Images of Refined Love

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses and compares Beroul's "Tristan" and Dante's "Inferno". The paper contends that in both these works, the concept of refined love is employed as a tool to illustrate much broader and more far-reaching concepts of good versus evil and sin and salvation. The paper examines how love and order together create harmony, but love and disorder generate chaos. The paper states that disorder is often the result of unrestrained impulses and as such, it brings its own reward, as Tristan and Isolde know only too well. However, the paper assesses that if one observes the laws of the universe - God's laws - the purest kind of love will be one's reward, as is discovered by Dante.

From the Paper:

"Love has many faces, earthly and sacred. Passion is love, but so is devotion. Sometimes one must fight for one's beloved, and sometimes it is one's beloved who dispels the demons. The medieval concept of Refined Love combined these aspects of the quest within and the quest without, of the noble and the ignoble, and of the sinful and the sacred. The knight who sought the hand of the forbidden lady risked transgression against the laws of the church. If his love was pure; if he did not let that love become physical, he could remain righteous. The virtuous maiden was one of the most potent symbols of the age. Mary, the Mother of God, had been born without sin, and had conceived without sin. Chastity was of the noblest of virtues. "

More papers on Images of Refined Love:

• Essay # 137990 : "Arguing for the Socratic Attainment of Knowledge and Wisdom of Diotima (Love) in The Symposium by Plato "
• Analytical Essay # 142480 : "The Tale of Genji" and "The Great Mirror of Male Love"
• Analytical Essay # 11162 : "Antony and Cleopatra: Images of Roman and Egyptian Cultures"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: