Comparison Of Yonec And The Book Of Margery Krempe

The representations of men and masculinity in Marie de France’s lai titled “Yonec” and Margery Krempe’s “The Book of Margery Krempe” both depict men as domineering and possessive. Once a man has been married to his trophy of a wife, they expect said wife to lay with them and produce sons back in that era. Though both husbands are selfish in their ways, in “Yonec,” there are many romantically charming aspects to the Animagus knight; selfless, respectful of boundaries, patient, and religious. These two text are very similar to my ideas on medieval masculinity, from hiding their wives away, to expectance of desires from the husbands.

Nevertheless, women were to be meek, silent, passive, and inactive, both wives challenged these social norms by either voicing their opinions about how she and her husband should live celibate, or by taking a kinder “ami” who would listen to them and embrace their own desires. The whole idea of a woman telling stories was rebellious seeing how men were the only ones who were actually in need of being educated to read and write. By telling and writing stories, these two amazing female authors had challenged the traditional roles of women and the opportunities available to them at the time.

To demonstrate that both the works of Marie de France and Margery Krempe had first been told through oral communication, both authors use first person, third person, active voice, and passive voice throughout their works.

The power of voice within both stories shows that by withholding or using one’s opinions, thoughts, or feelings, they can cause a ripple in the pool of society’s values and structure. By taking that voice and transcribing it into text, it become physical proof of having used that voice for others to read and share many times over. These two authors raise many questions about the male dominated publishing market, like how they achieved recognition for their talents and allowed the privilege of

publishing.
By Marie de France being a noblewoman, she had access to books, musical entertainment, and more opportunities to use her creativity unlike those below her social status. Nonetheless, Marie de France may have been limited in her real life experiences and social norms due to having been so privileged. Though Margery Krempe was able to pull her creative nature into her autobiography, it was through what she imagined to be ecstatic and mystical.
Though these are two completely different realms with fiction and nonfiction, both authors are telling stories about women’s imaginations. The imagination is central to the text by affirming what these women thought to be better than their realities of oppression and submissiveness. The power of the woman’s mind is far greater than man could have fathomed in those days with their personifications and artistic natures.