READING GUIDE (week 13, and first half of week 14): Erec and Enide
A. Chrétien de Troyes: Erec and Enide
This story is a type of fiction called "romance". Romances differ
from an earlier genre, the chanson de geste (an example of which is The
Song of Roland), in both content and style. They are generally concerned
less with action, although plenty of action takes place, and more with
personal relationships and questions of honor, morality, sex, and chivalry.
Romances were performed orally before mostly aristocratic audiences that
included both men and women. One line of thought sees these stories
directed at the ladies; another sees them directed at the young, powerless
knights whose only hope of gaining wealth and status was an advantageous
marriage to a rich heiress. The debate is still out. Which interpretation
do you find more appealing? Why?
1. Erec and Enide is a work of literature, and as such is fiction.
Why are we using it in a history class? Can we learn about the history
of this period from this text? [I think we can, or else I wouldn't have
assigned it ...]
2. From this text, what do we learn about how were women supposed to
behave? What types of "jobs" or duties did women have? What social roles
did women play? Were they active? Passive? Did women have power? If so,
what sorts? If not, why not? Who did Chrétien consider to be the
epitome of womanhood in the story? Why was she considered to be so womanly?
What features and feelings defined her womanliness?
3. What were the roles assigned to men? What did they do? (What, especially,
did they do that women could not or should not do?) How did they act? What
feelings and values motivated them? Were they active or passive? Did they
have power? What sort? Who was the ideal male in the story? Why was he
considered to be so manly? What features and feelings defined his manliness?
4. In the chansons de geste, we learn almost nothing about personal
motivation. Roland appears, hacks a lot of Muslims, and then dies nobly,
protesting that he only wished he could kill some more. How are things
different in Erec and Enide? One historian has described this story as
one in which "interior feelings and thought" played a dominant role. What
does she mean? Find some examples of this. What does it tell us about
medieval society at large that popular literature was emphasizing "interiority"?
5. In medieval literature, the inner moral worth of a person can be
discerned fairly easily by that person's outward appearance and actions.
Find some examples of positive and negative modeling that fit this stereotype.
6. The story is set at the court of King Arthur. What role does Arthur
play? What model of kingship is presented in this story?
7. Nineteenth-century historians used to argue that there was no concept
of the individual in the Middle Ages. How does Erec and Enide support or
criticize this view? In other words, do we find the concept of individualism
at work here?
8. Honor is one of the most important values motivating the characters
in this romance. Locate examples of honor. How does honor shape interactions
between husbands and wives? Between knights? Other interactions?
9. Chivalry came into being in the 11th and 12th centuries. What
is chivalry? What sets chivalry apart from earlier warrior virtues?
What sets Erec apart from, say, Beowulf or Clovis? Find some examples
of chivalrous ideals and virtues in Erec and Enide.
10. Chrétien was one of the first writers to take advantage
of 12th-century popular interest in the Arthurian legends. Remember
that if (and that's a big if) there was a historical Arthur, he lived in
the 6th century, not the 12th. Chrétien's tale thus uses a
distant, mythological past as the setting for a story about contemporary
issues (love, duty, warfare, marriage, etc). Why do you think he
did this? What advantages did such a structure offer?
11. What does the ‘Joy of the Court" episode mean (this is the last
extended scene in the story, from circa line 5350 to near the end).
Why did Chrétien include it? What moral or conclusion might
the audience have drawn from hearing about the Joy of the Court?
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT (Due Thursday April
13):
Write a 1 page summary of the plot of the first half of Erec and Enide
(to circa line 3600).