Tristan

How would you compare Gottfried’s version of the poem with Thomas’s? What sorts of differences are there in the preoccupations of their narrators, in their treatment of love, and in the characters?

Would you consider this story to be a typical tragedy? Why or why not? What sorts of tragic elements does it contain? What elements does it contain that make it less of a tragedy?

What role do religion and ideas of right and wrong play in the story? Consider the scenes that reference God. How would you reconcile Tristan and Isolde’s adulterous love affair with the work’s implicitly Christian framework? How does the narrator view their affair?