Contrasting Views of Love in Tristan and Isolt and La Princess De Cleves

Madame de Lafayette's opus La Princesse de Cleves is often credited for being the first psychological novel because of the author's disturbingly insightful dissection of the book's protagonist, Mme. de Cleves and how it reveals her perspective on romantic love. La Princess de Cleves illuminates the numerous dangers of falling in love, from losing moral and internal integrity to losing one's political power. Mme. de Cleves ultimately rejects M. Nemour's advances because she fears knowing her true self and falling victim to other perils of love, including intense jealousy and the inability to ever fully possess her lover. The impact love has upon Mme. de Cleves is fast and nearly fatal and is thus an excellent attack on works promoting courtly love, such as the classic "Tristan and Isolt." Lafayette's novel is a direct commentary upon the outlandish views of love just an era before hers, rejecting its unrealistic idolatry, emphasis on distance and spiritual love, and inherent selfishness.