The Lais Of Marie De France And The Wolf Hunt - 988 Words

The more time that passes the more our views of the past are distorted. Our modern concepts and beliefs tend to lead to the inaccurate portrayal of the past. The two books, The Lais of Marie de France, by Marie de France and The Wolf Hunt by Gillian Bradshaw are prime examples of how our modern beliefs cause this distortion. The modern version of the novel, which is The Wolf Hunt, portrays the story differently than the Medieval novel, The Lais of Marie de France. The Wolf Hunt has modern themes in it, while the Lais has genuinely medieval themes. These stories are quite similar because they both portray the same story, but they have many other similarities than just this. For example, they both have many of the same themes such as, courtly love, betrayal, and irony. In both stories, there is a noble night who devotes himself to a married woman. In the Lais it’s a knight who devotes himself to a nameless woman (Lais 94), but in The Wolf Hunt, it is a knight named Alain and a w oman named Eline. However, both the sets of characters are virtually the same, and fulfill the same role. Another shared theme is betrayal; this is a huge part of both stories. Eline betrays her werewolf husband in both novels. For a werewolf to become human again, he must put his clothes back on. So Eline, enlists Alain to steal his clothes while he is a werewolf. This is a huge betrayal because it’s her husband who she is supposed to love and cherish, but instead she tries to turn him into a werewolfShow MoreRelatedAnimal Symbology in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Lais785 Words   |  4 PagesIn Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Lais of Marie de France, the authors use animals as metaphors for human actions, and as characters. By analyzing the use of these animals, we are able to explore the meaning the authors were trying to communicate through specific scenes. The Book of Beasts, a translation by T.H. White (1984 ed.), provides a medieval standpoint when analyzing the use of animals in the Lais and in Gawain. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, there is specific use of three