Deconstructing Space in Yvain

Yvain: The Knight with the Lion is story of a knights psychological entanglement with his
ideals, pursuits and expectations. Yvains character development can be traced in the course
of the narrative, as he encounters various situations that he has to overcome keeping intact
his own honor (Staines 257) and valour (Staines 261), two important traits of a knight.
What I found particularly relevant to the major plot points and especially Yvains character
development was the use of space and setting. In the course of the plot progression, space is
manipulated to assist the rhetorical situation and ultimately convey Yvains internal conflict
with his roles as an Arthurian knight.
At the outset, Yvains discourse with Calogrenant, Sir Kay and the Queen outside the Kings
chamber in King Arthurs castle marks the genesis of his crusade. With a desire to avenge
[the] disgrace (Staines 264) of his cousin Calogrenant and a yearning to seethe fortified
man housethe courteous maiden the stone, the spring, the basin and the birds (Staines
265), Yvain undertakes the mission on two premises. The first premise is honor, a
fundamental characteristic of a knight and the second is the thirst for adventure, a notable
quality in the brave Arthurian knights.
It is pertinent to note the importance of setting in conveying these two ideas. Within the
castle, Yvain dawns a respectable, knightly approach in front of the queen, from whom he
draws much praise. Yvain refuses to take on Sir Kay in an argument out of regard for his
physical surroundings, as they were present in King Arthurs castle. Therefore he [did] not
wish to be like the watchdog that stiffens and growls when another dog snarls at it (Staines
265). The sense of structure the physical space of the castle compares with Yvians behavior
befitting of his role as a knight, and the servant of King Arthur and the Queen.
However, once the setting shifts and Yvain confronts Sir Kay at the magic spring, he
willingly takes the opportunity to humiliate him since the setting has changed to a
battlefield. This way, the space in the story dictates Yvains actions. Another example that
suggests this is the scenario when Yvain is at Lady Laudines castle, and his role has shifted
to that of a husband whose duty is to defend the fountain, if anyone came with the challenge.
Yvain has to do so even when the entourage of King Arthur arrive. What is crucial here is


that Yvain is made to battle his own men since the setting around him dictated his role, and
in this case, his vow of servitude to Lady Laudine and defending her castle came above all.
Yvains tryst with Laudine is reflective of a knights chivalric duties to his wife. I find it
interesting that Yvain has to grapple with contrasting standpoints, as he wishes to have
Laudines love as well as a relationship with King Arthur and his men, since he goes back to
compete in games with them. I find this dilemma quite relevant specially, as Laudine is
represented by her castle, which Yvain has to leave behind physically and metaphorically.
As the story progresses and Yvains character develops, we slowly begin to see an
entanglement of Yvains character in the vast spaces in between King Arthurs castle and
Laudines castle.
Yvain reels back and forth between these two places, which are important points of
reference in terms of the comfort and safety they provide. The space in between however,
contains the Forest of Broceliande, which is full of mortal dangers like giants (Staines
302) and wild bulls on the loose (Staines 260). Hence a clear distinction between
civilization and lack of civilization is made in terms of setting. The spatial relevance of
Yvains emotional breakdown after fails to return to Laudine in time is shown as he retreats
to the Forest of Broceliande in a state of utter madness and depression. Again, this is an
important play on setting as it reflects how a knights honor came above all, and an inability
to honor a commitment led Yvain to self-exile. Interestingly, the anarchy in Yvains mind
manifests in his surrounds as well in the form of the storm, intensifying his grief.
By using space in such a way, the work itself makes a multimodal argument, not only
conveying ideas via the rhetorical situation, but also through setting and space. For my
multimodal artefact, I wanted to breakdown this phenomenon of Yvains development
through space in a slideshow, that I posted on a website. Each slide contained reference to a
specific space in the story, and outlined how that space influenced Yvains behaviour and
character development. The slides that I put up had an interactive layout with pictures and
diagrams to help my audience reference my argument to the bullet points I mentioned on the
slides. Most of my discussion was condensed to bullet points. This was a choice I also made
so that my audience could take with them the salient parts of my discussion.


My genre choices revolved around creating an informative piece in my artefact, involving a
combination of the visual and textual. Weebly gave me to tools to make my website
professional looking and interactive, as I got to create a visually appealing landing page,
with a painting of the Yvain and Gawins battle in the background and large headings. It
also allowed me to make my slideshow interactive as it contained navigational icons and
allowed me to add thumbnails, captions, change transition styles and speed of the slideshow.
All of these features not only improved the cosmetics of the website but also helped in
making it more user friendly, and ultimately aided the communication of the core ideas. I
titled the website Deconstructing Space in Yvain, as this phrase outlined my purpose well,
as I was looking at Yvains development from a spatial perspective.
Overall, I explored how Yvain is caught within his role as a knight, referencing my
argument to how setting and space plays a major part in dictating this role. After all, space
not only helped visualize this phenomenon but also made seemingly abstract elements like
ideals and emotional states tangible to the reader. This is a major part of the reason why the
story has maintained appeal for centuries since its creation. After all, it reinforces timeless
concepts like honor, chivalry and adventure in multiple ways, including through the use of
space.
References
Books:
1. Staines, David. The Complete Romances of Chretien de Troyes. Bloomington and
Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1990. Print.
Websites:
1. Han, Dongdong. "The Legend of Yvain." The Camelot Project. The University of
Rochester, 1 Jan. 2010. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. <http://www.citationmachine.net/mla/cite-awebsite/manual>.
Image Web links (For Multimodal Artefact):
1.http://www.clipartbest.com/cliparts/9i4/eXG/9i4eXG9iE.png
2.http://cdn.vectorstock.com/i/composite/02,13/boy-in-knight-costume-cartoon-vector1610213.jpg
3. http://vector-magz.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/grass-clipart.jpg


4.http://www.featurepics.com/FI/Thumb300/20070911/Deciduous-Tree-Three-Tree-Tops448571.jpg
5.https://0.s3.envato.com/files/1185834/Fairy-tale_castle_.jpg
6. http://us.123rf.com/450wm/hi6un/hi6un1210/hi6un121000041/15817591

.jpg