Yvain

     

The reader seems to be thrown into the story. Without the prologue it’s hard to determine the hidden message in the story. With Erec and Enide Chretien uses the prologue to send a message to the reader. In that prologue it was like he was saying don’t be deceived by the boring boy meets girl theme, because it’s more to the story than just that. The fact that Chretien doesn’t use a prologue for this romance seems to be because there wasn’t really a journey, it wasn’t something that he experienced with the character it was more so Calogrenant telling a tale of how he was defeated on this journey.  The journey doesn’t truly begin until Yvain goes to avenge his cousin’s shame. Chretien seems to be letting the reader make their own assumptions about this romance because he doesn’t use the prologue. The prologue for Erec and Enide was used as an introduction before the drama, but with Yvain the story begins with the main action and drama. Since there is no prologue it could simply mean that there is more to the story than just the romance and so he tries to show this by not just focusing on the romance its self, but the other elements that the story is composed of. In away Calogrenant story seemed to act as the prologue for this tale because he tells how he defeated the knight, but he also says: “Lend me your hearts and ears, for words that are not understood by the heart are lost completely” (Chretien 297). It’s like he is saying you need both heart and ears to listen because your ears just receive information and holds it for a little while your heart receives information and contains and digest it. This could have some deeper meaning or relevance to the rest of the tale, and in a way he is also talking to the reader saying how we need more than are ears, but also are hearts because this story isn’t just about listening and taken in the tale, but it’s about the experience and the emotion that the tale evokes in the reader.