1 Love of our days is overrated. It is not a love with solid foundations, it is a conditioned and weak love that vanishes when the plans of the other are interrupted, when something happens that in the eyes of the other person is no longer so pleasant. That is why today relationships end for money, they end if you get fat, if you get wrinkles, if you run out of work, if you get sick, there is an endless list of excuses when love is not true.
After reading Shakespeare’s 116 Sonnet, I can say that it is perhaps the most beautiful definition of fidelity, the love that is perpetuated over time, oblivious to changes and distances, storms and death. One of the stanzas that I wanted to mention is “Let me not to the marriage of true minds, admit impediments” (p. 549). I feel so identified with this stanza since one of the most beautiful experiences I had is falling in love with my husband in high school. It was 6 years ago since that time my parents took me for a year to study in Ecuador. Not too make the story too long, we fell in love and due to circumstances of life, my parents decided to move back to Florida again without even telling me anything. It was very difficult because many people told us that distance will destroy our relationship. We always gave each other strength to keep going, and I think we were very focus on what we wanted together as a couple. After he graduate from high school, he got approved for a student visa, and after waiting several months, he was able to come to Florida. It has been two years since we got married, and we still believe that love overcomes anything in this world. True love, however, is not an emotion. It is not a way of feeling. It is a way of life. It’s about being there for the person you love because you do not conceive it in any other way. And even more than that, it’s about striving to build such a strong bond with that person that even when one of you leaves this world, the love that united you still alive, which is what Shakespeare means when he states, “Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom” (p. 549).
References: Robson, C., Christ, C. T., Greenblatt, S. J., Lewalski, B., Lipking, L., Maus, K., . . . Stillinger, J. (2013). The Norton anthology english literature. New York (N.Y): W.W. Norton & Compagny.
2. The love that Lancelot and Guinevere felt would last until the death of both. This love of marriage is very understandable to a reader of the Middle Ages. It is typical of a time when marriages were celebrated on many occasions for economic or political reasons, and in which love did not always arise among married couples.
In this love story, Princess Elaine had fallen in love with Lancelot and communicated it to a maid of his who was a great sorceress. The sorceress gave a poison to Lancelot and this one was at the mercy of the lady, ending up marrying her that same night. They went after the wedding to some rooms prepared for the purpose and deprived of all light, because for the enchantment to take effect the darkness must be absolute. When Lancelot woke up in the morning, the first thing he did was to open the window wide and in doing so the enchantment disappeared, so when he looked at the bed and saw Elaine he did not know what to expect. Elaine told him what had happened and since Lancelot believed that his strength in the fight came from the votes of fidelity, made both to his king and his queen, he felt weak, useless and unhappy. As soon as he could, he returned to Camelot leaving Elaine and wanting to see his real queen.
Lancelot and Guinevere in the rooms of the queen at the time when both had decided to terminate their relationship for the sake of the kingdom, although their love destroyed them and it was impossible to make them want even more. He took advantage of the situation accusing them of being plotting the fall of Arthur, and of betraying him also with adultery. He ended up convincing the jealous king and feeling betrayed, so that he condemned the queen to the stake and banished Lancelot forever, expelling him from his order of knights.
So, it was, but Lancelot’s love was stronger and he came back to rescue her and take her with him. On his way, he had to kill the brothers of Sir Gawain, provoking a war in which they persecuted the knight and that ended with the death of Gawain and the usurpation of Mordred from the throne of Arthur. This returned to England and fought against his son being seriously wounded and taken to Avalon, to die there and end up like this with Camelot. Lancelot returned to England to help Arturo without knowing that he had died. Knowing everything, he visited Geneva who had entered a convent, and painfully decided to become a hermit, after all he had been, he could no longer be with another woman.
His devotion to Guinevere was absolute and lasted until his death. It was he who picked up the corpse of his queen from the convent to bury it next to Arthur’s body. Buried his beloved, he survived only six weeks since he stopped eating and barely drank anything. At night instead of sleeping, he wandered through the woods or spent whole hours at the Guinevere tomb, until he was too weak to walk. Feeling his end near, he asked his friend Sir Bors, when he died, to be taken to one of his castles, the so-called Joyful Guard and buried there. This was done. It was the final and the legend of a hero who would forever go down in history.
References: Robson, C., Christ, C. T., Greenblatt, S. J., Lewalski, B., Lipking, L., Maus, K., . . . Stillinger, J. (2013). The Norton anthology english literature. New York (N.Y): W.W. Norton & Compagny.