Laustic (The Nightingale) PDF

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Summary

A paper on trickery and deception used in Laustic (The Nightingale)....

Description

Theme and Use of Trickery, and Deception Trickery and deception is clearly used in Laustic (The Nightingale) which is a short medieval French tale, this short tale can be compared to ‘’The Tale of the Husband and the Parrott’’ in 1001 Nights. Both tales share similarities with the use of trickery, deception, and the theme of the tales. Laustic (The Nightingale) is a tale about two neighbors, a man and a woman, who share a love for each other. The man is a married man, who is also a knight, and the woman is also a married woman to another knight. The knight gained the woman’s love from his good reputation throughout the town, and they both knew that they had to keep their romance discreet, and never to be suspected. Since their homes were so close they can go into their rooms up in the towers which there were no barriers to keep them apart from seeing each other. They would talk to one another through their windows, and sometimes exchange their belongings by tossing them across the way. The only thing that kept them apart were her husband’s guards, she was closely guarded and could not leave her home to visit her lover. They would be able to talk to one another throughout the day time and night time, but during the night she would have to leave her husbands bed to go upstairs and talk to her lover who was living the same style of life by staying up late at night to talk with her. On one summer night the birds were singing as the lovers spoke with one another, but

eventually her lord began to get aggravated with her disappearance from the bed at continuous nights. Her lord began to question her and became suspicious why she wasn’t sleeping at night and leaving the bed so often. She could not tell him the true reason so she said that she has been going up to the towers to listen to the nightingale sing. The lord was angry by this and ordered his men to set traps to capture the bird. Once the bird was captured he called his wife to witness him snap the neck of the bird in his hands, killing it instantly. He then threw the corpse of the bird at his wife, which left a blood stain on her blouse. She cried and cursed the men who set the traps because now she knew she had no excuse to go up and talk to her lover. She decided to call one of her servants to send the nightingale to her lover wrapped and in a piece of samite, embroidered in gold and writing, charged the servant with a message. The servant went to the knight and greeted him in his lovers name, related the whole message to him, and gave him the nightingale. The knight was very sad to hear everything that had happened, but he casketed the nightingale and carried it everywhere he went.

The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot is about a very jealous man who is was married to a very beautiful woman, so beautiful that she was considered perfection. The wife always refused to leave her husband’s side until one day he had to go on a journey alone, but before he went on this journey he bought a parrot that was very intelligent, knowledgeable, smart, and

retentive. When he got back from his journey he asked the parrot what had went on while he was away. The parrot was able to give him a very detailed and day by day account of what his wife did with another lover while he wasn’t there. The husband was very angry to hear this and approached his wife and gave her a sound beating and told her that he had heard of this from one of the maids. The man’s wife decided to find out which one of the maids had told of this to her husband, so she started to question all of the maids until one maid told her that it was the parrot who had told her husband about the affair. After finding this out, the wife ordered her maids to take a grinding stone and grind under the cage as another maid sprinkled water above the cage, and as another used a steel mirror to walk back and forth all night long while her husband was gone one night. When the husband came back he asked the parrot what had happened the previous night and the parrot explained that nothing happened and it rained all night. The husband argued with the parrot that it did not rain and accused the parrot of lying. Therefore, the husband believed the parrot must’ve lied about his wife’s encounter with another man, and in a fit of rage the husband killed the parrot. Later after the death of the parrot, the husband had found out from his neighbors that the parrot did not lie and that his wife had tricked him into killing the parrot. The husband was full of regret. The similarities between both tales are that a bird in both tales, but in both tales the bird

was more significant than one would think. In Laustic the bird represented the love between the two lovers. In ‘’The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot’’ the bird represent the truth between what his wife does while the husband is gone. It is also similar in both tales that the birds were both killed, and killed by then men. The next similarity between both tales is that there were romantic affairs going on in both of them. Another similarity between both tales are that these seem to be both rich couples because they have servants, guards, and maids. Another weird similarity is that both tales included their neighbors, but the neighbors played opposite roles. The neighbor in Laustic would have been an enemy of the lord if he had found out about the affair, and in ‘’The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot’’ the neighbors were the ones to provide closure for the husband....