Love and Death in Tristan and Iseult - Assignment Example

Client Love and Death in Tristan and Iseult The first line of The Romance of Tristan andIseult sets up the association between love and death for the reader. “My lords, if you would hear a high tale of love and death. . .”(p. 5). The association between the two strongest emotional life experiences that humans will encounter, strikes at the core of higher developed thinking. For human beings, survival is more than existence. Death denies that existence, while love makes life worth living. Without love, the need to survive, which is the imperative for most animals, might be lost. With love, the need for survival can take on a stronger imperative than just a will to live. In fact, it may be the essence of that will to live. Love is the universal vessel of forgiveness and redemption, as is death. The associations between life and death within The Romance of Tristan and Iseult carry a universal message of the power of true love and of its absolute finality. The first tale of love is the tale between Blanchefleur, the sister of King Mark and King Rivalen, the parents of Tristan. Such was her love for King Rivalen that after his death she waited long enough for Tristan to be born before she let go of her spirit. Upon her first meeting with her son, she says, “And as by sadness you came into the world, your name shall be called Tristan; that is the child of sadness.” (p. 6). With this, 1 Client Last Name Blanchefleur passes, her love for her husband greater than that of her son, for she would rather meet her husband in death than remain in life without him. With the naming of her child, Blanchefleur has settled a curse on him that will be revealed in the tragedy of his love. This prophetic beginning is a classic device to introduce the theme of the tale to its audience. The tragedy that cast a shadow of sadness over the birth of Tristan foretells what will befall him within the story. That he is named of sadness will shadow his story and prepare the reader or listener (if the story were told in oral tradition), what might be expected. This is similar to the origins of King Arthur, whose love was destined to fail because of the failed circumstances of his own birth. That is carried through by the circumstances of the birth of his own son. In Thomas Malory’s Le More Darthur, the story of how Arthur was conceived is revealed to him by Merlin in order to convince him that he is a child of a king with a birthright to rule. Igraine, his birth mother with whom Arthur was not raised, is sent for and is instructed to tell Arthur of his origins. She says, “King Uther came to me in the castle of Tintegal, in the likeness of my lord who was dead three hours tofore. And after my lord was dead King Uther wedded me, and by his commandment when the child was born, it was delivered unto Merlin.” (Malory, p. 44) This suspect conception of Arthur, the betrayal of trust by Uther disguising himself as Igraine’s husband in order to betray her and force her own betrayal to her husband, driven only by Uther’s desire for her, sets the stage for the betrayal that Arthur will experience during his love of Guinevere who is 2 Client Last Name destined to betray him with her love of Lancelot. This method of prophetic origin is used throughout the Arthurian legends, just as it is used in the tale of Tristan. When Tristan ends up in the company of King Mark, before either of them consciously know that they are related, Tristan proves that he has skill and honor. He proves that he is hard working and humble. In this proof, he is proving to the audience that he is worthy of great love. There is no sign of lust, betrayal, poor judgment in his behavior. Unlike Arthur who would be tricked into sleeping with his own sister, an act that was not conscious, but would still give the storyteller a cause to have him suffer for his actions, Tristan does not seemingly behave in any way that could bring about his own destruction. Until, of course, he would kill Iseult’s Uncle, the Morhalt. This act would create hatred for his name by Iseult. She would lock it away in her heart, just as she would lock away in a chest the piece of his weapon that she took from the head of her uncle. This would Iseult to the name of Tristan by virtue of death and sadness. Her feelings about this man who would take one the she loved would be another symbol of their destiny together. While Tristan acted in honor to free King Mark’s bond of tribute to the King of Ireland, an act that would free a people from an opposing force, this act would embed a sorrow in the heart of his future love. As well, when he is delivered into the hands of Iseult, he was on what he believed to be his last journey. He was poisoned and lay dying with an infected wound that had a stench that drove away all but those who loved him most. In the light of their love, he 3 Client Last Name chose to leave them on a boat where he expected to die in the arms of the sea he loved. Fate had another story in mind for him. He was delivered to Iseult whose healing skills would bring him from the brink of death. She did not know his name. After he is healed, he has escapes back to King Mark’s court. King Mark chooses Tristan as his successor, but his Barons are resentful of this and wish for King Mark to take a wife and bear a proper heir to the kingdom. Hair of Iseult has been brought by two sparrows to Tristan and by virtue of this hair, King Mark chooses her to be his bride. In this story, a tale of the ridiculous is set against the tale of love that will be real. Love cannot be created by an instance of seeing the color of hair. However, this marriage is created, not out of love, but out of political need. The choice made is indicative of the lack of love that will lead to folly. In the shadow of death, Tristan had been born. He met Iseult on the brink of his first dance with death. He won the right to her hand by the death of a dragon, and he was once again near death when they would be brought together after his battle with the dragon, only to have to prove to her father, the King that he was the rightful hero of the tale of the dragon, by battling the Seneschal, who desired Iseult for himself and falsely claimed to kill the dragon. Death is associated with love once more, when in seeing his sword and matching the missing piece to it, Iseult realizes that Tristan is the one who killed her uncle. Tristan defends the honor of his kill. He asks Iseult if he has done anything that would bring dishonor to his actions. She considers his debate and instead of killing him, 4 Client Last Name she presents him with a kiss. The desirous action of a kiss becomes the act of forgiveness against the threat of death. As she addresses her father and asks for his forgiveness to Tristan should he win the battle, without revealing all that he would be forgiven, she asks her father for the “kiss of peace and forgiveness, as a sign that you will give him the same.”.(p. 32) One would assume that this kiss is a benign kiss between a child and a parent. This symbol of the kiss also denotes a bit of betrayal. This, one might assume, is a symbol of how a kiss can be a betrayal. Can be misunderstood between lovers if one kisses in order to gain sexual entry in the desirous manipulation of lust, while the other kisses to denote affection and love. The love of Iseult and Tristan does not come by nature, but by magic. Iseult’s mother has brewed a potion so that Iseult and King Mark might come to love one another and that Iseult might be happy in her arranged marriage. The drink is described as “Passion and Joy most sharp, and Anguish without end, and Death.” (p.36). Iseult and Tristan, powerless against the potion, are doomed in the love in each other’s eyes. Brangien, who has accompanied Iseult and who was given charge of the potion by Iseult’s mother, upon seeing that they have drunk the potion says to them, “Iseult, my friend, and Tristan, you, you have drunk death together.” (p.37). In this defining declaration, the agony of love and the way that love damns the heart to belong to another, defines the theme of love and its association with death. The literary ties of love and hate, compared to life and death become intertwined as Tristan and Iseult begin a journey of sorrow. From the moment they have connected in 5 Client Last Name love, they are doomed. To love is to live. Therefore, to be denied that love is to desire death in its place. Iseult says to him “why did I not sharpen those wounds of the wounded singer, or let die that dragon-slayer in the grasses of the marsh?” (p. 38). Iseult says to him that her pain is such that to have let him die would have been a greater mercy to herself than to go through the pain she is feeling in her love that could not be experienced with him because of her betrothal to another. Of course, Brangien, upon seeing them consummate their love with a kiss, declares once more that “in that cup, you have not drunk love alone, but love and death together.”.(p. 39) To this Tristan replies, “Well then, come Death.”. Death is welcome when it comes in the blissful guise of love. As in all love, the beginning time is sweet, even when, or possibly because, it is forbidden. Love is so powerful, literarily speaking, that whatever the cost, even if it be death, it is worth the taste. The idea that love is worth whatever it may cost is pervasive in literature. Uther demands that Merlin weave a spell to make him appear as Igraine’s husband so that he may have her. Lancelot betrays his great love and respect for Arthur so that he may have Guinevere. Great acts of courage, low acts of betrayal, sinister acts of destruction, all appear in literature with the goal of achieving the attention, willingly or not, of another for whom love is the target. It usually doesn’t end well. At this point, it may be well to address the issue of lust. Lust is not the same as love. Lust is driven by physical desire, where love is driven by emotional desire. Love is rarely the vehicle of betrayal. Betrayal is usually defined in a lustful act that results from 6 Client Last Name love or desire, or a combination of the two concepts. Uther is most driven by lust. He must have Igraine at the cost of his kingdom. Lancelot is driven by lust and love at the cost of his honor. If the love is not accompanied by the act of lust, it can usually be forgiven on literary terms. However, rarely is the physical expression of love denied. The connection between lust and love, and the connection between death and love can be defined by stories such as The Romance of Tristan and Iseult. Sexual expression has been associated with the release of death, thus setting up the connection of love and death. The French slang for orgasm is ‘le petite mort’ - the little death. This reference insinuates the idea that the physical release is similar to the final release of death. The idea of death can be defined as a release from the pain of life, of which love can be included. As the chapter ends that finds Tristan and Iseult having drank the potion, they physically consummate their love. This is described by the words, “they gave themselves up utterly to love.”(p.39). One might say that their reason died and they were consumed by love. Reason would suggest that nothing good could come of their emotional response to one another over the promises they have made. However, love conquered them. Within the work, love and death become occasionally personified by the indication of capitalizing the words and using them as entities instead of concepts. When Tristan says, “Well then, come Death.”(p.39) or when it is written “every man could see Love terrible, that rode them,”, the ideas are manifested into beings who have intent. Death becomes, not a state of existence, but a threatening force of will. Love is an entity that insinuates its needs upon them, riding them in a way that all can see its existence. 7 Client Last Name Not only are the concepts of death and love associated, but they are manifested equally within the text. The love of Tristan and Iseult eventually is revealed to King Mark. Tristan and Iseult are to be burned, but Tristan saves himself and then Iseult is saved by Tristan after she is given unto lepers at their request as a worse punishment to dying in the flames. They escape death as a punishment for their betrayal. As they are reunited, their love is given over to a life that is less materially than he had been, but richer in that it is the first time they can be together within the confines of their own truth. To life a ‘savage life’ in the forest was a live they would love because they were together. In the beginning of Part Two, they are described as growing thin and tattered, acting as fugitives, but “They loved each other, and they did not know that they suffered.” (p. 67) Love is an overwhelming healer of all other ills. The betrayal of Tristan and Iseult to Lord Mark is a contrasting concept that the story must reconcile. As Tristan and Iseult wander in the wilderness, they are found by a man who begs Tristan to return Iseult to redeem his soul, damned by his acts of betrayal. The old man says: God aid you, Lord Tristan, for you have lost both this world and the next. A man that is traitor to is lord is worthy to be torn by horses and burnt upon the faggot, and wherever his ashes fall no grass will grow and all tillage is waste, and the trees and the green things dies. Lord Tristan, give back the Queen to the man who espoused her lawfully according to the laws of Rome. (p. 68) According to the old man, Tristan can only redeem himself by making right what he has 8 Client Last Name done wrong. Tristan, although he has saved Iseult from the fate that King Mark had set for her as punishment, still does not deserve a life that fulfills the love they have for one another. The audience, though sympathetic to their plight, knows that the story cannot give them that satisfaction. They have been told so from the beginning when Tristan was born of sorrow and death. It is only by the evidence of King Mark’s forgiveness that Tristan and Iseult become ashamed of their betrayal and seek to redeem themselves. The power of forgiveness is more potent over the power of vengeance, which would be represented by the original punishment allotted by King Mark that would burn them in fire. The forgiveness would set a fire in their heart and drive them to set things right. Mark would accept Iseult back and exile Tristan to exonerate himself and the Iseult in battle. Tristan would delay his departure to ensure the safety of Iseult, betraying the King’s trust and setting up a new cause for Iseult to use trickery to save him from being discovered. With so much trickery and betrayal, the story makes a case for the only truth being in the love between Tristan and Iseult. That love has a causal finality which justifies all else. The same can be said for death. In death, all other things are superfluous. Everything else is just a detail. “Apart the lovers could neither live nor die, for it was life and death together.”(p. 103) In the sorrow of their distance, a walking death would overtake the love they shared. The love that had overwhelmed their existence would be replaced by a form of death that could be also defined as sorrow. It is odd, though, how the hearts of others in 9 Client’s Last Name the story are of little consequence. King Mark is betrayed, but his acts are seen somewhat villainous against the lovers. As well, Iseult of the White Hands, the woman that Tristan would make his wife, does a villainous deed by betraying her husbands heart while he lay on his death bed by giving him false news. He is dead by the time Iseult the Fair reaches him. In her final act of defiance against her husband, Lord Mark, and against his wife, Iseult of the White Hands, she lays beside him, bestows upon him signs of her reverence for the love they shared, and dies. The death of Iseult from the purity of grief is a reflection of the death that Tristan’s mother experienced after her husband was killed. There seems to be no medical reason that the bodies of either women would give up their spirit. However, these deaths are the end of the cycle of Tristan’s life. The deaths are pure as was his love. The deaths were not of reason, but of emotion. The love he experienced with Iseult was not created of truth, but created from external, magical means. However, it was the one pure truth that existed between them and the other characters of the story. Lord Mark’s vengeance would not be carried out by their death within the flames, and neither would Iseult of the White Hands get her vengeance. Tristan may not have been able to see Iseult the Fair one last time in life, but she would join him in his death bed, and in his death. As in evidence, the story of Tristan and Iseult is a tale of the power that love holds over all other matters. As they move throughout the tale, Tristan and Iseult must navigate a painful series of incidents designed to make loving one another difficult, but their love never waivers, not even in death. The finality of a true love is as final as the state of 10 death. In this way, love and death can be associated. For this powerful association, all else if forgiven. 11 Clients Last Name Works Cited Bedier, Joseph, translated by H. Belloc. The Romance of Tristan and Iseult. Portland: Thomas B. Mosher, 1909. Malory, Thomas, translated by Edward Strachey and William Caxton. (1868). Le Morte Darthur. Oxford: Horace Hart, Printer to the University. 2 December 2008. 12 Read More