La Châtelaine De Vergy Is as Much a Tale of Social Pressures and Power Struggles as It Is a Love Story.

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Social pressure can also be applied to the character of the châtelaine who decides her love with the knight should remain a secret. It is unclear whether she is married or not as the figure of the jealous husband is absent in the text and yet she talks about her "seignor" (l. 714). Therefore her decision to maintain the relationship a secret by a couvenant could be interpreted as preserving their love from a society in which "felons enquereors" (l. 947) could ruin the relationship; if it were the case, we would be able to comment on this element of the story as irony since it is exactly because she demands a couvenant to protect their love from society and assure the knight's faithfulness that he did not realize the duchess loved him - and therefore could not anticipate her making advances to him -, that he must then betray her and finally that the secret is exposed to the whole court at the end of the story when "li dus trestout ausi tost, / Oiant toz, qui oïr le vost, / Dist tout l'afere en mi la cort." (l. 927-29).

Finally, another social pressure present in the text is that acting on the duchess. Her actions are driven by her emotions at first when she makes advances to the knight and then slanders him to the duke; however, social pressures intervenes when she learns about the relationship between the knight and the châtelaine as not only did he reject her for another woman but that woman is of a lower rank than her: "Et quant la duchoise l'entnt / Que cil aime plus bassement / Qui de s'amor l'a escondite, / Morte se tient et a despite" (l. 659-61). We already know from the first appearance of the duchess in the story how she values hierarchy in society as she advises the knight to take a high ranked woman for mistress, implying it should be her, "Si averiez bien deservi / D'avoir amie en si haut leu / Qu'en eüssiez honor et preu, / Que bien vous serroit tele amie" (l. 62-65). Therefore her reaction when she breaks the duke is predicted from her characterization.

Social pressure plays an important role in different shapes within the text as it is what motivates the characters to take action, and sometimes interferes with their other motives; such conflicts show how society can overcome reason and love and how it is what leads the characters to their ends, especially when mixed with power struggles.

Finally, the last element to complete the series of triggers of action in La Chastelaine is the characters' power struggles.

The first power struggle is the châtelaine's. We have seen before how her motives for the couvenant remain unclear in the story and are open to interpretation. They can be seen in the light of social pressure, but also when it comes to power struggle. Indeed, it could be a way for the châtelaine to assert her power over the knight by challenging him in order to assure he remains faithful to her and she can maintain her position as respected and loved woman. Indeed, she must know the knight swore an oath to the duke as he is her uncle, and the couvenant might be a way for her to raise herself to the position of a "suzerain" in the couple, defying the feudal oath in that way. But seen in this light, we can comment on this motive with irony as it is the feudal oath, which outcompetes the couvenant and this proves that perhaps power can only work in the domain of politics.

Indeed, another type of power struggle is present as for the character of the duke and it is a political one. Before the duchess even slanders the knight he clearly states "Qu'a nul fuer je ne norriroie / Trahitor, se je le savoie" (l. 123-24); this line highlights his political authority as duke and overlord. When the duchess finally accuses the knight wrongly, he is more affected by the fact that his friend was disloyal to him rather than he was betrayed by a vassal: "A malaise fu cele nuit, / Li dus, n'onques dormir ne pot, / Por le chevalier qu'il amot / Qu'il croit que il eüst mesfait" (l. 144-47). However, despite his friendship feelings towards the knight, the duke keeps in mind his authority as "suzerain" comes first and this can be supported by the harshness of his discourse to the knight as indicate his vocabulary, "trahitresse" (l. 165), "tricherie" (l. 168), "vilaine" (l. 169). The duke needs to maintain his power over the knight, even if it implies losing a friend and this is all the more felt when it is counterbalanced later, when the knight proves his innocence to the duke who then feels relief: "Et mout li plest: or voit il bien / Que cil ne li a mesfet rien / De ce que il l'a mescreü" (l. 427-29). Despite his obligation to maintain power, the duke is the character who prefers to be driven by his feelings, rather than his authority. And this is what leads him to his end as well, as he allows himself to disclose the secret under his wife's pressure.

The last character who is the most subject to power struggle is the duchess. Unlike the châtelaine who lives according to her strong emotions or the duke who attaches much importance to friendship, she only cares to assert her own power. Indeed, even though she may love the knight when she declares her love to him, she is still motivated by her ego as it caused her "grant ennui" (l. 57) that he did not realize she was making advances to him before. Moreover, she is even confident that he should accept her love as she is a woman of higher rank and therefore more powerful, which is why she is all the more vexed and angry that she was rejected by a man of lower rank. However, she does not technically have any power over him as indicates the proposition "S'ele puet, bien s'en vengera" (l. 106): she knows she can turn to the duke and manipulate him in order to re-assert her power, which she does by slandering the knight. The second time she suffers of power struggle is in the scene between her and the duke after he has found out about the châtelaine. This episode gives us an insightful view on how women can take power in the domestic sphere and how public life can then become at the mercy of female shadow[6] during the medieval period. Indeed, it is because the duke is easily manipulated by his wife that the last two disclosures (the duke to the duchess and then the duchess to the châtelaine) lead up to the tragic end of the story; in the case of the duchess, she believes she ultimately asserts her power by revealing to the châtelaine her knowledge of the secret love. However, she must forget in that brief moment of power struggle the promise of the duke "si je sui par vous trahi, / Vous en receverez la mort" (l. 642-43)

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