Marie De France's Yonec Symbolism

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The Old English story “Yonec”, written by Marie De France portrays how love and symbolism can be displayed through a woman and a bird. “Yonec” is astonishing love story, because the woman was sent a knight to love and cherish her, yet devastating because knight died for their love. The woman in “Yonec” desired to be loved and was distraught that she had been constrained to a tower, and was saddened about her life and spoke of how “knights would find maidens to their liking, noble and beautiful, and ladies found lovers who were handsome and courtly and valiant” (de France 96- 99). Right after that moment of expressing her melancholic feelings, a hawk flew through the window and transformed into a handsome knight whose name was Muldumarec. The …show more content…

The illustration I chose to draw, was a heart and a black hawk. Within “Yonec”, love is deeply expressed and the hawk is the knight who comes to awaken the love of the woman he has waited for. The knight told the woman, “I have loved you for a long time and desired you greatly in my heart; I never loved any woman but you nor will I ever love another” (127-130). Once the knight expressed his desire and love for the woman, their love story adventure. The pictures I chose to paint present a mere representation of what the story “Yonec” is about. The hawk in the image represents how their love was dark, due to the mere fact that the woman was married, which meant she was having an affair on her husband. The hawk displays how secret love can be destruction and cause death. Their love had to be kept a secret, because it was shameful to cheat, yet they continued the affair. The heart image embodies the entire story, because it’s a love story and the heart is the center of affection, which is displayed throughout “Yonec”. The heart is drawn in red because it expresses love, yet exhibits the blood that was shed in death, when the knight was killed for their

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