The Feminized, Fetishized, Totally Awesome Gral

In a previous post there was a great discussion of the Gral as both a male and female

character. I'm going to take the Gral as feminine and run with it a little bit, to discuss

how the Gral functions as a fetish (in the Freudian sense) for the male characters.

There's a lot of the feminine associated with the Gral in chapter nine. The Gral is

protected by a "Christian progeny bred to a pure life", which echos the basic chivalric code

of "pure" (ok, well, at least Christian) knights charged with serving women. (232) The

function of women is to "observe restraint...be well proofed.' (15-16) So "pure" men and

women serve the Gral and the Gral, much like women, keeps away from everyone but the one

destined for it. It's a Gral very concerned with fidelity, I feel.

The Gral, however, I think is much more fetishized than women. There are literally hundreds

of women in this poem, but only one Gral which serves as a desire-object for both men and

women. I think specifically for Parzival, the Gral serves almost as an obsession or a

fetish.

A fetish is, in basic Freudian terms, what you need to function when your desired outcome

does not match up with your expected outcome. Actually, you develop a fetish when you discover that your female lover doesn't have a penis, but in more general terms. A fetish is what you focus your energies on when you just cannot deal. A fetish is also exclusively the realm of men.

The Gral is what Parzival needs to function within the text. When he loses sight of the

Gral, he literally drops off the page, unable to do anything but sit with a hermit for years

on end. When he first sees it, he is so stunned, so preoccupied, and so unable to think that he lets it slip through his grasp. It then functions as his only driving force, what he uses to get himself through his ordeals.

This isn't mean to refute the other post, but add to it. Perhaps the Gral is the ultimate, fetishized feminine? The fetishized masculine? I don't know where I fall, personally, between thinking of its characterization as female or male, but it's certainly alive in a way objects can be only through fetishes.

The Gral: A Character or an Object of Desire?

I may be reading a bit into this, but the Gral seems to take on a life of its own throughout the rest of the take. Feminine and masculine charateristics can also be contributed to the Gral. In other words, the Gral becomes as much of a character in the second half of the text as Gawan or Parzival.

As a feminine character, the Gral serves as an object to be desired. Many of the female's throughout the text are assessed on their ability to capture a man's heart. Women are an object of desire. Yet, the Gral is the ultimate object of desire. As readers, we, along with Parzival, "meet" the Gral in Chapter 5. "Upon a green achmardi she bore the consumation of heart's desire, its root and its blossoming - a thing called 'the Gral' paradisal, transcending all earthy perfection!" (p. 125). We learn that it is " a thing" which gives one anything one desires. Chapter 5 stresses the fact that the gral is an object. Not only an object to worship, but an object to desire. Just as Gawan cannot go on until he has won the favor and love of Orgeluse, Parzival can not go on with his life until he has won the favor of the Gral. Gawan's proclamation that "The Duchess Orgeluse must have mercy on me if I am to stay a happy man" echoes that of Parcival's when he tells the hermit (Trevrizent), "My deepest distress is for the Gral ... After that it is for my wife ... I languish and pine for them both" (p.296 and 239). Both the Gral and feminine love are objects to be desired. Both men "pine" over these objects. Therefore, the Gral can be viewed as an object and a almost a female character.

On the other hand, the Gral functions mainly as a masculine character. As we learn from the history of the Gral, it only chooses men to protect it. "The Gral chooses lofty servitors, thus knights are appointed to guard it endowed with all the virtures that go with chastity" (p.251). Women (virgins) care for it just as they do when knights enter their domain. This hospitality is similar to that which we have seen throughout the text when women unarm, feed, and prepare a bed for the wandering knight. It is also important to note, the wording of the above line. "The Gral chooses," indicates that the Gral has a mind of its own. Numerous times, Parzival indicates that the Gral has alluded him, as if it had the ability to escape from him. Moreover, just as Arthur has his Table Round, the Gral has its own company. Trevrizent explains to Parzival that there is a "Gral Company." He states, "As I say, maidens are given away from the Gral openly, men in secret, in order to have progeny (as God can instruct them), in the hope that these children will return to serve the Gral and swell the ranks of its Company" (p.251). In other words, the Gral is a (masculine) ruler in its own right.

These are just a few examples I noticed throughout the text. I was wondering if anyone discovered any other ways in which the Gral could serve as a character.