Courtly Love and Gender Roles in Medieval Romance

In most medieval romances characters are defined by their social status and nobility. The knights are to go for quests and prove themselves with heroic deeds while noble ladies are to be adored and courtly approached by noble warriors. Characters are built around conventions and their role is defined by their gender. Most writers felt comfortable within these rules, but there were some willing to create stories that corresponded with set conventions more openly, like Marie de France. Marie de France was a sort of medieval Jane Austen. Both women knew their set, they knew their sex, and they knew little more of life. But that little they knew well, and of that little they wrote well, for both had the knack of story-telling.

Marie de France's Lanval is a medieval romance about one of King Arthurs's knights whose nobility and loyal service are unappreciated and who does not belong with the community, being rejected by it. When he is away from the castle two ladies approach him and lead him to Fairy Mistress who offers him wealth and love if he agrees to be her lover. There is only one condition: the knight is not allowed to tell anyone about the Fay and their relationship. With the help of the lady, Lanval gains appreciation, recognition, and respect among people of the court. Arthur's wife takes interested in him and requests him to be her lover. Lanval refuses and to provoke the knight to reveal the reason for his conduct she accuses her of 'having no desire for women'. He tells the Queen about Fairy Mistress, violating the condition of their agreement, and says that his lady is far more beautiful than Arthur's wife. The resentful Queen publicly accuses the knight of attempting to seduce her and disrespecting her when she refused. Lanval is imprisoned and then put on a trail that should end with his death, but Fairy Mistress arrives and saves him. They both took off to Avalon. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Marie de France's way of portraying love and how her flexible approach to gender roles contributed to the creation of vibrant and intriguing characters, referring to Lanval.

Two works that influenced the thought process behind this analysis the most are Marie de France: Psychologist of Courtly Love by S. Foster Damon and Courtly Love, the Love of Courtliness, and the History of Sexuality by James A. Schultz. In order to discuss issues addressed in the thesis statement, it is preferable to begin by taking a separate look on character types recognized by Damon in every Lyre of Marie de France: hero, heroine, and villain. Notions of these characters lead to a better understanding of the story and the characters' motives and how the story loses conventions of gendered roles.

The significant question one needs to ask to understand actions taken by Lanval concerns his eagerness to accept the offer of Fairy Mistress. The knight accepted her offer almost immediately. It is undoubtful that the story presents us with the noble and worthy knight, yet it is not a usual representation of such. He is not gathering with his kinsmen, he is, by all means, an outsider who may be not actively rejected but habitually forgotten by the court. Lanval could be simply considered forgettable, plain and not merited enough to deserve a high prise, we do not exactly see him performing any of heroic deeds, but it is stated he was a great, noble and loyal knight capable of achieving great things. Although he is well and truly loyal, he did not find a true kinsman amongst Arthur's knights, even the King neglects his duties towards him, failing to reward Lanval Marie de France for his service to him, and no man cared to put in a good word for the knight. It is mentioned that Lanval is of the royal heritage, from somewhere far away. There is the possibility he is not highly respected because he is a foreigner, and his situation is further envenomed by others' jealousy of 'his valor, generosity, beauty, and prowess'.Lanval is the 'supposedly perverse idealist', according to Damon, frustrated by unjust reality, who is already withdrawing from the court. It is the meadow where two ladies sent by Fairy Mistress approaches the knight and lead him to the Fay, an embodiment of all his ideals and desires: she grants him love and companionship, the wealth he can distribute, proper and flattering attire and equipment that matches the status and virtues of Lanval. All the knight lacks is offered in this one moment. Considering doubts and frustration he felt, his eagerness to accept her proposition is well-understandable. He is presented not only with the chance of earning respect thanks to riches Fairy Mistress provides him with but also being appreciated both as the noble knight and as the human being worth of caring and pursuing. But economic value is coupled by Marie with the affirmation of his personal value that Lanval sadly needs, in view of the lack of recognition which his service to Arthur has met with, despite his excellent qualities. The damsels have been sent specifically for him, and the lady herself has come precisely for him.

Pieces of information about the Lanval's lady are revealed in moderate amounts, to keep the character's mysterious and eldritch aura. She is a foreigner as Lanval, supposedly a magical being with great wealth to her disposal. Although she expresses her desire to help the knight to elevate his status in the court, she is the character that diminishes his attachment to this reality. Fairy Mistress resembles feudal lords more than a noble damsel whose essential role is being adored by a knight. She awards Lanval, asserts his attire and belongings are dignified and suitable, expecting he will abide by her only demand in return. Duties that Arthur failed to fulfill are executed by the Fay with ease.

Her condition to keep their relationship in private is empowering. Even though it was a woman who was in charge of courtly romance, it was most flattering to the men, elevating his image, virtues, and status, keeping both parties within a certain code of conduct. She helps Lanval but she is not willing to let anyone impose the role on her. The relationship she creates with Lanval, apart from its resembles the feudal service, is a daring love that withdraws their relationship from the public's eye and imposed social roles, allowing lovers to be each other's equal. Lanval using her wealth is the form of assistance she accepts, but using her as a person and her beauty to elevate the knight's status is plainly not what she desires to do. She came to find Lanval and only him, she wants to enhance his status in a way she is adequate with. Being a part of Lanval's life is what she desires, not the whole courtly men-centered reality and codes of conduct. She is the one that left for a quest to search for the knight, she takes the role of the lord and has all the power of perpetuating or abandoning their relationship once Lanval agrees to it

The Fay seems to be free of conventions and entailed modesty in terms of sexual desires. During their encounter, Lanval responds with vague phrases expected from a knight, officially pledging his loyalty. She encourages him to express his desires more freely. She herself is confident and sexually active. Her body is exposed and at the same time, Marie De France does not go into exact details of how the lady looks like. The bond between the lady and her body feels natural and neutral, certainly more than conventional modesty required in the courtly reality. There is no reason for the lady to feel ashamed of nudity and her desires. 

There are some similarities than can be drawn between Fairy Mistress and Arthur's wife, the great villain of this story. The Queen also pursues Lanval, expresses freely her desires to him and has power over the knight's fate, seemingly greater than the Fay, as her accusations almost lead to his death.

The core difference between these characters comes from the execution of their powers and their relation to courtly reality. Fairy Mistress operates on some traditional features, but she manages to stay beyond it, drawing upon ongoing rules and customs, while not being a part of it, not more than she is willing to be and she gives Lanval the real choice: he can agree or leave freely. The Queen uses this system while being a part of it. She has as much power as her position and circumstances can give her. She approaches Lanval in a purely egocentric manner, she wants the knight to humor her, not even thinking about the possibility of him rejecting her, someone with impressive power due to her place in the social hierarchy and another quality that is highly valued in women: beauty. When Lanval refuses her, the Queen uses her power within this society to punish him, trying to take the social includes and acceptance he gained with the help of the Fairy away with her accusations: that he has no desire for women and publicly announcing that he tried to seduce her and disrespected her, both drastically scarring for his status. Punishing him by the means of law is an ultimate representation of this society rejecting him.

After accusing Lanval publicly the Queen becomes the passive character, letting law, men and all rules work for her revenge. Arthur's wife can be seen just as a convenient plot device and the usual representation of female villain, jealous and plotting women, which she is to some extent, but she is also the deliberate and more transparent representation of the court and its rules, altogether all features that alienated Lanval through the whole story. The Queen knows how to operate within the courtly reality and its rigid conventions. Her revenge plot crumbles with Fairy Mistress's arrival at the court, as the Fay decisively establishes her superiority not only over the Queen but the whole court, abandoning conventional roles between her and Lanval (lord and a knight) and ignoring the broken agreement to save the knight.

After analyzing the notions and motives of three major characters, Marie de France's approach to gender roles is more visible. Gender roles in Lanval are not reversed, Marie de France let her characters behave more freely within them. Lanval is naturally the noble knight with all knightly virtues that could be expected from him, but the story is not focusing on that. His heroic deeds and loyal service are acknowledged somewhere in the background. What was important and what fuels the story, more or less directly, were not his heroic actions and qualities but emotions. He felt himself conflicted with courtly reality so he left and have a chance to meet the Fay, he was afraid of losing his status and acceptance after Queen's accusation so he betrayed his only true companion. He was allowed to doubt himself and to be fed up with the society that excludes him. None of the conflicts starts or ends up with a fight, all of them are set in the ideological or emotional realm: Lanval vs Court, more direct representation of this conflict with the input from the Queen, and Lanval's grief when he truly acknowledge his betrayal and that Fairy Mistress left him for good, meaning they conflict too.

In the end, he is the one that needs to be saved and the only person that can do it is Fairy Mistress. However, theoretically, she has no reason to do so, as she was utterly loyal and respectful to Lanval and he betrayed her. She could disappear forever as she said to Lanval during their encounter and the fact this is not the decision she makes empowers her deed even further. She may appear in the male role of the savior but she is not absorbing manly features. Fairy Mistress is in her own gowns, not trying to look or behave like a man, marching bravely into the court not to fight but to resolve the conflict peacefully. Also, rescuing Lanval does not require her to sacrifice her life or safety, but her ideals. After all, Lanval is acquited only because the Fay is indeed more beautiful than the Queen. She forgets about her pride to rescue Lanval but she still despises the courtly reality as she leaves immediately after, even though many people were willing to pledge themselves to her. Lanval joins her, climbing on the horse and sitting behind her, performing the most frequently discussed action when it comes to reversed gender roles in this Lyre, as the male should guide a horse while a lady clutches to him, but this action brings nothing new to this analysis. Fairy Mistress is the noble savior in this situation and he is admitting it by this action. The Fay represents the ideal and magical realm and herself is seemingly perfect. However, the fact that Marie de France was a woman gave her writing a great advantage: she was not able to idealize her sex as easily as male writers did. Even though the distinction between the heroine and the villain is transparent, Fairy Mistress shares some cunning features with the Queen. The Fay used Lanval's situation and she did let him almost gone mad during his imprisonment. She is not entirely perfect and that is not the key for her to be considered a good character, good woman, good person.

Their love cannot be defined by any conventions if it is to survive. It is not ideal, but closer to real love than any courtly-framed hierarchical relationship. Their romantic feeling cannot bloom when the customs constantly force lovers to define their position within the social and relationship hierarchy, compelling them to relinquish equality in their relationship. Their love cannot go back to being dare and based on feudal service, as the only condition was already broken and Fairy Mistress obtains superiority and power over Lanval in it, and it certainly cannot become courtly. Lanval, who finally challenged his view on courtly reality and recognized the lady as his true companion, decides to leave the court with the Fay, and Fairy Mistress lets him go with her. They are never seen again.

Conclusions

Marie de France and her approach to gender roles, especially in Lanval, is closer to the desire of not defying character through their gender at all than it is to reverse them. Lanval is not suddenly feminine because he needed to be saved and the Fay is not suddenly masculine when she takes her role as the knight's savior. Lanval's emotions are more important in this story than his heroic actions and are displayed more than feelings of Fairy Mistress or Arthur's wife. The Queen is treated with the most conventional approach as the female villain, portrayed as jealous and cunning, using other means to get her revenge rather than do it personally. Marie de France writes her female characters as embracing their sexuality and sexual desires and not feeling ashamed for exposing their bodies to a man their willing to and expressing their wishes. Female characters in Lanval are more confident and open with their desires than the knight is. The villain is shamed for her craving to punish Lanval for rejecting her, not her sexual desires. Courtly love and every romantic relationship exposed for general attention of the court is not in favor of the true feelings, as conventions tame them and force lovers to define their position and status within interrelationship and social hierarchies. True love seeks equality and freedom from all conventions that require abandoning it.

Bibliography

• William E. Burgwinkle Sodomy, Masculinity and Law in Medieval Literature: France and England, 1050-1230
• S. Foster Damon Marie de France: Psychologist of Courtly Love
• Marie de France; Glyn S. Burgess; Keith Busby The lais of Marie de France
• Ad Putter, Jane Gilbert The Spirit of Medieval English Popular Romance
• William Henry Schofield The Lays of Graelent and Lanval, and the Story of Wayland
• James A. Schultz Courtly Love, the Love of Courtliness, and the History of Sexuality