Romantic Love In Dante's Inferno and The Lais of Marie De France

A detailed Summary of Romantic Love In Dante's Inferno and The Lais of Marie De France

Romantic Love In Dante's Inferno and The Lais of Marie De France

It is fascinating to take the time out to examine in similarities and differences in the way authors Dante Aligheri and Marie De France impart to their readers their views on romantic love. It can almost be said that the two perspectives are "similarly different."

Marie De France, like Dante, has a distinctive literary form. Her narrative twists and female perspective, differentiate her vastly from Dante. She focuses on stories from women's points of view, she involves her female characters much more actively than Dante. For example, note that Francesca is the only female in hell who has a speaking part. In total, there are only sixteen women even mentioned in Dante's subterranean journey. Nine of them are in Limbo, and out of the remaining seven, five reside in Francesca's "circle in Hell." Throughout the Comedy, Dante appears to view women as the center of some sort of tragic love triangle, while throughout the Lais Marie's women are shown to have character and grace.

Canto V of Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno, takes the reader to the first compartment of true hell, residence for those whose sins have earned them eternal damnation. D

Infidelity, or the perception of such, drives men to violent means in the works of both authors. Francesca and Paolo are slain in a jealous rage, while in Guigemar, the Lord lets emotion from the fear of his wife being unfaithful, rule his actions as well. While the enraged man is treated as victim by Dante and villain by Marie, disdain for adultery remains as one commonality of two widely different perspectives of romantic love.

Marie terms adultery as being "foolishness, wickedness and debauchery," to take lovers wherever one goes, then boast of the sexual deeds. Although similar to Francesca and Paolo's "love" in many ways, Marie's interpretation of love in Guigemar is quite different from Dante's. After wounded while hunting, Guigemar is taken in by the Lady of the Lord of the city he manages to reach. He learns that the Lord has been keeping his wife shut away in a tower. Guigemar falls in love with the Lady, and she with him. He is healed of his wound, and finds the ability to love. Guigemar is faithful to his lady, as is both symbolized and actualized in the lovers exchange, before being discovered by the lady's husband. Though the love is technically adulterous, in Marie's eyes the marriage is a sham. The Lady in her portrayal is not shallow in courtly love, but a prisoner to be rescued. She is not a wife, since the Lord does not "properly" love her.

ante's cranes symbolize lovers of the highest order, lovers who have died in the name of and for the very essence of love. These characters are of high social standing, as he stresses the importance of social hierarchy, and how it is affected by that which man calls "love."

time was spent, and see the great Achilles

she held the land which now the Sultan rules.

The other is she who, loving, slew herself

The central message found in the Lais, is the ability to love. It is the most frequently used character virtue, appearing in all of the twelve lays. The ability to love properly, is paramount in Marie's ideal knight. This is shown most clearly in Guigemar. The reader sees the title character attain the status of the ideal knight, by overcoming his inability to love.

Marie's male characters are far more multi-dimensional as are her ideas of

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Approximate Word count = 1525
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English