Author Archives: rblazicevic

Lanval by Marie De France is a love story between Lanval and a Fairy Lover. Lanval, who was a knight that served in the court of King Arthur, did not receive any riches and land that the king was giving out. By not being the first born he would not be able to inherit any land neither. When feeling upset about about his social status as a “poor man” he meets a fairy and they fall in love and she gives him all the riches he desired. Later in the story Lanval denies the attempted seduction by the Queen Guinevere and she accuses him of having no desire for women. Lanval breaks his promise to his fairy lover when he is questioned by King Arthur about who his mistress is. He later reveals it is a fairy. Saddened by the fact he will never be with his love again Lanval becomes depressed. Two damsels tempted Lanval and he ultimately rejects them as well. This proves his loyalty and was also a test by his lover and she appears and she takes him to Avalon. Avalon, according to legend, was an island paradise which played a major part in the legend of king Arthur.

Both Medea and the Ramayana have different and similar views on feminism. Medea and Sita are strong willed women who both represent feminism. Although they might seem like polar opposites they share a lot of personality traits. Sita is a woman that is very much in love with her husband Rama, so much that when he is banished to the forrest for fourteen years she comes along. On the other hand there is Medea. It doesn’t look as if Medea loves Jason on the level of Sita and Rama but in reality she does. Why else would Medea be so hurt and filled with anger if she wasn’t madly in love?

Both stories always have themes of distrust. In the Ramayana, Rama is unsure if Sita stayed true to him when she was kidnapped and held captive by Ravana. If Rama would just realize how much Sita cared and loved him, he wouldhave no doubt that she did not do anything to damage their relationship. In the play Medea, of coarse the distrust occurs when Medea learns of Jason leaving her for the Princess. Medea had no reason to trust Jason after she finds out and truly takes revenge in the worst way possible. Both stories have similar themes of feminism and distrust even though they were written centuries and worlds apart.

The story of Othello shows a change in literature. Before we read Othello in class all of the epic poems, stories, and plays were about kings and royalty as they were the only subject allowed to be used. During Shakespeare’s time writers started using real, common folk as the subjects and main characters of their writings. Writers now could have characters be the “bad guy” and the evils did bot just have to be a monster as in Beowulf. The main character in Othello is of coarse, Othello. He is not royalty but actually the complete opposite. Othello is different and an outsider in Venice. He is referred to as the Moor rather than his name in many different occasions. Yet, Othello has still been able to become a respectable General in the army and proves useful to the Duke on the island of Cyprus. Hundreds of years before Othello, it was unheard for a writer to have the protagonist not be a king, prince or god. Looking back upon all the materials prior to Othello we can see that no other work featured normal people as the main characters. Othello signifies a changing of style and expansion into what would writers would do for the next couple hundred years.