Passion and Society in Medieval Literature - Tristan - Essay Example

The theme of trickery and the figure of the trickster loom large in Tristan and Isolde. With specific reference to Gottfried’s version of the tale, this research will critically analyse the theme of trickery and the trickster figure. In this epic tale, three tricksters can be easily identified: the narrator, Isolde as lesser tricksters, and, chief among them, Tristan himself. The narrator, who manipulates the many tropes to be expected in the medieval prologue such as sentential generalis, prologus ante and praeter rem, prepares the stage not only for trickery, but also for trickery as a tool of literature that undermines its claims to truth and goodness in making these claims wholly contingent on the recognition of the text as good. As Tristans pupil in formal education as well as trickery, Isolde the Blonde (distinct from the two other Isoldes, the Queen of Ireland and Isolde of the White Hands) for a brief time demonstrates her own acumen as a trickster before it unravels when Marke discovers them. An example from the text is helpful in uncovering the complexities to be expected in Gottfrieds brand of trickery. In a sense, it is easy to explain the motivation the adult Tristan has in exercising trickery; to continue his affair with Isolde, he must trick those who would hinder it. It is more difficult to explain, for example, his motivation when he first encounters the friendly pilgrims upon his arrival in Cornwall, to whom he lies without any apparent provocation: Now Tristan was shrewd and cautious for his years and started to tell them a pretty tale. “Good sirs,” he told them, “I was born in this country and with some others was to have ridden out hunting in this forest here today, but (myself I know not how) I rode out of touch with both huntsmen and hounds. Those who knew the forest-paths all fared better than I, because, having no track, I rode astray and got lost. I then hit on a cursed trail which brought me to the edge of a gully where, try as I would, I would not curb my horse from plunging headlong down. We ended up, my horse and I, lying in a heap together. Then I failed to get to my stirrup in time to prevent its snatching the reins and careering off into the forest. And so I came to this path, which has brought me as far as this. But I cannot say where I am, nor in which direction I must go.” (76) This elaborate story is a miniature autobiography and the pilgrims respond with sympathy, giving Tristan further reason to persist with his trickery. The pilgrims happily take Tristan with them for a while until huntsmen appear in the distance. Tristan identifies them as his purported hunting party, and joins up with them as the pilgrims take their leave. Tristans words serve as an introduction to his own playfulness. Tristan deceives in that, as far as he is concerned, he is from Parmenie, the land of his parents Rual and Floraete. In all actuality he is from Cornwall and the son of Blanscheflur, the sister of King Marke of Cornwall, and Riwalin of Parmenie, circumstances his adoptive parents kept hidden from him to protect him and his inheritance. His unconscious expression of an objective truth when he says, “I was born in this country” turns the trick of his deception of the pilgrims back on himself; thinking he is lying and apparently intending to lie, he utters a statement that is demonstrably true in the constituted reality of the text. Yet more interesting is the sudden appearance of the hunters to whose company Tristan falsely claimed membership; by a stroke of luck, or by the hand of an excessively accommodating author, circumstances arrange themselves such that Tristans falsehoods, as if by magic, become true or already were true, if only in a technical sense. According to intention, Tristan can be said to lie: the narrator supplements this conclusion with the approving admission that the precocious Tristan greets them with a tall tale. The context of his words and his knowledge reveal his words to be a falsehood, yet they hold up to the scrutiny of textual evidence, which Rual confirms in his own testimony to Marke and as the narrator later verifies: Now, as you have heard, Tristan has unwittingly come home, thought he imagined he was homeless. Noble Mark, his unsuspected father, acted with magnanimity, and there was truly great need that he should. (87) Even the kind of trickery Tristan practices straddles the line between pure ruse, unfounded in reality, and a truth the hero has yet to acknowledge. As Jupe points out, the whole story he creates functions as a mirror to his personal history: When the hunters do arrive, Tristan identifies them as his party, … these hounds, this hart, these people are those I lost today. But now I have found them again - these are my friends and acquaintances. (78) Jupe notes that they are his people as they are liegemen of Marke, his uncle, though he is still unaware of this. The pilgrims and the hunters do not know, nor do they have any reason to believe, that Tristan is lying. Yet the knowledge Tristan believes to be withholding from both groups unfolds, revealing itself to be true; in this sense, the trickster himself is tricked by his own words. Proceeding from the above state, a trick may be defined in the context of what it is a trickster figure actually does, to be a clever act requiring some dexterity designed to confound, betray, defraud, or otherwise baffle someone with the effect that either benefits the trickster or his associates, or otherwise amuses at the expense of the tricked. Tristan tricks with language, and thus engages in verbal trickery. This verbal trickery ranges from complete fabrications, as in the persona of Tantris, half-truths, as in the true lie he tells to the pilgrims in Cornwall, and complete truths his victims only misunderstand, as he arguably accomplishes in the final episode of Gottfrieds work, in which he sings to Isolde of the White Hands, whom he is nominally wooing, “Isolde my mistress, Isolde my beloved, in you my death, in you my life!” (293). Yet the trickster becomes tricked himself; in another inversion, Tristan actually displays more than a modicum of genuine attraction to this new Isolde and thus the commonality of their name becomes a mechanism to adapt to the conflicts brewing within him. From the outset, the narrator makes it obvious that the tale concerns itself with “a man a woman, a woman, a man, Tristan Isolde, Isolde Tristan,” but Tristans trickery is the most prevalent. Tristan sometimes seems to deceive without necessity. A brief listing of some of the characters Tristan manages to dupe in one way or another should show the predominance of deception as his preferred, if not sole means of social interaction. In addition to tricking the pilgrims upon his landing in Cornwall, he engages in elaborate word-games with the huntsmen; he passes himself off as the wandering minstrel Tantris to fool the entire Irish court including various anonymous guards, soldiers, and the royal family; he most notably deceives King Marke in sleeping with his wife, now Queen Isolde, who, by virtue of her marriage to Marke, is also Tristans aunt; Tristan foils at every turn Markes minions Marjodoc and Melot as they try to present their lord with conclusive evidence of Tristans intrigue with the queen; Tristan uses Gandins own trick against him and proves himself the better trickster when he tricks Gandin into making an open promise; he, perhaps reprising his role as Isoldes tutor, assists her in fooling the bishops and wise men of the land who advise Marke during Isoldes ordeal and oath; they deceive, the narrator suggests, perhaps even God himself in the same episode; he tricks Gilan into making an open promise with the result that Gilan must give Tristan his delightful little dog Petitcriu, which provides all who encounter it with unspeakable joy; he betrays his love even for Isolde in his decision to marry Isolde of the White Hands; as if that were not enough, Gottfrieds torso concludes with the torment of the deceiver who cannot help but deceive himself. Tristan and Isolde as tricksters share one characteristic that enables their trickery to be successful for as long as it is: those whom they deceive are either slow to realize what is happening, or else live in denial of their deception as Marke does, thus further enabling it to occur; he is described as “simple,” on more than one occasion. Even Melot, whom the narrator condemns as “that cursed dwarf and tool of the devil”(232), proves ineffective in proving Tristan and Isoldes intrigue to Marke, though Gottfrieds source relates “that he was cunning, artful, and eloquent” (229). Thus, until they are unfortunate enough to be discovered in the garden, they surpass the trickery of others both in their ability to perform trickery and in their anticipation of the inadequate wiles of those who lie in wait for them. Much more so than Isolde, Tristan is a shape-shifter and role-player, taking on the mantle of musician, adulterer, knight, lover, loyal vassal, teacher, poet, pilgrim, hunter, chess master, and cheater. Blakeslee, in reference to the Old French tradition of Tristan stories, speaks of a clash between the “social identities” of his involvement at court, notably as knight, musician, and hunter, in contrast to the “anti-social identities” of poet, leper, fool, minstrel, and pilgrim. Shape-shifting, as Blakeslee, observes, is an ancient component of the Tristan cycle. For the trickster, however, the ability to perform socially beneficial functions, such as bringing music to the court, refinement to the hunt, the a bride to the king, in short, honour to society, is coterminous with the capacity to harm the same order that benefits from his cleverness. For example, when he sings to Isolde of the White Hands, the narrator informs us of the benefits to the world occasioned by this particular trick: Tristan composed for every sort of strings many lays and much fine music that have been well loved ever since. It was at this time that he made the noble lay of Tristan, which will be treasured and esteemed in every land so long as the world remains. And here is what happened, time and again. When the Court was sitting all together - he, Isolde, Kaedin, the Duke and the Duchess, the ladies and barons - he would compose love-songs, rondels and courtly little airs (293) Esteem, treasured so highly in the prologue, is accorded value here in reference to a work of Tristan that exists, presumably, beyond Gottfrieds own work and delights the world still. Delight and enjoyment are important aspects of courtly life and constitute concrete benefits that persist. Yet this aspect of the trickster, that of culture-hero, is as integral to his identity as the bringer of chaos, to which Tristans most astounding instance of shape-shifting testifies. Marjodoc is introduced as Tristans chamber-mate, who enjoyed Tristans friendship and nursed a secret crush on Isolde himself, though he knew nothing of Tristan and Isoldes affair. One night, after he falls asleep and Tristan sneaks off for a rendezvous with the queen: the Steward saw in his dream as he slept a boar, fearsome and dreadful, that ran out from the forest. Up to the Kings court he came, foaming at the mouth and whetting his tusks, and charging everything in his path. And now a great crowd of courtiers ran up. Many knights leapt hither and thither round the boar, yet none of them dared face him. Thus he plunged grunting through the Palace. Arriving at Marks chamber he broke in through the doors, tossed the Kings appointed bed in all directions, and fouled up the royal linen with his foam. Marks vassals all witnessed this, yet none made it his business to interfere. (219-220) Marjodoc awakens with a start, and cries out for Tristan, who is already with Isolde. His suspicions aroused, he follows Tristans footprints into the dark and arrives at her chamber, where he discovers the intrigue in which the two lovers are engaged. Though in shock, he spurns the possibility of declaring their affair to the court out of fear of Tristan. This, however, does not prevent him from mentioning to Mark that a rumour has begun about an affair between Tristan and Isolde. Mark then resolves to be on guard for any sign of their deception. Awareness develops regarding the extent of Tristan’s trickery. Tristans characteristics and behaviour correspond to five of the six qualities Hynes uses to determine the degree to which one can be described as a trickster: Tristan, embodies (1) the ambiguous and anomalous, (2) is a deceiver and trick-player, (3) is a shape-shifter, (4) inverts situations and social order, and (5) is a bricoleur both of the sacred and lewd. The final characteristic to be discussed is that of (6) messenger and imitator of the gods. Yet, perhaps because he is writing from the perspective of mythology and not of literature, Hyde insists on the presence of the divine. As he admits, no trickster fits perfectly into his schema, and it would be a denial of the ultimate ambiguity of the trickster to insist on a perfect congruity between the schema and individual tricksters. Tristan is not a messenger for the gods and does not appear to imitate them, but he is a messenger. His office as messenger and ambassador accounts for two of his greatest tricks and services to Marke, his two trips to Ireland that allow for his healing from Morolts wound, his tutelage of the young Isolde, and his winning of Isolde for Marke in slaying the dragon. Related to his official travels as an ambassador for Marke is the essential homelessness of Tristan. Compared to the heroes of other romances, Arthurian in particular, who always return to the same court in a cyclical fashion, Tristan is peripatetic: born in his mothers homeland of Cornwall, he grows up in Parmenie, which happens to be his fathers homeland, though that is obscured from him during his early childhood; he returns to Cornwall only to have to travel to Ireland with some frequency; Gottfried concludes with Tristan having to leave, traveling and seeking adventure in several lands before landing in Arundel. Yet it is very important that Gottfried not make Tristan into a god or divine hero in order to treat him as a human being possessing psychological complexity. Gottfried frequently reminds us of the pain that attends Tristans often frustrated longing for Isolde, and hers for him; this mortal pain is necessary to understanding love as he describes it, particularly in the prologue, as the melding of joy and pain, and Gottfried spends a great deal of effort detailing the psychological ramifications of this pain, particularly as suspicions begin to be aroused at Tintagel; this becomes most clear in Tristans forced separation from Isolde and the constellation of problems that arise when he must face his conflicted emotions regarding Isolde of the White Hands. According to the results from each of the six traits of Hyness schema, Tristan demonstrates several tricksterish abilities. Tristan is a trickster but so is the narrator and, to a lesser degree, Isolde. The narrative is about trickery through words and linguistic play. The foregoing analysis of the theme of trickery highlighted Tristans seemingly interminable linguistic play and emphasised his possession of , several tricksterish abilities. Tristan wreaks havoc among the same people to whom he also gives great benefits. Like Hermes, he is a messenger for the lords among men, if not for the gods above them. Wearing a multitude of different masks, literally and figuratively, Tristan occupies the ambiguous place of trickster, both loved as a foster-son and despised as a traitor by Marke. Isolde herself conforms less to the schema, and one must accordingly confer upon her a somewhat lesser degree of tricksterish, though Tristan, the master-trickster, depends upon her quick wit for the survival both of their love and his very life, just as she once depended upon him for the benefit of her education; Tantris was her tutor in Ireland. Isolde is in general terms a more unified, less complicated figure, shifting her shape only between the differing characters of apparently devoted wife to the king and passionate lover to his nephew. Tristan has more opportunity to bestow the many gifts of courtly culture and art upon society than Isolde, since she appears at a much later point in the text. That she owes so much of her education to Tantris/Tristan himself, who subjected her to much the same education he himself received as a child, further shows her secondary - if still vital - status as trickster. Isoldes tricks stand to benefit her and Tristan alone, while Tristans actions earlier in the text, his bravery and cunning, extend to those surrounding them, bringing them the gift of the lyre, of poetry, hunting, and a queen. Bibliography Bedier, Joseph. Le roman de Tristan et Iseut. Paris: H. Piazza, 1934. Chretien de Troyes. Arthurian Romances. Translated by William W. Kibler and Carleton W. Carroll. London: Penguin, 1991. Gottfried von Straburg. Tristan., ed. Karl Marold and F. Ranke. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1969. Blakeslee, Merritt R. "Tristan the Trickster in the Old French Tristan Poems." Cultura Neolatina 44 (1984): 167-190. Jupe, Wolfgang. Die "List" im Tristanroman Gottfried von Straburg. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1976. Hynes, William. Mythical Trickster Figures. Contours, Contexts, and Criticisms. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama, 1993. Read More