Emotions are an integral part of human nature, they convince us to act, they persuade our thinking, and they can enrich our lives in many ways. One of the most popular and addicting emotions is love. Love can make individual do crazy things that are completely devoid of human thought. Love can make grown adults act like children, and can cause immense amounts of pain. Because love is such a complex and well known emotion many authors have written stories with love as a central theme. Chrétien de Troyes’s romance Yvain, the Knight of the Lion is an example of the crazy situations love can cause and the extreme effort it takes to make love work. In Chretien’s Yvain an idea of maturity is shown to be an important and required quality in order to retain love.
In the beginning of the story Yvain is at a very reckless stage in his life, his is around twenty years old, and exhibits qualities that make him immature and hard to love. There are two main instances in which Yvain is shown as immature. The first of these instances is in the very beginning of the story, right after Calogrenant tells his story of extreme shame. As soon as Yvain…show more content… An example that showcases this is the passage where Yvain overstays his leave with Gawain. After he has been wed to Laudine, Yvain asks for her permission to travel to tournaments with Gawain. After she obliges, she gives his a stipulation that he must return to her in one year “I grant you leave until a date I shall fix. But the love I have for you shall become hatred…if you should overstay the period I shall set for you” (327). Gawain uses compliments and strokes Yvain’s ego throughout that year and blinds Yvain to the time of year. Soon, a maiden comes to inform Yvain that Laudine is through with him. The final act of irresponsibility finally costs Yvain a chance at his true love, and this causes him to go