| dc.description.abstract | The novelty of Chrétien de Troyes’ concept of love, chivalry and marriage is the mélange of the three, which is proven unprecedented before his time. I compare the contemporary notion of love, chivalry and marriage with that of Chrétien de Troyes. In chapter one, the concept of love is well presented, especially the important term la fin’amors. In the second chapter, I compare the new chivalric idea of Chrétien de Troyes with his contemporaries. For the author, chivalry is meant to help those in need and restrain brutality by granting mercy to the defeated. In the third chapter, the new notion of marriage based on love is introduced.
For the nobility, love and marriage are like two water-proof compartments. Love is won by the victory of a knight in tournaments. Bravery is thus the key to the lock in a woman’s heart. Nevertheless, love does not pave the way to marriage. The love that a brave knight conquers only exists outside marriage. For a knight, love is a game to seduce other women, married or not, than his own wife. Love is always sexual and thus adulterous, if we apply our own moral standard to it. There are quite a few noble women for a young knight to suit in tournaments.
Marriage, barely based on love or the mutual consent of the married couple, is traded among the aristocrats for the exchanges of political and economical interest. The author proposes a new perspective not only to reinstitute marriage but also maintain it harmoniously between husband and wife, when crisis occurs out of the imbalance between chivalry and love. In order to make marriage work, both parties involved must realize that too much chivalric valor in marriage will dwarf the growth of love (see in the case of Yvain and Laudine), which is the very basis of marriage, whereas if any knight indulges himself in love and ignore his chivalric duties, his name will be tainted with laxity of bravery (see in the case of Erec and Enide), which is nothing more than the abandonment by the chivalric circle.
As wives, Laudine and Enide must learn to recognize the chivalric valor of their husband and the necessity to maintain by participating in tournaments. Neither chivalry nor love can be single-handedly dominant in marriage. Husband and wife are equally important and thus responsible of making or not making marriage work. This is the new notion of the twelfth century marriage, which may serve as role model for today’s marriage.
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