Tristan

“Thus his feelings drifted in an unsure haven—hope bore him on, despair away. He found no constancy in either; they agreed neither one way nor another. When despair came and told him that his Blancheflor was his enemy he faltered and sought to escape: but at once came hope, bringing him her love, and a fond aspiration, and so perforce he remained. In the face of such discord he did not know where to turn: nowhere could he go forward.”

Rivalin’s hopes and despair about his prospects for love with Blancheflor demonstrates the manner in which love fills the lover with a mixture of positive and negative emotions, establishing The Duality of Love. Rivalin’s emotions also foreshadow not only those of Tristan and Isolde, who become uncertain about the other’s continued love for them, but also those of Mark, who vacillates between hope that Isolde loves him and that Tristan remains loyal and despair that the two of them are betraying him.

“Thus it came about that Rivalin recovered, and Blancheflor’s heart was burdened and unburdened of two different kinds of pain. She left great sorrow alongside the man and bore great sorrow away. She left the anguish of a love-lorn heart, but what she bore away was death. She left her anguish when love came; death she received with the child.”

This passage highlights the Mixed Fortunes that often occur in the story, often in association with love. While Blancheflor rejoices in Rivalin’s reciprocation of her love, she also faces sorrow and potential disgrace in having a relationship and becoming pregnant out of wedlock. The latter element of Rivalin and Blancheflor’s relationship also foreshadows the forbidden love between Tristan and Isolde. The juxtaposition of new life (a product of Rivalin and Blancheflor’s relationship) with death is likewise characteristic of love’s duality.