Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Margot and "La Mole"
The movie "Queen Margot" is a french film about the St. Bartholomew Day massacre that incorporates many historical aspects into an entertaining film. One of the more controversial historical figures in the movie is "La Mole" Queen Margot's Huguenot lover who is not her husband- her husband is King Henry Navarre. Queen Margot finds peace in her "true love" with "La Mole" but not with her husband. When Queen Margot is with La Mole she feels truly happy. There is another parralel in the movie between King Charles IX and his lover "Marie". Charles says he is truly happy only when he is with his love. Does this sound familiar to Marie de France's Lanval? There are two similarities. First, Lanval is only truly happy when he is with his maiden, but the more significant comparison is between Queen Margot and the Queen in Marie de France's lay- both look for realy love over their forced arrangement with their husbands.
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2 comments:
I loved that movie! (Yay, AP Euro!) I think the relationship between la Mole, Henry of Navarre, and Margot was interesting. You could say it resembles the relationship between husband, wife, and wife's lover in Marie's writing. There is an intense love between Margot and la Mole which is paralleled by Marie's characters of Tristan and Isoude. Margot escapes her family for a night and spends it with la Mole, similar to Isoude and Tristan's meeting in the forest. Both loves result in tragedy as la Mole is beheaded and Tristan is separated from Isoude. Henry of Navarre and King Mark also play the roles of possessive husbands. While Henry eventually accepts Margot's love for la Mole, he is initially jealous and possessive. King Mark exiles Tristan to prevent a relationship. Both kings fail in their attempts to possess their wives. Is it just me or are all these husbands portrayed as overly controlling even though they have affairs of their own? But then the lovers (Tristan and la Mole) do not seek to control the women at all. Just an observation.
I think you could relate La Mole to Marie de France's Laustic as well. In Laustic, the woman is married to someone else, but she finds her happiness in solely looking at her lover. They never even touch or kiss, but she gets more enjoyment and she feels more love when they just look at each other than when she is with her real husband. I think Laustic is an even better comparison than Lanval is, because in Lanval, Lanval is faithful to his maiden, and the thing with the queen is irrelevant, but is Laustic, she IS married, but she loves someone else.
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