speaking in the following manner:" Here we can tell amny things, first off we see an introduction of the author of this specific story much like those by chretien yet here it is more likely that it is to put us in the mind set of the author. A King, for instance, might think about a story differently than a lowly servant girl. We also see that they have started an order meaning that some of these stories may sound purposely forced in order to convey the sub-plot that is going on behind the smaller short stories.

Movie Response, Tristan and Isolde

1)I believe the movie starts out with a fight scene to set the stage of the movie. The nobles who would have been told this story knew full well about the feud between the English and the Irish but today's masses are not as informed. We in a way had to be informed about the frequent fights between the two countries and the atrocities committed by all sides.
2)The way that this film shook out made it so that the love potion wouldn't have made a difference. The couple was simply love-struck instead of love-sick, in the movie the couple had already fallen deeply in love and sought each other out only to be heart-broken by a mistake of identities.
3)All of the characters in the movie are what the youth of today might consider to be the stereotypical medieval knights and nobles. We see these traits in not only our characters but in other Hollywood flicks as well, with King Mark as the selfless king, Tristan the brave yet love struck knight, and Isolde the classic "Femme Fatale" of yet another story.
4)The whole movie was based on the mix-up of identities between Isolde and Tristan, in Hollywood the main plot must be the fault of the "Femme Fatale" as we see in numerous other flicks so the filmmakers needed to find a way to make the whole tragedy her fault. By having her hide her identity she makes the audience reach out to Tristan in a way that would have been otherwise difficult to achieve, in the text it is much easier to keep the attention on one character but on screen you need to alter events to get a desired effect.
5)As always the barons are seen as selfish and short sighted, although in this case they wish to overthrow not only Tristan but the king as well. They would rather be enslaved by the English once more and have their land back then to have to give up their rights to a single entity such as the king. This seems to also be an extreme method of the director to get you on Tristan's side, in the text the barons have a defense but on screen they rather deserve what they get.
6)It is very odd that Isolde survives the ending of the movie, but it rather makes sense considering the main character of the whole plot was Tristan. We as the audience usually see him as a loner so it is rather fitting that he should die by himself.
7)This movie was made in classic film noir and as such has a very mixed together story line, we see the main plot of the love story but there are also a great many sub-plots. The feud between Ireland and England plays a much greater part and in the end Tristan dies fighting for the King and we get the sub-plot of Tristan's love for his uncle.

Day Three The Knight with the Lion

1) The name Yvain is scorned in the second bit of the novel, he needs to remake his name because he has completely reworked his personality. We, the audience, get to watch as this man regains honor and makes a place for himself in the storybooks. We watch as he brings himself up from the unknown character who had been insulted and basically defeated to a well known, and well respected, nobleman. If the people knew who Yvain truly was i don't believe that they would have acted the same as they had, most people around the area only knew him as the knight who had been insulted and gone mad in part of his own wife. I believe that this is a highly effective way of regaining honor, it's the kind of lie that is accepted and is allowed for a knight. We see this kind of lie in parts of "Erec and Enide" when Erec lied about his identity to King Arther's knight, in that case it was simply to be able to avoid the companionship that he was trying to avoid. In both cases no wickedness was meant and the lie only really bettered society.

3) Yvain and Laudine meet in a very forced reconciliation sparked by a very familiar character who has managed to manipulate practically everyone she has encountered. Lunete was the matchmaker in the very opening of this tale who first created the relationship between Yvain and Laudine, it is only fitting that she be the one to glue it back together. The entire book is what has really made this possible, however, in that Yvain's reputation is what got him into the castle and convinced Laudine to make a deal before she even knew what she was making a deal about. This is much like what Chretien does in "Erec and Enide" where he has Erec's continuous fighting with Enide looking on build up to a final battle, in that case we watch as the great knight defeats giant's and win's many great fight's. In the end we see him finally defeat the cursed knight, but in this tale we see a build up of Yvain's honor from nothing to finally regain his place in society with the reinstatement of his marriage through the tricks of speech. In both cases Chretien gives the hero the advantage of a specific and powerful literary device, with Erec the outcome is foreshadowed and almost known by the reader for the whole tale while Yvain gains the advantage of anonymity.

Day two: The knight and the lion

3) Laudine's messenger was full of dark imagery and from the very start where we first see her with her black Palfrey. From her initial sighting to even the way that she dismounts we see the oddity and the shear anger that this message carries with it. I cannot speak for people in Yvain's day but I believe that now-a-days we would consider this to be a very rough break-up but also very justified. Yvain married this amazing women and just leave's her for almost two years, that'd be a great honeymoon... if it included Laudine. At first I thought to compare this message to a "Dear John" letter where a soldier recieves news that a wife or girlfriend is leaving them, but Yvain almost deserves what he got. The guy just left her, this isn't so much a "dear john" letter as it is divorce court on late night T.V.
The moments following his being told Laudine's message we see a very broad change in Yvain, you might call the next 20 pages his experience with a bad break-up. I've watched many friends go through bad breakups and I've even had my fair share of them, but I have never seen one as bad as Yvain's. The things that he does is almost a direct parallel to what the women in the previous books have done when a knight or loved one is killed. The book says the reason for this is that the body cannot live without the heart and now that Yvain has lost that part of himself he is basically dead. I understand that in a way the best method for taking this is that he is in mourning for the women he lost, but in the two other books when someone died the mourners where not mourning the killer but the person killed. Therefore, Yvain isn't mourning his lost wife but is instead mourning his own misfortune, the person he cares about is still himself. Further into the book we see this change, however, when Yvain is forced to fight for what is right multiple times and learns the meaning of love (the lion) and of friendship (Lunete).

5) The bad thing about a bad breakup is the hardship that both sides face, I can't think that it could ever have been easy for Laudine to simply tell Yvain to stop calling her his wife. In my personal experience and looking at the love stories that are a constant background of a lot of literature we typically see this to be true. Unfortunately for Lunete the barons find someone to accuse for their lady's misfortune, of course this turns out to be her and they apparently go about and try to burn her alive. In this case I think there are simply a lot of very bad judgment calls, Yvain should never have held his lady in waiting for so long and the barons had no solid support for burning a women alive. We watch as this bad judgment is turned on the barons however when they are burned in the fire meant for Lunete, this says a lot for the past event's because it's the narrator's voice that tells us they were wicked people for accusing Lunete in such a way. We have come to trust the voice in the book's by Chretien and we can see that this event was a scene of long withheld justice simply because he says so.

Yvain day one

1) So far this book is entirely far from either novel we have read so far. I both the love was pure and the knight was among the strongest in the land, here in this story we see our good sir knight defeated in the first third of the reading and we see him falling in love with the wife of a man he has slain. From every angle this story is unique, including the fact that there is no real prologue which seems to be typical of most Chretien stories. My possible explanation of this is the lack of really known characters, it's is common knowledge (according to the prologue of Erec and Enide) that the knight of that story was the best in the land etc. Here we have Yvain, who must in this story not only go through some explicit journey of self worth but must also prove himself to the audience of the story because he doesn't seem to have a starting relationship with the outside world. He is an abnormal knight in an abnormal setting, these facts are only shown more by the fat that Chretien does something even more abnormal by not adding a prologue. This could also be a bit of foreshadowing in that in "Erec and Enide" the prologue set's the tone for the entire book and almost reveals the ending, whereas here this book my have a very vague plot that is done on the fly and goes with the flow instead of putting itself out in the open.

3) This book has many incredibly interesting characters, but none quite as unique as Yvain, he first meets a lady and then realizes she is married and leaves. But that's not where he gains this reputation of weirdness in my eyes, he first loses to a knight and then return's to land he once roamed to kill a knight that he doesn't know and then win the heart of the women he once knew and cared for. This women mind you was the wife of the man he had slain. This might sort of go with the lack of a prologue and what it foreshadowed in that this was fairly unheard of (I would hope) in that the man who brutally murdered a man get's his wife as almost a prize. All-in-all this Yvain guy is very strange, he doesn't really follow the typical knight class, he accepts defeat at one point and then set's out to find his honor back but instead find's a forbidden love. Forbidden love does seem to be a continueing them with Chretien as it's been in this story and the last one, but I think that compared to Erec this Yvain guy has created a new class of hero all his own, it's the class for knight's who don't have much of a direction but find there way anyway. You know the type, the one's that fall in love with the wives of people they've killed.

Day Three Erec and Enide

1) The relationship between Erec and Enide was at stake in the middle of this tale, he was becoming the laughing stock of the entire nation. His wife thought him to be threatened by his people and his people thought him weak minded. They where saying that he spent all his time and bed and was nothing of the brave knight he had once been. The whole "test" was a tool used to strengthen the relationship for the ordeals that lie ahead, Erec was to become a King and how could he rule a kingdom if he couldn't even rule his own wife? I see in Erec a sort of strength that is lacked in many characters, he will fight for what is right and he will fight against all that is wrong no matter what the odds. The entire test ended once Erec had determined that Enide trusted him completely, he had been fighting thief's and beggars to gain her trust but once he had managed that he started to fight the bad things like evil counts and giants.

3) From the very beginning of the part with the whole adventure of "The Joy" in it we can already tell that Erec is going to be victorious, not because he is a god or anything but just because of the way Chretien sets the scene. At the outset of the story Erec is always fighting battles that are weighted in the opponents favor, in fact at least half of his fights are ones that no normal man should have survived. He is doing three on one duels and killing giants and rising from the dead, this entire book can almost be considered a continuing effort to gain our trust that Erec will always win. That way once we get to this scene with the man who's one foot taller then Erec we laugh in the knowledge that this man was nothing compared to his previous attackers. In this manner I would like to relate this as a "reverse" tragedy, in Romeo and Juliet we have a rising action of unfortunate events ending in death whereas here we have a rising action of Erec kicking butt ending in him becoming King. Instead of death and destruction we see life and nobility.

Day two: Erec and Enide

3) I don't know what Erec's final destination is but I do believe that I can decipher just what the purpose of the journey is. He takes no companions with him and has his wife dress in a very rich manner, he sort of makes them a target for robbers and vandals. His reasoning is that his wife proved that she did not truly trust his prowess, in the times where men lived by the sword (in this literary tale at least) it seems to be almost an insult to be called "soft" by your own wife. For this reason I believe this journey is of self-discovery for Erec in that he has lost faith in his abilities and also a sort of renewal journey for Enide in that Erec feels that she believes he is weak. In this literary tale fighting is very common and so is violence, both are things that Erec's character is used to and has become well adapted to. Erec's goal just seems to be to prove himself to his wife. I personally find this to be a very barbaric and risky method but if you compare it to a politician picking up the podium after many years then I can see the reason's behind what Erec does, A politician cannot afford to lose the support of his wife and the voters so just like Erec they must sometimes prove themselves.

4) All of Enide's monologues are of deep concern for her husband. We have no glimpse at the true meaning behind the couples journey unless we know what is running through there heads. By hearing what Enide is thinking we gain a knowledge of the sort that Erec is picking up from being with her in person. Sometimes when you have gotten to know someone it is almost like you know what they are thinking. So it may be that it is not so much that we are hearing what Enide is thinking but it is that we are hearing what Erec suspects is running through her head. The way he pushes at her to just trust him gives me the vibe that he wants her to be able to live without fear of outside words or threats because her "man" per-say is worthy of the right to protect her and can do so effectively. By hearing her thoughts we also gain an insight into her mind as a whole, we begin to learn her make-up and her character really starts to take shape as a viable addition ot the story line. She is now more than just a beautiful Ferrari, she's now Erec's love.

Day One: Erec and Enide

3) Eric and Enide are a match only ever made in literature, Erec is strong of body and Enide is strong of mind. In real life it is rare for that kind of mix to be made and be successful even in the first few days. The two strangers are taken aback by each other the first time they meet, neither has seen the others equal. I find this statement to be true in the text but it rather displeases me, as a person of modern ideology, to acknowledge a couple marrying for looks alone to be able to get along so well. I for see this sort of random love as a sign towards the future of the couple. Both look at each other and are caught by each others beauty, and yet Enide doesn't even get the respect of having her name spoken in the text.
I understand the depth of the mirror comment but it can also be said that he admires her for looks just as a rich stock-broker would admire the looks of his over-priced Ferrari. To follow the actual question, however, no person can be seen to the level as we see ourselves. To be seeing her as we would ourselves is to say that there is a radiant depth in the beauty of Enide that put's her in the status of angel.

4) I would like to compare the contest over the Sparrow-Hawk to a modern-day "contest" that is equally brutal. The contest that I would like to use is a simple bar fight, the reason being that in both places the guy is fighting for honor and for the girl. Neither incident considered the ending consequences for the loser who is either dead or is sent off in shame. My main point here is that the center of he incident is a masculine focal point, it's the two beefy guys who are ready and willing to tear each other apart. Also, both are likely sparked by stray insult's flying from either and overconfident mouth or a dwarf's unwise hand. The general basis between the two contests is especially similar, Erec was insulted by the mysterious knight's dwarf who struck him just as a brawl may be started by one man's insult to another party. Power in a bar setting is based on a man's ability to at least look the part of defending him and his girl friend, just as it is so for a knight to defend his maiden in order to gain power and respect. To me fighting is fighting and I see it as nothing more then a man's eagerness to show off to the ladies, the whole process of the contest in this text is simply geared towards provoking another into a fight.

P.S. I respect that the times that this book is based in were far different and that this type of incident was put in the same esteem as a football game is today, but my feeling's on fighting and killing are based on belief's of today that cannot be shaken. To me fighting is fighting, whether your excuse be for the hand of a lovely maiden or for respect from the rest of the drunk's at the bar.

day three parts 14 to 19

1. Yseut had set up her oath days in advance, she had designed it so that she could trick the people but still tell the truth. She spoke with a "forked tongue", as you say, in the manner that she purposely set up the situation so that she could fess up to having sex with Tristan but manage to keep it secret from the numerous onlookers. She uses the term from the text "only two people have been between my thighs" (Tha Romance of Tristan, Beroul) so as to make people think that she meant that she had had sex with the king and had been carried by the leper and nothing more. By doing this she manages to tell the whole truth without losing her neck to the hang-mans noose. By all rights she earned her freedom to live by managing to trick all of the nobleman present (including the wise King Arthur). Her plan ingeniously gave Tristan a way to take revenge and enjoy her company as much as he desired, but alas it could not last forever.

4. In the end we knew that the lovers where doomed, there was no happy ending to be spun from the twists of the text. The death of the couple was far over due, in other books of the age the couples never last past their revenge . Yseut coming to openly help Tristan with his wife present was the other sure sign of the couples end. Throughout the book the love was at least partially hidden from the spouse's, by revealing the love and being so open about it the doom of the two became certain. King Mark always had at least a gut feeling that something was going on between Tristan and his wife, but he only pursued it a few times. He only followed up on his suspicions when he had no choice to, in a way this shows us that he might hate the love between his wife and his nephew but he respected it. His respect is shown when he buries them together and lets their love (trees) bloom.

Day 2 Parts 17-13

4. The love potion in "The Romance of Tristan", which has caused so much trouble, was only meant to last three years. At the end of those three years the couple (Tristan and Yseut) find themselves with a realization that they have been cheating on a very powerful king because of a simple potion. Neither party really hates each other as a result of the love potion but the also realize that, in order to do what's best for each other, it is necessary to make amends for the messed up relationship. The couple has no reason to really regret or hate because this potion was the only thing holding the relationship in the way it stayed for the three year, but they do also realize that their love making is wrong and must come to an end.

5. The letter sent to King Mark was written in the hope's that the man had the sense to realize that the relationship between Tristan and Yseut was entirely wrong. In fact, it was written in such a way that the king just might think the whole thing was a boat load of lies that was under the cover of the barons and that darn dwarf. The king had already accepted the relationship status and was very pleased when Yseut asked to be taken back by the King. Tristan's reaction to the King's letter was of both joy and remorse, because Yseut was to be returned to her former glory but he was being banished from his home for a year or so.The letter was also written to the king in such a way that. in time, even Tristan would be allowed back into the kingdom. All-in-all this one letter basically could have cured the damages caused by the accursed potion, but by the ancient rules of thumb in any Medieval story we know that this temporary patch in the story will not hold.

My Side

Personally, after reading the first six parts of "The Romance of Tristan" I would have to say that I ma on Tristan's side. Tristan is constantly running into misfortune that causes dangerous situations. Whether he is put into the arms of the sister of a man he personally killed or he is drinking a love potion not meant for him, it's usually not his ultimate doing. Half of the bad he does is not his doing, the other parts played in this story lack his misfortune however. The three nobles want Tristan gone so they tell the king of his relations with Yseut, and the king flips on Tristan because he dared to betray the king. My final conclusion is that I can only find one group that is acting in defense of outside stimulus and that is Yseut and Tristan. There is never an excuse good enough to justify burning someone and political reasoning's always bothered me, especially when it almost results in the death of the couple. I am on Tristan's side and I cannot see my mind being changed. Even if coming events show some tragic character flaws I won't forget that this whole tragedy came about as the result of Tristan simply drinking out of the wrong wine skin. He did like Yseut before, but he was going to hand her over to the king. My heart goes out to Tristan because he strikes me as a true noble who just got stuck in a game of the gods (in mythological terms).

Tristan

I find Tristan to be a very unique nobleman, his adventures are far from typical and the situations that he finds himself in are odd. For one, He starts out by fighting a man over a cause that no other noble man would lift a finger to help stop. This isn't the odd part though; he puts himself into the hands of god when the injury he sustained in combat fails to heal and slowly poisons him to the edge of his life. Here is the truly weird part though; he ends up in the arms of the man who he had killed. Of all the examples in the book "The Romance of Tristan" I found this one to be the best because it is by far the simplest of Tristan's experiences, but all of them have the same basic outline. Tristan start's with good intentions, something unfortunate happens, and it ends in a distinctly bad manner. It the unfortunate happenings that truly goes against Tristan, he is by all rights a good person who just has terrible luck. He might be doing the king's wife in the off hours, but he only loves her so deeply because of the love potion he drank. He won't hurt the infirm and he went to get Yseut so that she could marry the king. He isn't selfish but he remains, for the time being, a selfless person.