A Clandestine Language: Content of Courtly Love Conventions in Realism

The conventions of courtly love and chivalry are unexpectedly evident in the realist novels, Madame Bovary, The Awakening, and Crime and Punishment. To what extent these conventions were pertinent to realist literature, or whether they became obsolete after the 19th century, remains in question since some readers might think courtly love traditions conflict with realism. In searching for an answer, one must examine whether the realist authors perceived irony in courtly love or whether they secretly employed the concept as a viable theme.

“L’amour courtois’” was a Victorian term chosen by Gaston Paris in 1883 to describe the invention, during the Middle Ages, of a passion then referred to as “Honest love” or “Refined love” (Delahoyde 1). Courtly love, also famously known as the Italian “amore cortese,” was a noble yet prohibited, affair characterized by ritualistic adulation, gift giving, adultery and secrecy. In this context, the male lover meditated upon his lady’s magnificence while he kept his affection secret from her spouse and others. The fact that the woman might have been married to someone else did not deter her suitor since sacred love was considered to have been supremely formidable, the single force that could elevate man to his highest spirituality. The lover was controlled and obliging, asking only that his lady provide him with her acceptance and a brilliant gaze that would rectify all tribulations. Love was the most important event in life as it transported the participants to a state of total elation, thus, honorable conduct was guaranteed (Thompson 1).

Courtly love during the Middle Ages was an “artistic phenomenon” that included feminist undertones since it accorded the female more power than that of a wife attached to a dowry or land:“It's been said that in the Middle Ages you married a fief and got a wife thrown in with the bargain. Idealized "love" goes against the utilitarian economics of marriage, and passion was forbidden by the Church, so until the courtly version came along, Love was duty and "Luv" was sinful.” (Delahoyde 1).

Sacred, courtly love was considered to be even stronger than the bonds that tied man to the material world. Writers and artists alike took pleasure in the mere thought of the perfect woman, one who embodied an angelic and healing persona. Such idealized women, whether real or imagined, inspired many great works of art. It seems the yearning for an idealized feminine presence exemplified passionate and even deviant lust, characteristics obviously contrary to sacred idealistic emotions. Ultimately, the sacred and the more earthly connotations became opposite paradigms from which emerged the beloved women who inspired great poetry.

The most famous, Italian beloveds of the Renaissance were Beatrice and Laura, both of whom died during Dante’s (1265-1321) and Petrarch’s (1304-1374) lives. Despite that detail, the women were adored and honored in poetry long after their deaths. Even today, their spirits seem able to impose their timeless beauty upon modern readers. Indeed, the courtly lover prized only one woman and did not shift allegiance simply because she was no longer alive. As a result, the courtly poet transformed his lady into a symbol of the Christian Mary’s magnitude, a leader of the Cult of the Virgin.

Deirdre O'Siodhachain identifies five basic components of courtly love: 1. Sexual love between men and women is something splendid, and in itself an ideal worth striving for; 2. Love ennobles both the lover and the beloved; 3. Being an ethical and aesthetic attainment, sexual love cannot be reduced to mere libidinal impulse; 4. Love pertains to courtesy and courtship but is not necessarily related to the institution of marriage; 5. Love is an intense, passionate relationship that establishes a holy oneness between man and woman (1).

Courtly love during the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance shared its secretive nature with the altruistic Romantic love of the 19th century. It was certainly the precursor to Romantic literature (c.1770-1832) that preceded the Realist Movement (c.1832-1880). The two genres focus on passion, obsession and secret ardor embedded in humanity. Many individuals lead secret love lives, but the difference between gratification and the romantic or courtly pursuits is that the latter forms retain instinctive, steadfast loyalty that transcends physicality. It may be difficult for modern readers accustomed to self-fulfillment and omniscient media to understand the utility of the myriad secret loyalties that were fundamental in the Middle Age world.

Today’s fleeting loves usually become passé once mass media has violated their secrecy. Thus, one expects to learn about short-lived marriages or romances that have blossomed or wilted. Tresidder advises readers, “Courtly love was usually secretive, and Andre’ le Chapelain’s 13 th century Rules of Love advised that ‘a love divulged seldom lasts.’” (Tresidder 86). Perhaps this is why Madame Bovary concealed her affections as she assumed a quasi gender-reversed role that included undertones of secret relationships.

Visions of courtly love seem to fill the mind of Flaubert’s realist protagonist in Madame Bovary (1857). Emma Bovary adored secret gifts, maintaining clandestine affairs, and adultery for the sake of romance. Emma’s illicit behavior was spurred by her readings of romantic literature, but such books, coupled with her courtly love affairs, eventually led to her downfall. Emma’s husband, Charles, could never have been her chivalrous lover since he was a mediocre and common man who lived within the contract of marriage. Charles was a reliable husband and a symbol of the new realism that focused criticism on the romantic notions of courtly love. Ironically, Charles also embodied several of the qualities of a courtly lover, which made him appear foolish. For instance, he exalted Emma Bovary after her death despite her dishonesty. Unfortunately for Charles, he was destined to become the rejected third party in the love triangle and the spurned husband in a marriage arranged for social and economic reasons (Flaubert 247-327).

Flaubert seemed to denounce romantic literature that contained remnants of the courtly love tradition as he illustrated how Emma Bovary paid the ultimate price for her romantic imagination. Conversely, the psychological realist, Chopin, author of The Awakening (1899), honored the spiritual knowledge that Edna Pontillier gained about herself through platonic love affairs. Edna was a married woman whose husband, Leonce Pontillier, held a stable position in business. Edna had children, but she was dissatisfied with the confinement her family represented. Because her personality had been eclipsed by the situation, she felt unable to fulfill her creative desires, including that of being a painter. On separate occasions, Edna found extramarital love with two chivalrous suitors who met her in the Creole setting of Grand Isle near New Orleans. Edna’s platonic lovers, Robert and Arobin, possessed all the characteristics of courtly suitors, specifically, secrecy and adulterous desire, each which fomented an uplifting spirituality that transcended the physical (Chopin 161).

Edna Pointillier brought pleasure to all who regarded her. Similar to the thoughts Dante expressed for Beatrice, or those penned by Petrarch for Laura, Edna was a goddess—a blessed woman. Chopin described Edna thusly: Venus rising from the foam could have presented no more entrancing a spectacle than Mrs. Pontellier, blazing with beauty and diamonds at the head of the board, while the other women were all of them youthful houris, possessed of incomparable charms” (Chopin 173).

Little did Edna’s male admirers know that she would soon perish of her own volition in the seawaters, a symbol of regeneration and renewal. Water is considered a symbol of baptism and a return to humankind’s genetic origins, especially when attached contextually to the disappearance of a protagonist. One might compare Edna’s return to the waters with the emergence of man in the prehistoric form of a fish; therefore, since she is seen as moving on to better things, her fate is not necessarily deemed tragic.

Edna’s death is considered by some to be the rebirth of the female consciousness. Edna Pontillier is akin to a supernatural being that was sacrificed for the salvation of womankind’s spirit. This literary situation appears reminiscent of Dante’s beloved Beatrice who was also a kind of female savior.

Beatrice saved Dante’s soul even after her own death. The following is Rubin’s explanation of her “goddess” status conveyed with the help of numerology: She is the figure 9 who dies in the 9th hour of the 9th day in the 9th month which the perfect number (10) had completed 9 times in the century (Vita Nuova 29). He makes this love a transcendence: she becomes the glorious woman of my mind” (155).

Both Edna Pontillier and Emma Bovary were realist protagonists who were also involved in love triangles. Similarly, courtly beloveds Dante and Beatrice, constituted two legs of another love triangle that included Beatrice’s absent and forgotten spouse. To the courtly lover, a situation talis qualis would have been unremarkable since love surpassed the rules of society. Naturally, love triangles serve as sources of conflict in realist novels and add interest to the outcome. The romantic tradition that preceded Realism, as well as the courtly traditions themselves, generate and acknowledge widespread love triangles. For example, Edna was married while she was pursued by Robert. Emma Bovary was married to Charles, but she loved Leon and Rodolphe at different times during that marriage. Husbands were unable to impede their wives from loving others or from being adored by others. The younger Leon pursued Emma Bovary in the tradition of the courtier while he glorified her spirit and essence:

Never had he met with such a grace of language, such modesty of dress, such tableaux of drowsy maiden-innocence. He admired the exaltation of her soul and the lace on her skirts. Besides, was she not a lady, a married woman! A real mistress” (Flaubert 247)

The sentiments Emma Bovary stimulated in Leon are similar to those aroused in Dante by Beatrice. As may be readily observed, Leon was sensitive to every aspect of how Emma felt and looked:By the variousness of her (Emma’s) moods, successively mystical and joyful, talkative and taciturn, passionate and nonchalant, she roused a thousand desires in him, kindling instincts or memories. She was the lover in every novel, the heroine in every play, the vague she in every volume of poetry. On her shoulders he found the amber colors of Odalisque au bain; she had the long body of some feudal chatelaine; she looked like the pale woman of Barcelona, but supremely she was the Angel” (Flaubert 247).

Dante’s analogous description of Beatrice, a female redeemer much like Emma Bovary, is simply laudative:

‘Deus, venerunt gentes,’ the ladies,
Now three, now four, in alternation sang,
Beginning their sweet psalmody in tears,
And Beatrice, sighing and compassionate,
Was listening, her face so changed in its expression
That Mary’s, at the cross, was hardly more transformed.
(Purgatorio; Alighieri 685).

Dante’s Beatrice ignites in much the same way as Chopin’s Edna Pontillier “blazes with beauty.” The adulated object of courtly love always seems to be a sizzling vision who commands mystical healing qualities. Her gaze has a baptismal effect upon the courtly lover for the anticipation of love is more uplifting than even its carnal expression. Beatrice’s acceptance of Dante, along with her divine nature, directed Dante to the baptismal waters—much like those of Edna Pontillier’s sea of renewal near the end of The Awakening. Finally, water represents a symbol of renewal in both books.

From those most holy waters
I came away remade, as are new plants
Renewed with new-sprung leaves,
Pure and prepared to rise up to the stars.
(Alighieri 693)

It was Beatrice who was there to meet Dante among the stars since she was already deceased. Beatrice, whom Dante glorified as saintly and noble, had married another man and died at age twenty-four. All the same, Dante treasured Beatrice in the tradition of courtly love with a clandestine and unrequited reverence for the rest of his life. Beatrice would serve as inspiration for writers and lovers spanning the centuries, from courtly lovers to the Romantics.

Ironically, there are commonalities between the angelic Beatrice and the lusty, realistic Emma Bovary. Edna Pontellier seems to manifest Beatrice’s glow and majesty, but Dante’s influence does not stop there. Courtly love also emerged unexpectedly in Dostoyevsky’s realist novel, Crime and Punishment, in lurid, crime-ridden St. Petersburg, the murderous lover found salvation and reformation in angelic Sonya.

Of course, the answers to redemption are unclear for Dostoyevsky’s realist protagonists, but Raskolnikov undertook a journey much like that of Dante, finally understanding that Sonya’s love was the key to salvation. Love and redemption served as the very basis for his journey as he learned en route that mercy awaits even those who have committed crimes provided they find spiritual love and serve penitence.

Courtly love is the secret language that was spoken where it was least expected, even among the lower classes of realist fiction when they had noble aspirations and desires. Sonya’s presence brought joy to Raskolinov, the repentant murderer incarcerated in a Russian prison camp, as he unexpectedly discovered Sonya beside him:

Her face still bore the signs of her illness, it had grown thin and pale and sunken. She gave him a pleased, friendly smile, but, following her habit, extended her hand to him timidly (Dostoyevsky 654).

Raskolinov, having received his lady’s grace, was overcome by bliss and outwardly revealed his adoration for Sonya, his female savior and equivalent of Christ’s mother. He survived the city, which was like Dante’s “hell,” and eventually found himself in a prison that was metaphorically a rural paradise on earth where Sonya would return to save him:

She understood everything. Her eyes began to shine with an infinite
happiness; she had understood, and now she was in no doubt that he loved
her, loved her infinitely, and that at last it had arrived, that moment . . .


They tried to speak but were unable to. There were tears in their eyes. Both of them looked pale and thin; but in these ill, pale faces there now gleamed the dawn of renewed future, a complete recovery to a new life. What had revived them was love, the heart of one containing an infinite source of life for the heart of the other
(Dostoyevsky 654-5).

The venerated lady who partakes of courtly love romance is obliged to tender a spiritual acceptance of her lover, even after she has feigned indifference. If this is a contest, then these are the rules that must be observed to achieve success. Most importantly, the beloved must accept the lover’s gift unconditionally. How surprising it may seem that such intrigue exists even in realist settings!

Crime and Punishment is a well-known model for modern realism; yet, one observes that the secret language of courtly love lies somewhere near the roots of the realist plot. Sonya, unlike Dante’s Beatrice, Emma Bovary, and Edna Pontillier, is unmarried. Indeed, she is similar to a married woman only in the respect that she is not a virgin since she has prostituted herself in order to feed her poor step-siblings. However, this does not deter Sonya from rising above that situation because, she, too, is intrinsically noble in character as the kindhearted savior of poor, hungry children.

Dostoyevsky’s story concludes with Raskolinov’s salvation through love, acceptance and adoration, “A new story begins, the story of a man’s gradual renewal, his gradual rebirth, his gradual transition from one world to another…” (Dostoyevsky 656).

Raskolnikov is reborn through faith in his female savior for whom he has carried a secret admiration throughout the tortuous journey. Wishing to follow Sonya just as Dante emulated Beatrice’s grace, Raskolinov ponders whether he can be more like Sonya, “What if her convictions can now be mine, too? Her feelings, her strivings, at least. . . “(Dostoyevsky 656).

Raskolinov, much like Dante, attains salvation as he travels from Purgatory to Paradise, but whereas Dante and Beatrice are upheld to be superb models of ethical behavior, the dual protagonists of Crime and Punishment, Raskolinov and Sonya, are ennobled from humankind’s inner spirit, even after having committed crimes. The imperfections of these realist characters reflect authentic struggles. One is able to see clearly the divergence between modern realism and early Renaissance writings. Such realist protagonists are less idealized and embody a greater number of shortcomings. Nevertheless, there remains a desire for adulation and spiritual love in the real world, along with an underlying, courtly tradition that transcends carnal love.

Laura is another precursor of Emma Bovary, Edna Pontellier, and Sonya. Petrarch imbued with courtly love the sonnets he wrote for Laura, his spiritual guide. Indeed, his description of Laura was written during the Renaissance, centuries before the emergence of realism.
She was unlike the earthly, mortal things,

As one who cared for heaven, nothing else.
My soul that burned and froze under her spells,
Wishing to go with her, opened its wings (Petrarch 473).

The sonnet was written to mark Laura’s early demise. Death and bereavement are also persistent themes in Madame Bovary and The Awakening. The resplendent and unattainable ladies die leaving their lovers to reflect upon their greatness. Emma Bovary, regarded by many readers as a wicked adulteress who rightly deserved her painful death by arsenic poisoning, made concerted efforts to be admired in the manner of the courtly beloved. Indeed, there were moments when her lovers felt overwhelmed by her vast beauty. Charles Bovary, Emma’s husband, adulated her beauty after her demise. Arguably, Flaubert’s intention may have been to provide a forum for discussion about the disadvantages of romantic love based on courtly ideals since such soirees could end in painful tragedies like Emma’s.

It seems that realism effectively debases courtly love since it concentrates on and details the aspects of everyday realities, especially loathsome environments, death, pain, blood, and despair. Politics are also woven into realist plots just as they were apparent in The Divina Commedia. For example, Dostoyevsky painted a fetid, gray vision of St. Petersburg with its rampant prostitution, child abuse, and starvation— a place like the inferno—yet, in the darkest of spaces, the essence of courtly love afforded the protagonist a glimmer of hope and the feeling of spiritual salvation. But while readers of realist literature might reluctantly admit an essential need for courtly love, who among them could deny the redemptive qualities of the adulated and courtly beloved?

Works Cited

Alighieri, Dante. La Vita Nuova. London: Adamant Media Corporation. 2005.

Alighieri, Dante. Purgatorio. New York: Doubleday. 2003.

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: Penguin Books. 2003.

Delahoyde, Michael. 2006. Courtly Love. Washington State University. 24 June 2006. http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/medieval/love.html

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, Crime and Punishment. New York: Penguin Books. 2003.

Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary. New York: Penguin Books. 2003.

Petrarch, Francesco. Sonnets and Songs. New York: AMS Press. 1978.

O'Siodhachain, Deirdre. 2006. The Practice of Courtly Love. 22 June 2006 < http://moas.atlantia.sca.org/oak/04/court.htm>.

Rubin, Harriet. Dante in Love. New York: Simon and Schuster. 2004.

Thompson, Diane. 2006. Courtly Love Study Guide. 24 June 2006.
http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/eng251/amourstudy.htm#history

Trtesidder, Megan. The Secret Language of Love. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. 1997.

Viegnes, Michel. 2006. Space as in Love in the Vita Nuova. 22 June 2006

Posted by Laura Sweeney, Ed.D. at 6:21 PM 0 comments