Yvain 2

The speech makes Yvain feel obligated to leave with the King Arthur. Gawain employs to him that if he doesn’t leave he will lose their worth, and honor because of his wife’s. Gawain is basically telling Yvain that he has all the time to focus on settling down and getting old, but right now he is at his prime and that is what is important and then his wife follows:  “A man must be concerned with his reputation before all else! Break the leash and yoke and let us, you and me, go to the tourney, so no one can call you a jealous husband. Now is not the time to dream your life away but to frequent tournaments, engage in combat, and joust vigorously, whatever it might cost you” (Chrétien 326). Gawain is trying to influence Yvain to leave Laudine “just for a while” to go to combat and then return if he isn’t killed to then dream of his life with his wife. Gawain also hints to death when he say “whatever it might cost you” , he is saying come have fun enjoy your last real combats and then if you live through the fights come back and play house with Laudine.  Laudine basically says to Yvain either return to her or have nothing to do with her and death will chose his fate.  Yvain says what if death came upon him and she tells him death will only come upon him if he forgot about her. I wouldn’t want to accept this agreement because although she is letting him go he’s damned either way because if he goes and forgets about her he there is the risk of death, but also he loses her, because she won’t take him back so it’s like Yvain can’t win either way. Yvain acts the way he does to Laudine’s messenger because the fact that he realizes that he loses his Laudine, and because he would be the cause of his own death. He vowed that he would return to him lady in the time she request him, but he stayed while beyond that and he broke his promise and he set himself up for death. Laudine told him if he remembered her he wouldn’t have to fear death, but if he forgot about her then he shall never return and she would curse him for being deceitful.  Yvain realized that he rather go crazy and become a lunatic before he killed himself because he couldn’t bring himself to do it. By Yvain running of in the woods and becoming savage I think it was a way of him punishing himself, but also just breaking free from everything like combat, and being a knight and just being able to be free without anything. We get to see Yvain adapt and change as a character because not only does his look change, but his outlook on life beings to change.