A Critical Analysis Of Merciles Beautee - 1792 Words

A critical analysis of â€Å"Merciles Beautee† as compared with â€Å"To Rosemounde, Hale sterne superne, hale in eterne and Of my lady wel me rejoise I may.† â€Å"The courtly lady†¦possesses a curiously hybrid gender. While maintaining stereotypically female sexuality, she also holds, in principle at least, the status of a feudal lord.† Burns’ statement insinuates a reversal of power dynamics between man and woman in the courtly love lyric, implying that the woman’s stereotypical beauty and sexuality in courtship, is a gateway to subverting and overpowering the lovesick male, making her a superior lord. The Amour Courtois lyric is deemed inconsistent with the representation of woman as an empowered â€Å"feudal lord† due to the sheer objectification of femininity and beauty. Poets such as Geoffrey Chaucer and William Dunbar commend a woman’s aesthetic appeal or satirise the lack of it, thus elevating medieval misogynistic expectations of physical beauty as a feminine necessity that objectifies women under the control of man’s advances. Throughout courtly love lyrics female beauty is a purel y frivolous and superficial trait lacking predominant depth, to render woman as a â€Å"lord† would be poetically conflicting as the only power exemplified by female subjects in courtship is through the idolisation and sexual lust of the male devotee. In Chaucer’s â€Å"Merciles Beautee†, feminine beauty is represented as a superficial threat, â€Å"merciless† lust is the sole weapon of the female against man in the fin