The Importance of Beauty, Youth, and Nobility

According to the texts of Erec and Enide, beauty is of high importance during the Middle Ages. For example, the prize for killing the white stag is a kiss from the most beautiful woman. If beauty was not of such high importance, it would not have been revered as an appropriate prize for killing such a mysterious and unique animal.

When Enide is revealed to Erec, her beauty is qualified by symbols and metaphors: "The maiden was very beautiful, for Nature in making her had turned all her attention to the task. Nature herself had marveled more than five hundred times at how she had been able to make such a beautiful thing just once" (42). In Chretien's explanation of Enide he creates a portrait of a not only beautiful woman, but of what beautiful should resemble. He describes Enide with "shining golden hair," "fairer and brighter than the lily-flower," and eyes that "glowed with such brightness that they resembled two stars" (42). Enide then becomes what all Medieval woman should look like: fair, bright-eyed, blonde maidens.

In comparison to some of the other images of women in the Middle Ages, when looking at the Unicorn series in Paris, the woman resembles how Enide is described in the story.

The woman in the tapestries is fair skinned, blonde, and equally bright eyed. In the first tapestry shown, the blonde woman is compared to the other maiden in the scene. Most likely the fair maidens hand-maid, the beauty of the maiden is heightened because she stands taller and more central in the image. She is also shown to have more beautiful gowns which show her wealth and nobility. Much like Erec's concern with Enide's nobility and manners, Enide's background is confirmed as being without "ill-bred." Enide's nobility is confirmed by her father's ownership of armor.

Although beauty if different throughout the world, many of the western ideals of beauty have remained the same. Their is still an emphasis on wealth and family up-bringing. Though there has been some equilibrium between the argument of blondes or brunettes, the idea of a fair, blonde, and younger woman is still highly sought after. Yet it can be argued that the fairness of a person's skin is not as prized in America. Now women decide to tan their skin, rather than show their wealth through the fairness of their skin.