Tale Of The Husband And The Parrot example essay topic

Relationships between Men and Women Betraying a husband or a wife has been, is and, will be a major problem for human beings and their societies. Everyone is terrified of finding out that their significant other has cheated on them. In Marie de France's, Laustic and The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot the wives cheat on their husbands in different ways. Also in the stories there are two birds that get killed by the husbands, who were tricked by their wives into killing them. Even though the birds were killed they represented different things. The love that the two wives have for the men other than their husband is different.

There are similarities in the two stories they lead to very different emotional reactions. In Marie de France's, Laustic the attraction between the wife and the young knight is a romantic and loving relationship, but in and The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot the relationship between of the wife and the lover is based only in physical attraction. Both women cheated on their husbands, but both have different type of love for the other man. In The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot the love that the wife had for her lover was portrayed to be just a physical attraction. We learn that when the author says: " the parrot gave him a day-by-day account of what his wife had done with her lover and how the two carried on in his absence". (p. 1599 line 21) When a couple just " just carries on" it's for the sake of physical attraction. Also in my opinion if there was more than just a physical attraction the author would have gone on in detail to explain it, but he didn't.

So it seems as if their relationship was based on sex. On the other hand, in the story Marie de France, Laustic the relationship between the young night and the wife was a romantic one. We learn that when the author says "They loved each other prudently and well" and " he loved his neighbor's wife and so persistently did he request her love, so frequent were his entreaties and so many qualities did he posses that she loved him above al things". (p 1775, line 11-15) Unlike the first story the author here goes in deep detail to show that two really love each other and they also love each other's qualities. Another reason why Marie de France, Laustic was a romantic story, because the author was a female and The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot wasn't romantic because the author was a man.

In both stories there's a bird that is killed but in both cases it represents different things. In The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot, the parrot is used to keep an eye on the wife. I think the parrot represents the husband, because the parrot was used to keep an eye on the wife just like the husband had done all of his life. In Laustic the nightingale represents the relationship of the wife and the young knight. Just as the nightingale can only come out at night and sing, the wife and the knight can only see each other at night. Also both wives are able to lie and trick their husbands in different ways and for different reasons.

In The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot, the wife tricks her husband into killing the parrot. We learn that when the author says: " she ordered one of her maid to take the grinding stone and grind under the cage, ordered a second maid to sprinkle water over the cage, and ordered a third to carry a steel mirror back and forth all night long". (p 1599 line 15-18) This made the parrot think there was a storm. When the husband asked the parrot what he saw the night before. The parrot said I couldn't see anything because there was a storm. The husband thought the parrot was crazy and killed him. The wife tricked her husband to get revenge on the parrot for telling on her.

In Laustic, the wife didn't really want to kill the nightingale but that was a way into tricking her husband and making up an excuse for why she was staying at her window all night long. We learn that when the wife says: "lord anyone who does not hear the song of the nightingale knows none of the joy of this world". (p 1775 line 38-41) The song that the wife is referring to is the love that she has for the young knight and she would do anything to go and see him. Including lying to her husband or using her surroundings to get to see him. One major difference between the two stories is that Marie de France's Laustic has a lot of symbolism in it and The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot has very little. One of the symbols used in the Marie de France Laustic is the structure of the house and the window. "Their houses, halls and keeps were close by each other and there was no barrier or division, apart from a high wall of dark-hued stone.

When she stood at her bedroom window, the lady could talk to her beloved in the other house and he to her, and they could toss gifts to each other". (p 1775 line 18-22) The author is trying to say that they were really close to each other and there was nothing keeping them from each other but the walls. To the wife the window was her favorite spot in the house because it was the place where she spent more time and the place where she could see her love. Another place where we see symbolism is in the end of the story where the author says " He had a small vessel prepared, jot of iron or steel, but of pure gold with fine stones, very precious and valuable. On it he carefully placed a lid and put the nightingale in it. The he had the casket sealed and carried it with him at all times". (p 1776 line 30-34) The reason why the vessel was made out of gold with fine stones and not of steel was to show how important the wife was to him and how much he loved her. Also the reason for carrying the casket with him was so he could have something to constantly remind him of the love of his love.

Overall these two stories had similarities but these similarities led to significant differences. During the whole human history people slept around and cheated on their husbands or wives. One major difference between the two stories is the change of women's role in society. In The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot the women seem like the weren't thought as much and weren't able to do what they wanted to do. In Laustic we see that women have began to write and moved up in the society.

Up to this period women weren't able to do anything and the world was a world that was dominated by man. Now they are able to express themselves and their feelings.