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.