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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0809111-071202 |
| Date | 09 August 2011 |
| Creators | Lin, Yu-chu |
| Contributors | Francis K. H. So, Denise Ming-yueh Wang, TEE Kim Tong |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0809111-071202 |
| Rights | user_define, Copyright information available at source archive |
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