Le Cid Extremists

'The characters in Le Cid are extremists prepared, at whatever cost, to live up to their convictions.' Do you agree with this comment on the play?

“Pierre Corneille’s Le Cid focuses on a legendary hero of eleventh-century Spain and his feats of heroism, chivalry and honour. But a more pervading element of this play, one that is acted out by not only the protagonist but many other characters is that of sacrifice” . Having been set in the Seventeenth Century it was “adapted to the heroic ethic that Corneille recognised in the French nobility of his own generation...where the pundonor (a punctilious concern with personal and family honour) provided one of the predominant themes of Golden Age drama” . In this essay I will look at a selection of characters who appear to have strong convictions; if they live up to said convictions, they are, as the comment describes, “extremists prepared, at whatever cost, to live up to their convictions”.
Let us begin by defining an “extremist”. I consider an extremist to be a person who stands by their opinions or views beyond reasonable limits, be it political or, in the case of this book, love and honour. While this applies to many of the characters in Le Cid, I believe that it does not apply to all.
R.C. Knight notes that Le Cid “contains a well-developed love story – of a couple united and divided by the cult of honour” , this quote from Chimène clearly illustrates his point of view. Throughout the book, Chimène is torn between doing what is needed to avenge her father and doing what her heart feels is right. This is a similar situation to that of Rodrigue and his father. Had Rodrigue decided not to duel, but to save his love for Chimène, he feared that Chimène would think of him as unworthy. Now, Chimène feels that in order to be worthy of Rodrigue’s love, she must be seen to do what is right. This dilemma is also shown through a speech by