In Yonec and Laustic, Marie de France describes tombs that house the unfulfilled love of her characters. The function of the tombs is to preserve the physical bodies of a love that could not be realized during the characters' lifetime. In both cases, the tombs are extremely beautiful, ornate and described in stunning detail, like a work of art. However, the tombs are limited and conclusive, making it an incomplete version of the story, insufficient to continue it into the future. In contrast, lais are a dynamic form that constantly changes with each story. The transformational nature of the secular makes it a lively art form, as opposed to the tomb which is a fixed art form. While the grave preserves the physical remains of the characters' love stories, the act of composing these stories into lays forever preserves the love between these characters. Even though tombs preserve physical characters, they are limited and therefore cannot actively continue their story. However, the secular, as a constantly changing and animated form, possesses the power both to preserve the past and to continue to perpetuate history. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayThe tomb and the secular are works of art, even though they are very different. The tombs of the two lays are described as beautiful works of art. In Laustic, the dead nightingale is first wrapped “in a piece of samite, embroidered with gold and writing” (135-136), then placed in “a small vase fashioned without iron or steel; it was all pure gold and good stones, very precious and very expensive; the cover was very carefully tied” (149-153). At Yonec, the tomb is “covered with a cloth of embroidered silk, a band of precious gold running from one side to the other. Twenty candles were burning at the head, feet and sides. The chandeliers were made of pure gold, the censers of amethyst, which perfumed this tomb all day long, to its great honor” (499-506). Both tombs are beautifully described and are essentially works of art; they are beautifully decorated and adorned with stunning materials like gold and marble. The tomb is therefore in itself a work of art. The secular is also an art form that “puts [adventures] into words and rhymes” (Prologue 41). In this sense, the tomb and the secular are different. While the tomb is beautifully decorated with pure materials like gold and marble, the lay is simply composed words in a rhyming sequence. It's not primarily visually appealing, but rather aurally and thoughtful. The secular and the tomb are also different from each other in terms of purpose. The art of the tomb is finished and complete once its construction is complete, while the secular is constantly evolving and can be revised and transformed infinitely through transposition and narrative. The lais of Marie de France are translations from “Latin to Roman” then from French to English (Prologue 30). These lays are constantly evolving and are not finished like the tomb, making lay a more lively and dynamic art form. The finite tomb and the dynamic lay function differently in preservation due to their contrasting natures. Graves preserve physical love and encapsulate unfulfilled love in both lays. In Yonec, when the lady is confronted by her lover's grave years after his death, she "faints because of the grave, and in her fainting she dies... [then] they [take] the lady with a great honor and [place] her in the coffin” (538-548). Even though she was unable to be with him during his lifetime, the lady is ultimately buried with her lover - a sign of her "great honor” from the inhabitants of the city (547). In this way, the grave will preserve both their physical bodies and the love between them. Likewise, the tomb described in Laustic preserves the body of the nightingale, symbol of the forbidden relationship. The love depicted in Laustic is different; it is never described as a true love but rather a superficial love where “each took pleasure in the sight of the other since they could not have anything more” (77-78). When the lady realizes that she “will not be able to get up at night or stand at the window where [she] saw [her] love,” she sends her lover the dead nightingale to relay the message. The knight is “very sad about the adventure but he [is] neither wicked nor hesitant,” and he abandons their relationship as easily as she does (147-148). Neither sacrifice for each other nor even attempt to continue their relationship, and so the tomb created for their love story is simply the dead nightingale in a coffin, as opposed to Yonec where the lovers are buried together. The knight “has the sealed coffin and always carries it with him” as a small token of their relationship (155-156). The coffin preserves the dead nightingale as a symbol of their love: testimony to their affair and the only vestige of their relationship. These two tombs are limited and cannot be modified due to the nature of the tomb. As a result, their stories in this form are fixed and unchanging, and therefore incomplete. In Yonec, lovers buried together could suggest that they were married and spent their lives together. In Laustic, a dead nightingale wrapped in a coffin does not express the whole story of the lovers. Although the tomb preserves the physical remains of the story, it is an incomplete version of the tales. The lais suggest that although tombs preserve physical bodies, they constitute incomplete forms of the love story due to their fixed nature. However, lais, as a dynamic and animated form, are capable of both preserving the love story and continuing to perpetuate it for generations. In Yonec, as the lady, her husband and her son approach the knight's tomb, they ask the townspeople about the knight who lies there. Without the townspeople to explain, the tomb is ineffective in communicating the knight's story. Moreover, as the knight predicted to the lady years ago, she would hear his story and explain the adventure to their son. After listening to the people of the city, the lady “calls out loud to her son” (526) and “reveals to everyone… the truth” (533-537). The story behind the tomb needed a living component to continue and endure. Not only that, but the son sets out to avenge his father and kill his stepfather to “avenge his mother’s grief” (544). The living continuation of the story, the lady, also changes the story, as Yonec becomes lord of the townspeople and changes lineage. The tomb, as a finite entity, is incapable of change and therefore insufficient as a means of perpetuating true history. Although it preserves physical bodies, it is by nature only a partial representation of the adventure. Likewise, Laustic's ending suggests that a living component is necessary to convey the story. As the knight has “sealed the coffin” and “placed the nightingale within,” he conceals their story by locking the nightingale in the vessel (154–155). However, "the adventure was told, [because] it could not be hidden for long", which suggests that the act of the living in telling the story is what allows it to be passed down although she is enclosed in the finished coffin (157-158). ). The secular, as a dynamic form in constant evolution, makes it an animated form, especially when contrasted with the.