The Art of Courtly Love

As stated in the article “Backgrounds to Romance: Courtly Love” by Dr. Schwartz, the primary audience for romance and “early vernacular narratives” were women and ladies of the queens court. I learned this was primarily because the early narratives were not focused around violence and tended to appeal more to women. Women also played a lot of the central roles and had large parts in these narratives which women in the audience could connect to. I think this relates to our society today because most romance films and novels are targeted for a female audience, with the main characters being played by a strong female lead and the romantic genre of today tends to eliminate violence.  

In the middle ages, a courtly love narrative relationship was based around a “knight and his liege lord”. It was surprising to me that the lady was most often in complete control of the relationship because when I think of the middle ages, I assume that the men had all the power. An important quote to sum up the actual relationships of the middle ages is, “marriages amongst the nobility were typically based on practical and dynastic concerns rather than on love”. This explains why women of the middle ages enjoyed courtly love narratives because it was an idealized relationship and allowed them an escape from real-life where they for once had all the power and respect from men. I feel this relates to romantic novels and films today because most of the time the relationship depicted is a fantasy relationship that does not exist, or is rare, within the context of real-life. Individuals in the past, as well as the present, enjoy reading and watching romantic relationships that are an imagination or vision of what their lives could be.