Yonec

The story of Yonec was a little different than Marie’s other lais I have read thus far. At first, I thought the story was going to be similar to the classic story of Rapunzel as the wife was locked in a tower, but this was not the case at all. Going back to talking about passive and active roles, the wife definitely held a passive role in the story. Marie incorporates some classic medieval characteristics to the story like courtly love, chivalry and magic, but she also defies the common characteristics by adding sex and lust into the story.

While reading the story of Lanval, I got the feeling that Lanval was dreaming when he met his beloved in the forest. I had the exact same feeling while I was reading Yonec. When the wife was praying in her room for a miracle, the knight ended up coming to her rescue disguised as a bird through her window. Since she had been locked up in the tower for seven years, I thought she might have been going a little crazy and began to dream of a better life. As the story went on I proved myself wrong as the relationship between the knight and the wife was definitely real. Marie once again adds irony to her story at the end when the knight’s tomb was revealed in the abbey. Showing how true the wife's love was for the knight, she fainted on his tomb and died immediately.