Women and Maturity in Eschenbach's Parzival
Through the course of Wolfram von Eschenbach's epic romance Parzival, it becomes abundantly clear that the main characters, Parzival and Gawan, must attain some level of maturity or growth before they will be able to persevere in their personal quests. While their paths to maturity involve a great deal of combat and contests of knightly skill, it is their encounters with noble women that truly redefine their characters.
Parzival is undeniably a romance. It contains all the typical components of an early romance: extravagant characters, remote and exotic places, highly exciting and heroic events, passionate love, and mysterious or supernatural experiences. As a romance alone, indeed, Parzival is quite unexceptional. The significance of the work, rather, is in its careful development of initially immature and struggling characters. The foolish Parzival and the brash Gawan clearly have a great deal of potential as knights, however, as honorable and constant men they are initially quite lacking. As with other Medieval authors, such as Hartmann von Aue in his epic Erec, Eschenbach carefully develops his character's to noble maturity through the course of his tale. Unlike Hartmann, however, who chose to develop young Erec through his encounters with other knights, Eschenbach creates a path towards maturity for Parzival and Gawan through the ladies they encounter along their journey. These encounters with noble ladies provide a forum for young knights to grow, and moreover, a method for demonstrating the growth they've achieved on their own.
Parzival, the main character and the man for whom the novel is named, experiences the most growth as an individual and as a knight. From the v...
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...nneware or Sigune. Condwiramurs, indeed, represents not only the perfect and most beautiful woman, but also, the most perfect influence on Parzival.
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