The Role and Meaning of Death in Tristan and Iseult - Essay Example

The role and meaning of death in “Tristan and Iseult” and its romantization Elements of sexual love Death and romance in Tristan and Iseult is a widely discussed topic that it has attracted the attention of many writers in the literary world. This story has been interpreted in various ways and one can see it appeared in the form of stories as well as poems, plays and operas. While going through the story, it is understood that almost all the writers have attempted to keep the thread of the story—the inseparable affection between Tristan and Iseult and the tragic death of Tristan, followed with the death of Iseult, incapable of bearing severance. “The tale of Tristan and Isolde was one of the most influential romances in the medieval period” (Joe, 1999). Analyzing the translations of the French version of Tristan and Iseult, one can see that there were two main versions from the French poets of the twentieth century: Beroul and Thomas. These two versions differ in their presentation, style and in some of the scenes, though the theme and the plot were still the same. “Berouls romance was considered to be the uncourtly version, because it was less refined, and some of the scenes and the behaviors of the characters were brutal at times…On the other hand, Thomas wrote courtly version of the romance. Thomas was much more interested in the inner thoughts of the characters” (Joe, 1999). It makes clear the fact that there are differences between these two French versions. The reader/audience can feel the driving force which is yearning for union beyond the restrictions of time, physical passion and their own separate material existence while going through Tristan and Isolde. Through their death, lovers achieved the realization of divine love. In other words, through the world of divine love they receive the status of immortality. Death is presented as a great opportunity to reach the state of oneness forever. Iseult embraces death with full passion and she joins her lover in a mystical background. In the old stories the lovers were buried on the side of a chapel and believed to be regained life with self realization. Wagner, in his opera, demonstrates the events with necessary improvisations and as a result reader can see the historical elements of Western ideologies and principles about love and death is presented clearly in Tristan and Iseult. Wagner’s work underlines the fact that the story discusses serious sociological and psychological layers. The human relation (love between Tristan and Iseult) explores the elements of a great symphonic texture. Merging of the lovers is a perfect example of the ignorance of selfishness. Analyzing the play it is easy for a reader to find death which is presented as the zenith of their divine love. The last words of Iseult to Tristan’s dead body show the extreme level of immortal love. Iseult cries; "You have given up your life because of me, /and now, as a true lover, I shall die for you" (Ashliman, 2009). Death as preserver and destroyer Death plays the role of a preserver as well as a destroyer in case of lovers in the play Tristan and Iseult. The story Tristan and Iseult is based on a French tale originated during the time of medieval period. Author demonstrates various occasions of divine love between Tristan, the Cronish Knight and Iseult, the Irish Princes. In Act one, Iseult realizes that the wounded man is Tristan and she also realizes that he was the murderer of her fiancé Morold. Iseult tries to kill Tristan with his own sword and the reader/audience can see that the man lies helplessly in front of his beloved. Tristan’s glance haunts Iseult’s heart and she could not move her hand freely because of her inner conflict. The reader/audience feels a rare type of aesthetic pleasure and the romance between Tristan and Iseult presents with the background of death. The stem of their romance is Iseult’s revenge against Tristan and audience feels the transition through their mannerisms. Tristan left the place with the promise that never come back, but the man break the agreement and returned with a strong decision to marry Iselut. Tristan’s treachery makes Iseult more furious and she insists that Tristan drinks atonement to her. She produces a liquid to make the drink and Brangane identified that the liquid is a lethal poison which is harmful for human life. The love potion affects both Tristan and Islod and the thirst or yearning for immortal love conquered each of them. The transformation of love potion to death potion reveals its dual significance in the drama. Mary A. Cicora remarks that; “Its function in the drama clearly establishes the dialectic of love and death” (Cicora, 2000 P. 127). The historical background of the play is visible when the reader/audience goes through the murdering of Morold, an Irish ambassador. In his nation’s fight for freedom against the Ireland Tristan killed Morold. The hero Tristan is presented as a Knight, who is efficient in all sorts of chivalry. Medieval social system and the concept of Knighthood are considered as helpful links for readers to find out historical elements in Tristan and Iseult. Death and love as a way for purgation In Act three, the reader/audience can feel the Wagner’s craftsmanship as a writer and the author beautifully demonstrates the profundity of the relation between Tristan and Iseult with the melancholic background of death. Here Tristan waits for the arrival of his beloved Iseult and the news about Iseult’s arrival encourages him. The image of lover’s death in the drama gives numerous implications about true love or death presented as a way to purify human soul. Death as sacrifice Wagner’s play reveals an extra ordinary merging of two distinct topics love and death. It is a difficult task for a reader to separate one to another. Iselut receives death as a part of sacrifice towards their divine love. At the end Tristan regain his life through the memories of his beloved and ready to receive death calm and quiet. Through his yearning for love, painful waiting, and memories about his lady lover Tristan forgets his death. Wagner’s work gives a rare aesthetic pleasure to the reader /audience through the immortal love affair between Tristan and Isold, at the same time it gives some vague conceptions about the death of the heroine. The discrepancy between listening and comprehension reveals great interpretative dilemmas from the part of the reader/audience. The author never mentioned the real cause of the death of Iseult and it leads the reader in to the world of confusion. Critiques and medical researchers have suggested that their immortal love reached the deeper level of human psyche. “Present evidence to suggest that the lovers were affected by a kind of anticholinergic syndrome and that this is the most likely cause of Iseult’s death” (Weitz, n. d.). The meaning of death in Tristan and Isolde can be assumed as sacrifice on the part of Isolde who decides to marry King Mark of Cornwall with the intension of saving the life of her mother, Queen Isolde. Another intension of Isolde was to take revenge on Tristan who killed her uncle Morholt in a single combat on an island of Samson. As Queen Isolde was well aware of the fact that her daughter would not be happy being wife to the Cornish king, a much older man. Death also becomes a prominent element in Tristan and Isolde which ends with the death of the hero and heroine. Transformation of earthly love to heavenly love A clear substitution or transformation in earthly love to heavenly love is visible in the play and both male and female protagonists gain realization through their own death. Wagner used the term magic potion from the 12th and 13th century French and Irish writings. The image of supernatural power, magical forces require a serious attention from the part of the reader/audience towards the social and historical backgrounds of medieval Europe. The elements of court and the image of unlawful love are lead the reader/audience to think about the historical background of 12th and 13th century Europe where such kind of immoral affections practiced as a part of vogue. The story takes an unexpected turning when Tristan and Isolde fall in love. Tristan and Isolde fall in love after taking the “love potion” which Queen Isolde assigned a maid for Mark, the king of Cornwall to fall in love with her daughter, Isolde. But during their voyage to Cornwall, Tristan, the nephew of Mark and Isolde unknowingly take the “love potion” as they were thirsty and eventually fell in love with one another. Even then we understand the fact that their love is conjugal or adulterous with the “love potion.” When the effect of the “love potion” is over after three years as Queen Isolde planned when she prepared it, Tristan and Isolde realizes the depth of their sin. They feel repentance in their actions and Tristan shows his willingness to assign Isolde to his uncle Mark. Tristan’s killing of the dragon also assumes greater significance in Tristan and Isolde. It is the incident which changed King Goram’s attitude towards Tristan, though he was the murder of his own brother, Morholt. Here also one can see that the meaning of death is changed. The murder of her uncle Morholt was sufficient enough for Isolde to take revenge upon Tristan, but she was obliged to save the life of her mother by marrying Tristan’s uncle. Thus, we can see that chivalry of Tristan saves his life and later leads to the sacrifice of Isolde by agreeing to live the rest of her life with an old man. Ideal love As ‘death’ in Tristan and Isolde has implied meaning, so also with ‘love’. Many critics have marked their own interpretations to the love potion. James Alfred Schultz adopts the words of Rudiger Schnell when he remarked thus, “the meaning of the love potion. It symbolizes the ideal love between Tristan and Isolde”(Schultz, Alfred, James, 2006 p.74). According to James, “the love potion is a symbol; Lady love is a personification” It is this ideal love that prevents Tristan and Isolde from separating. The disgust of Isolde to live with Mark is very clear when she wishes the ship should sink rather than take her to her hated destination. Before falling in love with Tristan, Isolde had kept the bitterness of hate to Tristan as the one who killed her fiancé. She curses her charity of treating the wounded Tristan. But later we see “the lovers equate their oblivion with death, which will give them the total union and safe removal they crave” (The metropolitan Opera, 2010). The lovable look of Tristan changes her attitude to Tristan but when he calls her as a movable property of his uncle, it enrages her and she hurls forth a curse on his head and wishes death for both of them. All these incidents clearly express the fact that Isolde had wished the death of Tristan at the very beginning. It is the disgust that makes her insist Brangane, her maid to prepare one of her mother’s potions—the one that brings death. When Isolde tells Tristan that she wants satisfaction for Morold’s death, Tristan understands what she means and offers his sword to her. But she rejects his offer and invites him for a drink. Tristan takes the potion fully aware that she has offered to share poison with her. even if they expect death, contrary to their expectation, they fall in love with the effect of the potion and instead of death, they fall in passionate love. Here the meaning of death is converted to love. Change in the approach to Death When the story progresses, the readers realize that the meaning of death is changing. At first Tristan and Isolde are ready to surrender death with disgust. But later both are ready to sacrifice their life for love. As they are aware that their reunion in the present world is quite impossible, they like to entertain death whole heartedly which, as they presume, will enable their reunion. Mark’s words to Isolde, during the last part of, Tristan and Isolde, is notable. He asks to Isolde whether she is ready to follow Tristan to the realm of death, to which she accepts. The last scene of Tristan and Isolde is really touching. It brings out to the readers/audience the beauty of love and death. When Tristan is in the critical stage and facing death he strongly feels the presence of Isolde to nurse him. Whenever he swoons the smiling face of Isolde appears in his imagination. He was lucky enough to die in the arms of his beloved and it reminds the readers, the cruelty of fate. Unable to bear the tension of the situation, Isolde sinks, transfigured in death, upon Tristan’s body, exhorting an immortal or ideal love in death. "Tristan and Isolde" has been called the "Romeo and Juliet" of music. And such in fact it is. In it are at once the poetry and the tragedy of love, a stupendous appeal in music to the emotional side of man’s nature (Source and Meaning of the Story of Tristan and Isolde, 2010). A deep analysis of Tristan and Isolde, reveals that this pair were madly in love each other. wagner could elevate these characters from the status of mere mythological to that of real life stories. Conclusion To conclude, one can infer that death in Tristan and Isolde can be interpreted in various ways and it underlies different meanings. One of the interpretations of death is that the lovers in the play achieve realization of divine love, that is, they have won in their attempts to immortalize their love. The death in the play also assumes some sociological and psychological layers that it presents a deep study of the minds of the characters. While going through the characters, it is understood that they are the true representatives of the ignorance of selfishness. The central element of their love is Isolde’s revenge against Tristan and the transition in their relation. The historical elements in also deserve a prominent role in the character formation. It is well evident with Tristan as a warrior, who is bold enough to undertake challenges. The image of the death of the lovers’ also brings numerous implications about true love or death as a way to purify souls. Death in Tristan and Isolde brings the element of sacrifice. Here Tristan and Isolde sacrifice their life for their love. Another sacrifice is seen in the willingness of Isolde to marry Mark, the old king of Cornwall. Transformation of earthly love to heavenly love is the other element that their death brings out in the play. Though there are criticisms that their love is merely conjugal or adulterous, one can find out many nobler elements in it. Death in Tristan and Isolde acts both as a preserver and destroyer. It preserves the immortal love by destroying their life. Thus it leads to the conclusion that death in Tristan and Isolde has various meanings and it enhances the beauty of the story and romanticizes the characters and their actions. Works Cited: Ashliman, D. L. Tristan and Isolde. 27 Dec 2009 . 3 Mar 2010 . Cicora, Mary A. Modern myths and Wagnerian deconstructions: hermeneutic approaches to Wagners music-dramas. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000. Joe, Jimmy. Tristan & Isolde. 1999. 3 Mar 2010 . The metropolitan Opera. 2010. 3 Mar 2010 . Weitz, Gunther. Love and death in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde—an epic. 3 Mar 2010. Schultz, Alfred, James. Courtly love, the love of courtliness, and the history of sexuality. University of Chicago Press, 2006 Source and Meaning of the Story of Tristan and Isolde. 2010. 3 Mar 2010 http://www.musicwithease.com/tristan-isolde-source.html Read More