Marie De France
(I saw this meme and thought that after all the we have read, it was pretty relevant lol!)
Women in the majority of the stories that we have read have had to be cunning and calculating to ensure their survival. However, many of these women I feel entrap their male counterparts out of spite such as Guinevere does to Launfal because he turns her down and blatantly calls her ugly. I would like to focus on the women in Sir Launfal.
Promiscuous Queens seems to be a common thread through these stories. I kind of chuckle at the predicaments these women are able to entrap these men in. Guinevere blatantly asks Launfal to sleep with her, and for him to give her his love, and when he refuses, not only does that bait him into spilling his guts about his much fairer lady-friend, but also Guinevere takes this horribly and runs to Arthur. Of course Arthur wants Launfal’s head; he just called his wife ugly! This puts Launfal into even more of a pickle, if that’s even possible, because now Launfal is being ordered to identify his lover and we all know how his story ends.
The women in these stories are not only cunning and mischievous, but also educators of sorts. They help facilitate life lessons being learned by their male counterparts. Launfal learns to not only have a filter, especially when what you have to say may not be the nicest thing in the world, even though it may be true; he also learns that sometimes sugar coating, and kissing up to someone is better than being put on death row due to your inability to filter your verbal diarrhea.
So… my questions to you folks are:
1) Do you agree with my findings, and if not…PLEASE feel free to disagree!! I want your gut reactions as well as your reaction after taking a second to process. Have fun with this!! You can give examples of your own if you so choose!
2) On the topic of sugar coating, those of you that know me well will know that sugar coating is not one my strong suites. However, do you think there is a time and place to sugar coat things and/or be more mindful of your words in Launfal’s case? Or do you think that Launfal was totally justified in saying what he said even though the repercussions of his actions were quite extreme?
3) If you were Launfal, would you have done anything differently, and if so what would you have done differently? Keep in mind, we do know the ending…so you can use that to your advantage… i.e. would you ask someone to be standing around when Guinevere comes on to you? Would you expose her, and if so what would HER repercussions be? (Again have fun with this! Be creative and make your own twists and turns! I’m excited to see what you come up with!!!)
Great post! I agree with you that the women trap Lanval in this story especially. He seems to be very much at a disadvantage from start to - almost - finish (the ending is happy, but rather abrupt). Why is he so mistreated? Even the men in this story have something against Lanval! From the beginning, he is an outsider simply because he stands out as "generous, brave, and fair to see" (24). How can we not pity him? Even the king sends him away to live far from his father so that his is a stranger in a land without friends. Then, the only thing good that happens to him has a stipulation that we know he is going to have to break. Even the maiden he loves is using him to a certain extent; why did she need to put him under the vow in the first place? And later, as you note, he is pushed to break his promise when the queen puts him in a tough position. After that, when his life is on the line, he does receive help in the form of the barons, who desire to see him saved. It is nice to see that someone supports him, but why do they support him only now, when he is wealthy and about to die? Where were these friends at the beginning when he is a nice guy who doesn't get to join the round table or live near his family? He is saved in the end, but the lovely maiden doesn't even acknowledge him; he jumps up for the ride, and she doesn't push him off haha. Poor Lanval has everyone against him for the majority of this piece, women and men...
ReplyDeleteI don't think we could have done much better than Lanval in a similar situation. When someone speaks falsely against you in order to instigate a response, it is very hard to not stick up for yourself. I felt really bad for him during the part with the queen.
I wish that Lanval had spoken his first piece, where he says, "I don't intend to break my vow to the king I've served a long time now in good faith," and then left without giving her time for an angry response (272-273). Perhaps he could have avoided further conversation with this instigating queen.
Alice! I loved your insight to all of my questions! I too wondered why Launfal's father would have sent him away. Maybe the reason that no one really liked him was because they knew that he came from money somewhere else as well as just being a swell guy, and just pegged him as an outsider and as such did not want to associate with him? Maybe they were jealous of him in some way? I totally agree, Launfal got the short end of the stick here! And the fact that his maiden is just like, "Yeah bro, whatever, you can come cuz I mean if you stay good ol' Gwen will kill ya one way or another. I mean I guess I won't push you off my horse." Haha! What a LOVE!! Um...kinda? Hahaha.
DeleteI love it when people answer questions with more questions!
DeleteFirst of all, I absolutely LOVE this story, and you really had some good points about the role of the queen in the Launfal story.
ReplyDelete1.) I believe that the role of the Queen is basically to entrap women into loyalty of their kingdom and their own desires. For one, not only is the Queen married to King Arthur, I found out that she does not like Launfal because she knows that HE knows about her promiscuous reputation. Considering that Launfal's character is generous yet good looking, I thought it was so dumb of him to let out his secret and being brutally honest despite being aware that he could be executed for being rude to the queen. I believe that the Queen's invitation for Launfal to lay with her was to trap him because 1.) She's the Queen and you can't say no to her, and 2.) to test to see if he's in love with someone who's prettier than the queen herself.
2.) Although I think Lanfaul was being idiotic for slipping out his true feelings, however, given his honesty, I think his response was justified but he did it at a VERY inappropriate time. It's like he has no common sense. If you, flat out, insult the Queen about her looks and personality, you've just gotten a one way ticket to the guillotine. Even though I liked Lanfaul's honesty and how brave he was being truthful; I just didn't think that he would that stupid to say that to the queen, the WIFE of his boss.
3.) If I was Launfal, I would NOT sleep with her but politely decline, even though it would cost me my head. There are many ways to avoid the Queen but most of the time if you were truthful, you would be put to death for declining the love of one of the rulers of the kingdom. I would much rather die without regretting falsely confessing my love to the queen or to lay with her.
Cali, you make an amazing point about how Launfal knows the wrong doings of the Queen! He is the only one, if I remember correctly, close enough and trusted enough by the King who does know. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I think that dying with your honesty is much better than, as you said, lying about my false love for the Queen because lets be honest, there is no way in hell I would give her that satisfaction! Haha!
DeleteA post with verve, Lyz. Well curated, too.
ReplyDelete