Courtly Love In Marie De France's Lanval And Canto IV

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In comparing the idea of courtly love, Marie De France’s “Lanval” and Dante’s “Canto IV” are writings of the early medieval times that gave a new idea to readers. Readers of these new books of love and feelings were obviously amazed when these new books hit the shelves so to speak. Courtly Love is displayed in the dictionary as a medieval European code of behavior that idealized the love of a knight for a usually married noblewoman and prescribed how they should act toward each other. These two creative pieces of art had moral meanings behind the literature, gave new ideas to love for some, and even sparked ways of finding love for others who did not know how to love. The encouragement of each story reflects back to the writer embracing sexual…show more content…
The books leave you with a sense of pleasure and creation towards the sexual idea. The tales of deep romance can persuade humans to fulfill their desires. If someone hadn’t ever really had someone to show them how to love or what it is, then Maria’s writings would have helped. The pleasure people desired, often times seemed to be far away and a sense of fairy tales. Before this time, your parents picked your lover for the rest of your life, and it was often not the best choice. The problems as wrote by dante, were not always seen as a bad enough thing to not take the risk. “The "courtly love" relationship is modelled on the feudal relationship between a knight and his liege lord. The knight serves his courtly lady (love service) with the same obedience and loyalty which he owes to his liege lord. She is in complete control of the love relationship, while he owes her obedience and submission (a literary convention that did not correspond to actual practice!) The knight's love for the lady inspires him to do great deeds, in order to be worthy of her love or to win her favor. Thus "courtly love" was originally construed as an ennobling force whether or not it was consummated, and even whether or not the lady knew about the knight's love or loved him in

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