Yvain Part 3

There is a lot of saving the damsels in distress and it seems like there is only one guy to do it, like no other man is capable of doing anything. I mean why can't all the guys get together and form a plan to protect their land ever? Why does a guy and his pet have to do all the work and heroic stuff? The hero's job is looking as bad as being the president, everyone wants something from you and you try every way you can to please them. I mean he rushed from saving one damsel to another as if no one else could do it only Yvain could. They also weren't just men he was fighting, he was fighting demons and giants, the guy never gets a break, it is as if they believe him immortal, that he is God and that nothing and no one can defeat him.

Chretien speaks a lot about of love and how people don't really know what it is, and that those who think that they do don't really do. He speaks to us in the present and how we don't really know what love is anymore. There are so many divorces that go on, no one really stays with one person, thoughts are confused when it comes to the top of love, everyone has an ideal image about it but they either don't reach for it or the thoughts they thought were ideal were far from it. I like the reference to the god of love when they talked about the beautiful maiden girl that was said to even make the god Eros turn human, and shot himself with his own arrows for her.

Maidens in this story are made to seem so beautiful yet so empty headed and with no way or thought to protect themselves except to go out in search of a man to do it for them. Are females without wit and planning to come up with a way to resolve things among st themselves? I mean even the sisters could not resolve a feud without males. The males resolution or way to seek a resolution is through combat. It seems that there is no way for them to just lay down their arms and to just talk it out. I mean only after, when Yvain and Gwain fought, giving each other multiple injuries and figure out the identity of the other does King Author offer a diplomatic solution.

Chretien has a lot different allusions, though I don't understand most of them, they make me curious with questions like, the pattern with the numbers, how there is a reference to 500, it is a common number in the texts. What is the meaning behind the lion? There is a lot of personification, like that of Death and of the lion. I'm still trying to figure out what the fountain means in the story and why it does what it does.

The story had more allusions and metaphors than that of Erec and Enide and I liked it better for it.