Difficult yet thought-provoking question: Why does the text describe Enide in this way: “She was truly one who was made to be looked at, for one might gaze at her just as one gazes in a mirror.”? What is it to gaze into a mirror? What does one see? Are there any figures from mythology transfixed by a mirror image?)
Throughout the story the descriptions of the fair, beautiful, and “well bred” Enide seem to be endless. She is woman that is characterized by her extreme physical beauty, although there is some reference made by her father that she also possesses some intellect. People, especially knights and nobility, seem to be so transfixed with her beauty; this becomes especially interesting when the comment about the mirror is related in. Typically a mirror reflects the subject gazing into the mirror, and in Enide’s case these subjects were the knights and nobility. The nobles and knights, seeing themselves in high esteem and social class believed that she was someone “well bred” and worthy of their love. This has a striking similarity to the classic Greek story of Narcissus, where Narcissus was only attracted to his own reflection. The nobility and knights almost saw themselves in Enide, they saw a person who was “worthy” of them and their social status.
What do you make of the second contest in the text (the sparrow-hawk)? What is at stake here? What are the implications of this concerning gender, power, masculinity, etc.?
In the second competition the main thing a wager was not the bird, but the pride of the two men. When Erec challenged the other knight he was almost usurping him off his throne of pride and social status. The two men knew that they had to fight with each other because they had to fight for pride and prove who was more “worthy”. The bird was simply a token of whoever was socially or symbolically on top. The loser of the battle would be stripped of his pride and ego and publically humiliated, thus becoming a slave or prisoner to the winner. It appears that the males especially in this age have this innate drive to be on top and establish dominance over each other.
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