Yvain Blog #3

A certain aspect that I would like to touch upon is the character Lunette.  To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with Lunette in the end of the second part of the romance and the beginning of the third part of the romance.  When Lunette was first introduced in the romance, she was a strong female character, an in a sense she became the hero in the story and not Yvain because she helped his escape persecution.  However towards the beginning of the third section of the novel, Lunette transformed into a weak damsel in distress.  Originally she had appeared to be very clever, yet she was not able to use her wits to eschew death.  Therefore, she begged and pleaded for Yvain to save her life.  However, I was very happy to see Lunette's true character rise again when she suggested to Laudine to meet up with the King with the Lion (who is actually Yvain).  Lunette in my opinion is the only genuinely complex character.  All the other characters throughout the romance live up to his/her stereotypical roles, but Lunette does not.  Therefore, it was almost relieving in a way when Lunette tricked Laudine.  Chretien clearly put Lunette in the novel for specific reasons.  Most importantly, to show the irony of how the people who are supposed to be intelligent are actually quite blind to trickery.  Whereas, someone who is presumed to be uneducated and therefore dumb is the only person who truly has the intelligence and wits.