Yvain, Blog 1

2.

Calogrenant’s story seems to set the stage for the events that will unfold in this story, similar to how the hunting of the white stag did in Erec and Enide. The story begun as a quest Calogrenant took upon himself, but slowly evolved into his own personal failures, which in turn Yvain took as a challenge for himself. I took the story as almost comical, not due to the nature of what happened, but due to the positioning of the tale in the story. It acts as almost a convenient plot device which gives Yvain the idea for what he should do. I see it almost as a prologue, or “convenient quest”. In addition the overall story is very bizarre with all of its description and strange occurrences. It reveals from the start that the story of Yvain will have much more magic and supernatural events than Erec and Enide.

3.

Yvains character struck me as very different than Erec. Whereas Erec was the “cookie cutter” perfect male, Yvain seems to have much more depth to him. We see very quickly in the story that Yvain may be more than “the best fighter and most good looking man alive”, he may have some intellect and wisdom that Erec did not. Also, I feel that Yvain may be more of a real character. It seemed at times that Erec was too one sided, he only possessed positive traits, only good characteristics. I believe that Yvain may have both bad and good. Yvain seems more impatient, impulsive, and aggressive than Erec, especially when pursuing the Knight, and then his wife. I firmly believe Yvain will be a much more interesting character than Yvain, and more will be able to learned about him as the story progresses.