Publication Date
Spring 5-5-2021
School
College of Arts and Sciences
Major
English
Keywords
Arthurian legend, opera, Wagner, mythology, courtly love
Disciplines
Medieval Studies
Recommended Citation
Wright, Lillianna, "Love With Excuse: Contextualizing Themes in Adaptations of The Legend of Tristan and Isolde" (2021). Senior Honors Theses. 1080.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/honors/1080
Abstract
The legend of Tristan and Isolde is perhaps the most influential Arthurian romance apart from Lancelot and Guinevere. It has been retold many times, with each iteration responding to its own unique cultural context as well as adopting varying approaches to the medieval traditions of courtly love. The works of Wagner, Malory, and Gottfried von Strassburg all develop different versions of the same three themes: sexuality, the worthiness of love, and death. These various reconstructions of Tristan and Isolde's story blend syntheses of courtly love and historically contemporary approaches to romance, but all three reinventions romanticize it; while Strassburg and Wagner idealize the love affair, Malory and Wagner also romanticize courtly love and the medieval Arthurian era itself.
