The unifying theme that is exhibited throughout each lai is love. However, Marie de France’s views of love in most of her lais are almost inevitably associated with suffering, such as adulterous relationships. This resulted in a more negative outlook on love in her lais. “Eight of Marie’s lais concern an adulterous relationship.” In Bisclarvet and Equitan, the adulterous lovers are severely condemned. There is some evidence that she approved of extra marital affairs under only some circumstances. “Professor Schiött, author of L'Amour et les amoureux dans les Lais de Marie de France, concludes that Marie approves of extramarital love under certain circumstances: When the deceived partner has been cruel and merits deception and when the lovers are loyal to one another.”Furthermore in the Lais, Marie believed that love often leads to dishonor and sorrow. In her lais, “because of the obstacles confronting it, the love always involves suffering and frequently ends in grief even when the love itself is approved” This suffering can be further observed within the situations seen within each lai.
- “The lovers in Marie’s Lais are nearly always on their own and pitted against forces of evil in various forms: a jealous husband, an envious society and so on. It is in fact by virtue of their loving that the protagonists are set apart from the rest of society and privileged. Marie concentrates on the individuality of her characters and is not very concerned with their integration into society. If society does not appreciate the lovers, then the lovers die or abandon society, and society is the poorer for it.”
Additionally, we can see this type of negativity towards love based on how she writes about love. In her lais, love is more of a spontaneous phenomenon than the love we typically find in the romance genre. Though, there are some lais that exhibit “courtly love,” which instead of showing a dark outlook on love, express a sincere expression of love. Emanuel Mickel has said “The suffering from what is often called love is present in every lai, but the means of overcoming this suffering is beautifully and subtly illustrated.”
Defying traditions of love
Marie de France’s lais not only had a gloomy outlook on love, but they also defied the traditions of love within the church at the time. She wrote about adulterous affairs, women of high stature that seduce other (and sometimes older) men which gives the idea that women can have sexual freedom. She even wrote lais that supported many mistresses, all of which were against the traditions of the church and the idea of virginal love and marriage. The lais also exhibit the idea of a stronger female role and power. However, they are also portrayed in a more unfortunate position.“The women of the Lais are unhappy, first of all, because they are imprisoned. Sometimes imprisonment takes the form merely of close surveillance, as in Laustic, where the husband, who keeps a close watch on his wife when he is present, has her watched equally closely when he is away from home.”
Furthermore she was able to challenge patriarchal power through her lais. They had little effect on actual social conditions, but the mere fact that they raised the issue is remarkable. “It certainly reminds us that people in the Middle Ages were aware of social injustices and did not just accept oppressive conditions as inevitable by the will of God”
In addition to her defying the construct of love that is exhibited by the church, Marie also changed the way romance is written. By the time Marie was writing her lais, France already had a deep-rooted tradition of the love-lyric, specifically in Provence. In some ways the lais represent a transitional genre between Provencal love-lyrics from an earlier time and the romance that develops these themes.
Love within the lais
Lanval
“Lanval presents a problem of love-casuistry: the hero transgresses his lady’s command not to reveal their love to anyone, but does so in order to preserve his life in the face of Guinevere’s accusation.” Marie poses the question of if he’s guilty or not. However, she does not provide explicit answers. Lanval also portrays the blockage of feminine desire, “Good girls are the ones who have submerged their own desire in order to create socially effective simulacra of the desires of men.” The Queen is vilified because she went after the love she desired. However, this lai also shows that love can be found without suffering.In addition to vilifying women, the lai is also concerned with female power in the form of the fairy queen who saves Lanval. However, even the fairy queen does not play a completely feminist role. The fairy queen “gives life of a courtly male, satisfying not only his needs for erotic satisfaction and sustenance appropriate to a nobleman, but allowing him to fulfill his chivalric spirit in generosity of a public, indeed kingly sort, giving hospitality, patronage, and rich gifts to all”
Chevrefoil
In Chevrefoil, we are shown forbidden passionate love. Through this lai we are able to see some of Marie’s outlooks on love.“Yonec, Chevrefoil and Laustic all show extra-marital love, all incorporate the usual situation of the unmarried lover and the unhappily married lady, and in none of the three does Marie give an indication of disapproving of this state of affairs.”
Furthermore love leads to the death of lovers in Chevrefoil, “the choice of a Tristanian subject and the explicit statement at the beginning of the poem make the symbol of the intertwining plants one of the inevitable union of the lovers in death.”
Other Lais
“In Equitan, Bisclavret and Chevrefoil, cupidity leads to crime and disaster. In Laustic and Chevrefoil, love is unfulfilled. In Guigemar and Lanval, love overcomes obstacles. In the Deus Amanz, Yonec, and Milun, the point is that the real significance of the union of love is fruition. The charitable devotion of the heroines in Eludic and Le Fresne shows that there is a more spiritual side to early love.”