The Story of the Grail

2) In the tale, Chretien uses the colors red and white a lot to convey a certain meaning to the reader. Without even reading, one can associate multiple meanings for the words red and white. For example, red can serve to represent evil, blood, violence, and lust. White is the complete opposite, serving to represent things like purity, innocence, angels, and in the tale, Blanchefleur, whose name means "white flower." These colors are present multiple times and Chretien wants to provide a strong impact on the reader. After analyzing the scenes that take place, it is clear why Chretien includes such events in order for the reader to dig a little deeper to decipher what the meaning of each encounter is trying to say. Blood has been mentioned several times in the text. The first scene that I recall involves the Red knight that Perceval kills with the javelin through his eye. This is a very graphic scene where Chretien describes that he struck him through the eye into the brain; blood and brains oozed out the other side at the nape of his neck (353). This scene also ties into the theme of blindness that we discussed in class. Perceval, along with many others, is so obsessed with the external image of becoming a knight that he does not understand what it takes to be one. He does not understand the danger and killing involved. The scene where Perceval sees the blood from the goose's neck on the snow, the blood in the snow immediately reminds him of Blanchefleur. This is strange because the blood is described as a "natural color, spread on the white snow." Earlier, Blanchefleur's beauty was something that was described as very unnatural. Chretien writes, "The blood and the snow together reminded him of the fresh hue on his beloved's face, and he mused until he forgot himself. He thought that the rosy hue stood out against the white of her face like the drops of blood on the white snow"(391). This makes me think of the description of her face when he first saw her, "the crimson hue set on the white of her face was more becoming to her than vermilion to silver" (362). Even though this scene is very strange and sort of disturbing, I take it to be that Perceval really cares about Blanchefleur and he sees her wherever he goes. She is his motivation to do well and become a great and mature knight. He constantly has this image of her beauty instilled in his head and he takes it with him. He shows her that he has matured by not killing the man who killed her father, and instead sending him to King Arthur's prison. On the other hand, I also have a different opinion of Perceval. Since he was so obsessed with the external image of knighthood, I can't help but wonder if he is just obsessed with Blanchefleur's external beauty. It is ironic that Blanchefleur weeps over knighthood to Perceval when Perceval was also contributing to the fact that knighthood has lost its true meaning.