Sir Orfeo Analysis Essay

Sir Orfeo, written by an unknown author, employs a variety of poetic devices to immerse the audience in the tale and evoke a myriad of pathos. Throughout this short lay, the author calls upon the dichotomy of heaven and hell, creating an environment in which the reader remains suspended between the two, searching for truth in the world of Sir Orfeo. The fantastical setting of the lay gives the illusion of a beautiful and powerful kingdom, unmistakably loyal to their king, Sir Orfeo. The calm of the beginning of the lay is offset by the dark and ghastly kidnapping of the queen and the paradoxical beauty of the home of her captors. The pointed and frightening scenes differ drastically from the majority of the poem. The passage, in conjunction with its poetic
Sir Orfeo observes people, who were thought dead, preserved in various states of pain and madness. The exterior celestial beauty of the fairy kingdom masks the destruction and deterioration within the castle. Initially the queen, Heurodis, represents everything expected of a medieval woman. She is “[t]he fairest” (53) and “[f]ul of love and godenisse” (55), yet one fateful Spring day the king of the fairies visits her in a dream. Within the dream, he threatens to take her. She awakes maddened, “And crached hir visage- it bled wete- / Hir riche robe hye al to-rett / And was reveyd out hir wit” (80-2), scratching her face, ripping her clothing, her beauty warps and devolves. The king later remarks, “O lef liif, what is te, / That ever yete hast ben so stille / And now gredest wonder schiller?” (102-4). He also comments on her bloodied appearance, and red covering her pure whiteness. The fairy strips Heuodis of her purity and sanity, juxtaposing the primary description and the description of the Spring surrounding her with life in the midst of the threat of death. Contradictory diction used to construct an unnerving atmosphere did not end