Diss.--Heidelberg.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia college. / Bibliography: p. ix-x.

Sir Thomas Malory’s ‘Book of Sir Tristram’, a condensation of the Old French Tristan en prose, has not received the attention it deserves. Previous studies notice the two texts’ differences in characterisation, style, moral emphasis, structural arrangements, and so on, but no study has sufficiently demonstrated the overall strategy and the moral purposes behind Malory’s changes. This thesis offers an evaluation of both texts’ approaches to some ethical questions, including identity, violence, justice, and passion, through a close analysis of their presentation of romance motifs. The comparison draws on traditional treatments of these motifs and reveals that the authors of romance can incorporate stratified perspectives to voice ideological interpretations. Malory’s treatment of the moral discourse in the ‘Tristram’ articulates the chivalric ideal in the characters’ expressions of how they understand identity, honour, courtesy, courage, faithfulness, justice, compassion, and love. This analysis shows how Malory renews the meaning of the romance motifs borrowed from his sources by changing the characters’ response to the ethical problems underlying the archetypal actions. Thus, Malory’s narrative generates experiential edification, as it engages the reader in the active moral evaluation of the events.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia college. / Bibliography: p. ix-x.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.) -- Central Connecticut State University, 2008. / Thesis advisor: Candace Barrington. "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-82). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

The theme of love in Malory¡¦s Le Morte Darthur has long been considered to be confusing and inconsistent. This thesis aims to analyze Malory¡¦s treatment of love in the two knights addressed as truest lovers: Launcelot and Tristram. Launcelot, as the central figure of the whole book, demonstrates well Malory¡¦s ideal about chivalry and about love, while the Tale of Tristram is neglected as an analogy which foreshadows Launcelot¡¦s adulterous relationship. I will survey these two knights¡¦ love stories with Malory¡¦s terms of ¡§virtuous love¡¨ and ¡§true lover,¡¨ and point out that although both of them are truest lover, their loves differ, so as to demonstrate the essence of love in Malory¡¦s work. Chapter one and two will focus on the love stories of Tristram and of Lancelot. Tristram, as a young knight, who first loves passionately, ¡§sone hote sone colde,¡¨ later establishes a stable relationship with la Beale Isode. The young couples, however fails to reconcile the conflict of love and moral and eventually die because of the jealousy husband, King Mark. On the contrary, Launcelot, as an elder knight, keeps faithful to Guinevere, his first and last love, refusing every suggestion of marriage with other worshipful ladies, truly repenting his sin after committing one. Chapter three will examine the definition of ¡§virtuous love¡¨ in May Passage, which reveal Malory¡¦s ideal of love, a long-lasting love, chaste and faithful, correspondent with Christian morality. Though having his ideal represented in the marriage love of Gareth, Malory understands well the possibility of imperfection and thus includes Launcelot as one form of true lover, who is unable to marry but maintains chaste and unites in heart, and Tristram as another form of true lover, whose ¡§love is free in himself.¡¨ This thesis will conclude that in his treatment of love Malory depicts various possibilities of human nature of love and points out different measures to achieve the ideal.

Malory's Le Morte Darthur has become one of the most popular medieval romances, and it has remained continually in print since Caxton's 1485 edition. The "noble chyvalrye, curtosye, humanyté, frendlynesse, hardynesse, love, frendshyp, cowardyse, murder, hate, vertue, and synne" which William Caxton found within the book have captivated both scholars and average readers for centuries. Curiously absent from the critical record, however, have been examinations of gender and the family, themes which are of the utmost importance to the characters within the Morte Darthur. This thesis investigates the theme of family interactions within Malory's "Tale of Sir Gareth," examining the tale itself as well as looking at several analogous stories to determine if the theme is Malory's own or if it could have come from a probable source. "The Tale of Sir Gareth" follows the thematic patterns set forth early in the Morte Darthur. The tale's main interests are knightly gaining of worship and how knightly families interact. The two themes are connected by the proof-of-knighthood quest which calls for a combat between family members. Gareth operates within a realm dominated by familial groups. Outside of Arthur's court, knights rely on family links for protection and honor. Even within Arthur's Round Table fellowship, knights cleave to kin groups. Gareth enters Arthur's kitchens with the intention of discovering who his true friends are. He breaks the normal pattern of familial association: after gaining worship, he separates himself from his brothers. Malory's "Tale of Sir Gareth" has been troubling to scholars, as "Malory had before him in the writing of this 'Tale' no 'source,' at least not in the sense that we use in considering the other segments of Le Morte Darthur." While no clear source is available, many analogous Fair Unknown Romances exist. Five romances which have been suggested by Robert H. Wilson and Larry D. Benson are Le Bel Inconnu, Lybeaus Desconus, Wigalois, Erec and Enide, and Ipomadon. In these romances, the theme of familial conflict is not an important one. This suggests that Malory inserted the theme of familial violence into his tale. The majority of the action within the Morte Darthur comes in the form of knights on quests to gain honor and worship. Being a member of a knightly family is a necessary pre-condition for being a great knight as knights rely on their family for honor and renown and also must fight against close family members as proof of their prowess. This creates a destabilizing force within Arthur's Round Table Fellowship, and the majority of the conflicts within Malory's Morte Darthur can be traced to interfamilial conflict.