Ehh...

I'll be honest, I dont think I am a fan of this tale.

Don't get me wrong, I love the whole idea of this fairy world, or underworld because it adds a lot to the story, but i didnt really want to see a happy ending... at all. I feel like all this stuff happened just for it to come full circle and be a happy ending and end how it initially started off. He was king again. I guess the only thing is it took 10 years and a lot can happen in 10 years. The most interesting part of this whole story is when his wife does get taken, after that and all the way to the end i just found myself diappointed with the plot of the story. Somebody needed to die (his wife... or him maybe) 

Although I dont care for the happy ever after ending or the plot I did enjoy the symbolism. For instance in class we talked about diguise and how people who do that are usually people who did wrong. I didnt realize what Sir Orfeo could have done until I thought about it. He ditched his people with no rhyme or reason! So that made a lot of sense. He didnt just come back 10 years later like he was hot s*** again. But with that I am still stuck on this whole idea of a happy ending. His people were accepting after he ditched them 10 years ago... but I mean hey. 

Back to the fairyland idea. I loved it! I love seeing settings like this, especially when they are semi-unexpected. You dont expect fairies to come out of nowhere and take your wife. 😐😐 Things like that dont happen in real life and to be honest I want to escape from reality when I am reading and this does just that. Faries are supposed to be mystical creatures and this captures that. 

Love at first sight

One of my favorite things about this is when Arcite and Palamon fall in love with Emelye “at first sight.” Simply because this is so common in stories but I personaly don’t believe it is real. I never hear about it in real life so the idea that it is consistently placed in stories is interesting. In my eyes it kind of shows what people desire and that’s to be able to do that.

But, it also shows how shallow people can be in terms of what they are looking for which is honestly just arm candy and that is prevalent In stories especially this one. Both men “fell in love,” with someone they didn’t even actually know. All they cared about was how she looked and how beautiful she was. What I also noticed was that they fought over her, two cousins fought over a woman.

 I always here people joke about women tearing families apart and I also see it in a lot of older fictional stories. It’s just crazy how much power women have over men simply by how they look and nothing else. What happened to personality? What if she was just a compelte A-hole? Would they still just care about what she looks like? lol To be honest I’m not really sure which one had it worse because me personally would rather have my freedom but if you look at it in their eyes is life better free if they can’t be with the love of their life (then again either way they can’t really BE with her) so I don’t understand what the big deal is. It seems to me that freedom was more important because he left when I guess technically he could have stayed to be able to see her. Also, why did he leave his cousin behind? Why didn’t he try to get him set free also. Questions I have. 

The knight

First I would like to say that the description of the knight Erec really reminded me of Chaucers description in the Cantebury Tales. The description wasnt exact, but it reminded me of it because he was praised, and everything said was basically good. He dressed nice though, unlike the knight in Chaucers stories.
I think the things that bother me about stories like this and during this time is this idea of "fighting for a womans love," and thats what Erec had to do for Enide. It bothers me for many reasons. A woman is not a physical prize, why are you fighting for a womans love? Just because you win doesnt mean shell love you. I just think its kind of stupid. It just adds to the idea that women are objects, not people. Men fight for them just for them to serve them forever. I dont like it, but I believe it is accurate for the time period.

One thing i can appreciate though, is Erec's love for Enide He will do anything for Enide, and to protect her. He ignores his duties as a knight (which is dumb, but kind of sweet at the same time).

Rules?

I find it really interesting that here are so many rules on courtly love. Rules? Rules about love? That makes absolutely no sense. Mainly because some of the rules are absolutely ridiculous. For instance it says "How Love May be Retained," and then says "keep it secret," and while I understand why it says this it isnt something that I think is true. Then it says "jealously increases love." and that isnt true either. These are things that scream toxic... but I guess they would make for an interesting story.

I like that this idea of courtly love revolves around staying within a Catholic religion. It shows how during a certain time period religion was something valued. These views on love and what love is are actually vaguely similar to what people think love means today (but are completely wrong about.) Its kind of funny because mostly women are into these types of literature which isnt surprising. It kind of explains why people think that certain aspects that come with falling in love "just happen," because thats what love is and it isnt.

The ideas that keeping secrets and jealously are ways to hold a relationship or to maintain love are associated with the idea of drama. I can understand why these things are found within literature because it keeps it interesting but it impacts the thoughts of people reading or watching.

Apparently blasphemy and anti-religious behavior will cause failure in love, and I find that comical. The values they had and the importance of religion are way different than today. There are people whos religion is a primary thing within their relationship but I feel like it isnt taken as seriously now as it was then.

In general I dont understand how rules were put on love, because there are no rules. Everyone is different.