Chaitivel

There are many clear medieval romance characteristics that can be pointed out in Marie de France's work Chaitivel. Chivalry is definitly being idolized in this work. There is also the concept of the hero knight, in this case four hero knights, but most importantly, the largest element being put to use in this story is the knights love for his lady. The story is about a lady, beautiful and wanted by everyone, who is in love with four knights at the same time.

From this lai, I feel that the clear message is sefish love. Although the lady at the end might show kindness in the way she nurses the one wounded knight, that does not discount her extreme self-interest that causes the tragedy. Men during the Medieval Ages were expected to be treated fairly and respectably. The lady does not do this in this lai as she is so caught up in the excitement and chivalrous competition her beauty inspires.

I couldn't help but to see how this work compliments Laustic. The parallel is mentioned in one of the footnotes provided in the Chaitivel lai. Both stories involve secrecy as the lady's suitors in Chaitivel and the ladies husband in Laustic all have no idea that there are other men in the picture. I also agreed with what the footnote said about the symbolism of castration in Laustic. In Chaitivel, the wounded knight was actually castrated as he can no longer make is lady happy. In Laustic, castration was symbolized by the killing of the nightingale.