The Romance – Addendum

The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, Book 2 (Chapter 1)

When first reading the summary surrounding Sir Philip Sidney’s Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, I was genuinely surprised to find that it sounded like a mere Shakespearean comedy. You have disguises, as Pyrocles masks himself as a woman named Zelmane, and you have a wacky twist, in which the mother and father have both fallen in love with him. An example of this could be found in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, a tale of disguise as well as misleading love. The adaption of this that so many of my generation know is the movie, She’s the Man, in which Amanda Bynes plays a girl, Viola, who dresses up like her brother and plays on the male soccer team at his school in order to prove others wrong.

In correlation to the Arcadia, where the father (of Pyocles desired love) falls in love with the fake female identity, in She’s the Man, a girl named Olivia falls in love with Viola’s impersonation as her brother. At the end, Viola has fallen in love with one of the male soccer players, who believes she is truly a man and is confused about his own feelings for her. In in the Arcadia, the daughter, Philoclea, is also confused about her feelings for someone she perceives to be a woman. Why are readers so fascinated by this wacky love turned upside down? While in real life these could be highly unrealistic, these stories have always entertained readers, presumably because you don’t really expect what is going to happen next.

Although on a more serious note, what is interesting about the Arcadia, is that the mother, Gynecia, sees through the disguise. In She’s the Man, rarely anyone knows the truth until the end. What I believe to be significant about this, is that it is possible that Gynecia is truly falling in love, rather than the false love which plagues her husband. Gynecia talks of the “passion of love” to “Zelmane” and accuses him of disguisement (Sidney 1043). In my eyes, I see this as a cry for the truth, in which she just wants to affirm her love to him, as would anyone so distraught with their own feelings. By seeing both the hilarity of the disguise, and the love that plagues mother and father, the reader can infer that while love can be cause for laughter, it can also be cause for deep internal troubles.

Sir Philip Sidney and Lady Mary Roth

The Romance form is characterized by the three phases of integration, disintegration, and reintegration. This form is simple enough so that it can be used and tweaked to fit many different narratives. For example, Sir Philip Sidney uses the form to create humor and entertain the reader. The selection we read was from the disintegration phase and was filled with dramatic irony used for comedic effect. Mary Roth also uses the Romance form but to a different effect. We read a part of the disintegration from The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania which played off of what her uncle’s earlier work The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia. Since when Roth and Sidney were writing the Romance would have already been an archaic form, it would apparent that Roth’s work was playing off of her uncle’s work.

Even today, the Romance form is used as the basis for many modern narratives. One way is through children’s movies and cartoons, such as Finding Nemo or The Spongebob Squarepants Movie. The Romance form is simple enough that it can be used to tell simple stories that hold moral truths (both movies teach children to believe in themselves and the power of perseverance albeit through different means), but also can tell a complicated or more mature story and hold complex meanings as in the work of Roth and Sidney.

In reading the second half of the story, particularly the climax scene, I was particularly confused by the concept of the Green Chapel. Several things about it seemed slightly odd to me, primarily that it isn’t a chapel at all, but rather more of a hollow mound in the ground. The recurring theme of the color green in still represented, but for a poem with heavy religious themes written in a time when piety was extremely important, it almost seems counterintuitive that there wouldn’t be an actual chapel. Additionally, the fact that the “chapel” doesn’t have a defined location gives it a somewhat otherworldly feel. This prompted me to research the region’s history and traditions further in hope of gaining a better understanding of this famous scene.

I discovered that while the fantastic tales of mythical Camelot and King Arthur are likely fictitious, there likely was an actual King Arthur whose deeds earned him enough notoriety to be immortalized in literary history. Although many historians disagree on exactly where Arthur may have ruled, the general consensus is that it was likely somewhere in Wales or Southern England. I remembered studying Celtic mythology back in high school, and the concept of mystical mounds is a common theme throughout Celtic and Irish mythology.

The Celts believed that the “Otherworld”, home of deities, fairies, mystical creatures, and even the dead, could be accessed through caves that resemble the Green Chapel. Heroes in these mythologies could access the Otherworld through these portals as part of epic quests, which aren’t that different from the Romance themes that helped shape many epic poems of the time, although Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written centuries later.

The author likely drew on Celtic, Welsh, and Irish mythology, as well as current Christian beliefs, to enhance the story, and add a mystical feeling to them. We can see parallels through mythological beliefs and story structure, suggesting that centuries old writings and legends were major contributing factors in the writing of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Personally, I believe that knowing this background information makes the climactic scene all the more epic, and I certainly understand it much more than I did prior.

Sir Gawain and Chivalry

In the medieval period, a big aspect of the knight’s way of life was the whole concept of chivalry. In all, this concept of chivalry in Sir Gawain’s age was completely different from what the concept of chivalry means nowadays. In the medieval era, it was a set of rules that governed how a knight lived his life, most of which involved said knight pledging everything he did in each of his days in the advancement of church and to protect her, however, this is not true in our day in age. In our current time, chivalry is thought to be a set of rules that a man follows in an attempt to be courteous and kind to any woman he happens upon. This is often declared in online dating profiles and in online message boards by a man in an attempt to “woo” a lady with his charm and civility. The rules that the current day chivalric man abides by are more keenly seen as simply good manners that were instilled in him by his parents or any other authoritative figure in his life. This modern-day idea of chivalry includes ideas such as a man should always open any door for a woman and allow her inside first, that he should always offer her his umbrella if it should rain while they are out, going without one himself if needed, taking her hand to stabilize her as she walks as to not let her fall, and as seen in some cheesy sit-com episodes, if there is a puddle she can walk through, instead of walking around it, a man should always lay down his jacket into it so that she will not dirty her shoes or legs. However, if this were true romantic era chivalry, the man would not lay down his jacket for her to walk across, he would lay down his life in pursuit of eliminating the infidels from his country that are threatening the power of his true lady, The Church, all while screaming at the top of his lungs, “DEUS VULT!”. This modern interpretation of chivalry is noble, but it ultimately represents a secular change in our society. It goes from us laying down our lives for our church, to us laying down out jackets for our fair maidens. This is not a bad thing, however, since I do not think most people would want to lay down their lives for the church, due to the fact that there would not be many pertinent opportunities. The fact that the idea of chivalry changed from the medieval era to our current day shows that ideas that were common and popular in the past may not have left our society completely. They may have undergone dynamic changes due to the changes in our society and had adapted to fit the needs of our society better.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Introduction and FITT i

I think it is respectable how Sir Gawain volunteered in King Arthur’s place to challenge the supernatural green knight. While I appreciate the first blooming of Arthurian chivalry, I was surprised that King Arthur did not want to challenge the green knight himself. In this story, King Arthur is young and I expected him to be hot-headed and desire to make the first blow on the giant’s head. This story reminds me of the ancient parable “an eye for an eye” since however fiercely Sir Gawain strikes the green knight, the green knight will strike Gawain with that same force. Since this story contains a supernatural challenger, the green knight will not die from Sir Gawain’s blow, and I predict that Sir Gawain will die when he has to face the green knight a year later.

I think it is ironic how the knights of the round table were supposedly the bravest men in the land and, yet, when a worthy challenger comes to the castle, all of the knights except one stay silent when they are challenged. Maybe since King Arthur is young, he and his other knights have not gone on their many adventures yet and have not fully developed their bravery. Only when the green knight scoffs at the knights’ silence does the knights’ pride take a blow. I am curious to know in this story if the insulting of the knights’ pride is the sole catalyst that will cause them to take action.

I believe Sir Gawain demonstrates chivalry in two ways in this story: he steps up in place of his king to fight, and he shows trustworthiness. Unlike the other knights who were dumbfounded by the green knight and kept silent, Sir Gawain humbles himself before Arthur by calling himself the “weakest of [his] warriors” and, thus, the knight who should die fighting the green knight. Sir Gawain is willing to sacrifice himself for the betterment of the court and that shows chivalry and selflessness. Sir Gawain also shows trustworthiness since he volunteers in Arthur’s place to challenge the green knight, and then he follows through by striking the green knight. Sir Gawain kept his word which is important. It will be interesting to see if Sir Gawain’s chivalry continues throughout the story since he has promised to find the green knight in a year in order to receive his own blow. In my opinion, Sir Gawain would not be chivalrous anymore if he backed out on his word with the green knight.

This story reminds me of the Biblical story of David and Goliath. David was a young boy who volunteered for the Israelites to fight the giant Goliath. Just like Sir Gawain called himself the weakest warrior, David was the youngest and weakest son in his family when he fought Goliath. Both of these stories prove that someone does not have to be the strongest person in the room in order to rise up against a formidable enemy.

Milun and the Influences of Romance

Marie de France’s Milun is a classic example of a typical romance. Romances have been popular throughout hundreds of years because of the way these stories make their readers feel. When reading a romance, there is usually a structural standard of some sort of separation followed by a reunion.

In the story of Milun, two lovers are secretly seeing each other and become pregnant. At the time, pregnancy before marriage comes with serious punishments, so the couple decides to send their child to the woman’s sister to be cared for. They plan on reuniting once the child is grown up.

While reading this story, I was made more aware of the reasoning behind the consistently flourishing business in romantic books and movies. The plot lines cause a wide range of emotions in the audience members, but they ultimately end in happiness and hope. In Milun, the plot causes the reader to feel a wide range of emotions. There is a certain sadness present in the reader when Milun and his mistress are so in love with each other but can not be together. The reader’s desire for the couple to be together “happily ever after” is ever-present in this story.

However, the sadness transitions to happiness when the entire family is reunited following the death of the woman’s husband. When I was reading, there was also a certain amount of relief when the messenger tells Milun and his son that the husband was already dead. This relief stemmed from the fact that I did not necessarily want the son to kill the husband in order to reunite their family.

My personal feelings became intertwined with the story as I felt pity for these three people that love each other very much but could not be together for so long. Despite feelings of sadness and pity, however, I enjoyed reading this story because of the happy ending. When the family ends up together, the “happily ever after” factor leaves the reader with only the best feelings. People tend to feel happy when seeing problems being resolved and bad situations turning to good, and the romance genre uses human feelings to its advantage.