The Nightingale And Guigemar Love Theme

Marie de Frances Lais depict pain and suffering which the protagonist undergoes in order to reach a stage in their life that will bring forth happiness. The downfall of most of the characters stem from the theme of love. Love affairs in The Nightingale, selfish love in The Werewolf and Guigemar, marriage in Guigemar and Yonec, all forms of love cause suffering. The theme of possessiveness in Guigemar,Yonec, and The Nightingale is also depicted, as the husbands have complete dominion over their wives. Such control causes the female protagonist to search for affection elsewhere. Little does she know that this in turn leads to her misery because the possessive nature of the husband interferes with love. Such interference causes a violent and perculiar

reaction in the main characters needed to obtain love. In several Lais I will thoroughly describe such suffering, the influences it has on one’s character, and the authors purpose for such violent behavior among the character.
The connection between love and suffering is what drives odd, uncommon behavior in the characters of the Lais of Marie de France.

In each instance when characters love one another, some kind of ordeal must be completed before they can truly share their love. If this ordeal can be overcome, the characters can live happily forever after. If they cannot overcome it, their love becomes tragic, but is heightened because of their suffering. In Guigemar the main protagonist is described as intelligent, brave, and loved by all. Guigemar suffers from the ridicule from his society for not showing any interest in women. An example of the theme of isolation in the beginning of Guigemar’s tale occurs when he heads into the woods, “They gathered in pursuit of a large stag and the hounds were released. The hunters ran in front and the young man lingered behind.” (pg.33) It is only when Guigemar is alone that he sees the mysterious creature. This creature is a symbol that lets us know that Guigemar has gone from this world into the world of fairy and magic. The magical deer prophesies that Guigemar will suffer for the love of a woman, and she for him. The deers curse is ironic not only because it’s self inflicted but because the deer offers him the chance to be cured once again, yet love only causes him more

emotional suffering. The heroine in the story is secluded from all of society by her old jealous husband. In her room a painting of Venus, the goddess of love, was illustrated, Venus’ nature and traits in the image were supposed to be a reminder to men on how to behave in love and to serve love loyally.

Yet, her husband treated her on the contrary. In the painting Venus is destroying a book which signifies her attempt to destroy controlled love. Such actions are ironic since the husbands is oblivious to his wife infidelity for a year and a half. The female protagonist is locked up much like a prisoner in these high walls in which no one could enter or leave. The theme of isolation plays a pivotal part in the alteration in her behavior. When she approaches Guigemar it’s said “ The lady started to flee….her face grew red with fear.” (pg.38) Solitude has made her a timid and frightened person. Both the female and male protagonists of the story are encompassed by emotional suffering . This continues even when Guigemar and his lover meet. When they are unaware of how one feels for the other, it keeps them up late at night and such feeling of wondering tortured them. Their pain also came in the form of being separated from one another. Once they were discovered they decided upon placing knot and a chastity belt on themselves to refrain from any other love. Such poetic devices symbolize their acceptance of their suffering as they are

apart from one another. The heroine felt great pain and anguish as she mourned the loss of Guigemar. Her love for him was so powerful that she had thoughts of suicide, “Guigemar,my lord, why did i ever lay eyes on you? I’d rather die quickly than suffer this lingering torture. My love, if I could escape I’d go where you put out to sea and drown myself.” (pg.49) She eventually tries to find Guigemar on a boat. The boat symbolized fate, when Guigemar is hit with the arrow it leads him to his love, when the woman gets on the ship it leads her to Brittany where she is eventually reunited with Guigemar. There is also an example of juxtaposition in the way gender differences are described in this tale. The encounter of Guigemar and the women of Brittany trying to untie the knot is a completely different experience than the physical encounter lady must undergo with Meriaduc and his knights. Guigemar is under no risk, he is not exposed during the process nor is a weapon mentioned. On the other hand, Meriaduc angrily decides to slice the woman's blouse and encourages other men to partake in such actions, “He took her in his arms, cut the laces if her tunic, and tried to open the belt. But he didn’t succeed. There wasn’t a knight in the region whom he didn’t summon to try his luck.” (pg. 51) This event paints a very sexually violent encounter much like a gang rape.
Following their suffering, as the situation worsens, their behavior alters. In Guigemar, when he’s uncovered by the woman's husband he reacts in a very exasperated manner. Instead of running or hiding he stands his ground and waits for the assailants, “Guigemar will make some of them suffer for this; before they get close to him, he’ll have maimed them all.”(pg.47) When his beloved is involved he spirals out of control. Towards the end, upon meeting Meriaduc we see how cruel Guigemar could be. Although it’s reasonable for Guigemar to be outraged when Meriaduc refuses to give him his beloved it doesn’t justify his following actions. The young boy who once was, “Intelligent and brave, and made himself loved by all;”(pg. 31) immediately decides to annihilate everyone that got in his way and never stopped to think of taking a different course of action. “Guigemar besieged the town; he won’t leave until it has fallen. His friends and troops increased so greatly that he was able to starve everyone inside. He captured and destroyed the castle, killed its lord.” (pg.55) This excessive display of violence not only towards his enemy but upon innocent people shows a side of him triggered by his desperation to acquire love and need to overcome his competitor, Meriaduc. Meriaduc isn’t any different, after he encounters the lady he tries to forcefully unlock her belt. The heroine undergoes physical suffering in this act where unwillingly she must bear mortifying exposure. In the end the couple is able to overcome their suffering to live their partial happily ever after. I say this because although Guigemar and his beloved both experience suffering it is only Guigemar who is free of pain. He has kidnapped a woman who he is yearning for, but won’t marry. As far as we know the lady is still a married woman.
In the Lay of The Nightingale, we see the female protagonist involved in a relationship with her neighbor whom she communicates with through a nightingale. The bird is a symbol of the couples love and suffering. It is through this bird that they are able to contact one another and live their affair, but through the death of the bird ends the relationship entirely. The couple loved each other in secrecy for a long time, the knight would “Listen to the lady on the other side, both