Thesis ideas:
Main idea: Letters serve as a vehicle for Dhuoda,
Abelard, and Heloise to express their concern in times of physical separation
and turmoil
Draft Thesis:
Coping mechanisms are a part and parcel of everyone’s lives,
and the lives of medieval writers are no different. Using writing as their
medium, Dhuoda, Abelard, and Heloise attempt to handle grief caused by physical
separation from their loved ones’ by offering kind words of advice in the form
of letters. The writing, geared towards protecting the spiritual health of
these respected loved ones, relies heavily on religious belief and references.
Although appearing to flee the tasks that their loved ones’ have to face, these
three authors fight with a pen as their weapon and the paper as their trusty
steed.
Subargument 1:
All authors rely both on religious references and personal
evidence in order to convince the other person of the lesson which they are
trying to convey
·
Dhuoda
o
Uses religious authority and scripture to guide
William to success individuals’ and, eventually, Heaven
§
“If you wish to be truly rich, learn wisdom…it
is written: There is a treasure to be desired in the heart of a wise man” (73)
§
“He who curseth his father, dying let him die
basely and uselessly” (22)
o
Supplements religious advice with both personal and alternate religious (non-Bible)
advice
§
“In the future, should I fail you by my absence,
you have this little moral work as a reminder, so that as you read in spirit
and body and as you pray to god you may be able to look upon me as if in a
mirror” (13).
§
“Learn from those elders whose understanding is
rich whatever good you can with the Father’s help so you may be pleasing to God
before all else and then be useful to man” (33).
·
Abelard/Heloise
o
Validate their advice using religious quotes and
claims
§
“Consider then the great power of prayer, if we
pray as we are bidden, seeing that the prophet won by prayer what he was
forbidden to pray for, and turned God aside from his declared intention”
(Abelard 57)
§
“You may not be an adulterer, but if you coming
murder you are an adulterer all the same” (Heloise 95).
o
Use personal advice regarding treatment of
each other
§
“You know, beloved, as everyone knows, how much
I have lost in you, how at one wretched stroke of fortune that supreme act of
flagrant treachery robbed me of my very self in robbing me of you, and how my
sorrow for my loss is nothing compared with what I feel for the manner in which
I lost you” (50).
§
“Yet though perhaps I suffered less physical
pain at the time, I am now the more distressed for the calumny I must endure.
My agony is less for the mutilation of my body than for the damage to my
reputation, for it is written that ‘A good name is more to be desired than
great riches” (37).
Subargument 2:
All authors feel that their personal crises and
misunderstandings with their loved ones’ has a greater impact on these
individuals’ lives than the multitude of change happening on a bigger scale.
·
Dhuoda faces a tumultuous societal change in
leadership but is increasingly concerned about William’s conduct
o
“Then you clearly see your duty to me…you will
have other teachers, but not anyone like me, your mother, whose heart burns on
your behalf” (13).
·
Abelard and Heloise face both
political and church reform but are forcibly focused on their own shortcomings
and misgivings.
o
“had I remained there, for a woman , being the
weaker sex, is the more pitiable in a
state of need, easily rousing human sympathy, and her virtue is the more
pleasing to God as it is to man” (36).
o
Heloise is “sister in Christ rather than my
wife” (35)
Subargument 3 (Fight-or-Flight)
All authors advise their loved ones to supposedly ‘fight’ against
the adversity they are facing, using it to mask a form of flight and therefore
neither picking either choice entirely.
·
Dhuoda asks William to fight against his
adversity by taking refuge in God’s advice that she passes on to him
o
“Keep faith in God while continuing your
search to find Him” (p7)
o
“If you serve your earthly lords and the Lord
well, you can rest n the kingdom of heaven and you will be united happily with
Christ” (p33)
o
“Stay above bad influences, follow God’s word
to be morally right” (p44)
·
Abelard and Heloise convince each other to
fight the distance between them by using prayer and putting Christ before each
other, fleeing from addressing their relationship
o
Heloise went toward God because Abelard told her
to (54)
o
Abelard : only talk to me if you need to be
instructed about god (56).
o
“However , I approve of your rejection of
praise, for in this very thing you should yourself more praiseworthy” (78)—he
values humility NOW, esp for her…he begs her not to blame god
o
“I beg you, who seek to imitate not only Christ
but also this apostle, in discrimination as in name, modify your instructions
for works to suit our weak nature, so that we can be free to devote ourselves
to the offices of praising God” (109).
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