I was excited to see all the comments on my storytime. I'm glad you all liked it, or at least had some kind of strong opinion about it. As some of you curious cats already know, (uh-hum, Harmony and Todd) this is a Medeival lais, written by Marie de France in the late 12th century. As most of you know, I am taking a medieval romance class for my Master's. First of all, I love her lais; she has 12 of them. They are all different, but all have similar themes, but I love that she is able to put a very distinct feeling behind all of them. Anyway....
When I read Eliduc I reacted the same way, and I brought my outrage with me to class and promptly declared I was not impressed with the way Guildeluec just let him off the hook. Everyone else agreed, if not quite as vehemently as me. I mean, come on, why would a beautiful, intelligent, God-fearing woman just....step aside! Give her blessing to the happy couple! But after my indignation subsided I had a thought....what was the alternative? What would I have rather she done? Yelled? Made a scene? Slapped him in the face and shouted "I wasted the best years of my life on you!"? Would I have felt better if she had fainted, (a very popular pastime for many women, trust me), wept tears of profound anguish and eventually died, either by her own hands or through pure grief? Should she have calmly told him he could not see his lover again and that she would forgive him this one time? Do we really think this cheater-face liar would have let it go at that? No, she would have just lived as a wife whose husband clearly no longer loves her and who prefers the younger model. None of these options leave us with the VINDICATED woman we wish to see. BUT, her choice does leave us with an independant woman with quite a lot of power. First of all, I believe she took control of the situation - she planned it all; she was in power. She looked at all the options and decided she didn't like any of them, so she created her own.
At that time women had little power in the home, but they had considerable power in the abbey. By requesting that her husband build her her own abbey, of which she would be the abbess, she was setting up her own little kingdom, of which she would have complete power over her decisions and the decisions of others. Not to mention that the Man she now served would never treat her in such a way.
So, in the end, I am reconciled to her decision.
There is much more to say, but perhaps it is best to leave it at that. Thanks again for tuning in for Jodi's Story-time :)
When I read Eliduc I reacted the same way, and I brought my outrage with me to class and promptly declared I was not impressed with the way Guildeluec just let him off the hook. Everyone else agreed, if not quite as vehemently as me. I mean, come on, why would a beautiful, intelligent, God-fearing woman just....step aside! Give her blessing to the happy couple! But after my indignation subsided I had a thought....what was the alternative? What would I have rather she done? Yelled? Made a scene? Slapped him in the face and shouted "I wasted the best years of my life on you!"? Would I have felt better if she had fainted, (a very popular pastime for many women, trust me), wept tears of profound anguish and eventually died, either by her own hands or through pure grief? Should she have calmly told him he could not see his lover again and that she would forgive him this one time? Do we really think this cheater-face liar would have let it go at that? No, she would have just lived as a wife whose husband clearly no longer loves her and who prefers the younger model. None of these options leave us with the VINDICATED woman we wish to see. BUT, her choice does leave us with an independant woman with quite a lot of power. First of all, I believe she took control of the situation - she planned it all; she was in power. She looked at all the options and decided she didn't like any of them, so she created her own.
At that time women had little power in the home, but they had considerable power in the abbey. By requesting that her husband build her her own abbey, of which she would be the abbess, she was setting up her own little kingdom, of which she would have complete power over her decisions and the decisions of others. Not to mention that the Man she now served would never treat her in such a way.
So, in the end, I am reconciled to her decision.
There is much more to say, but perhaps it is best to leave it at that. Thanks again for tuning in for Jodi's Story-time :)
