Courtly Love in Enchanted

One of the things that is a theme in several of the Canterbury tales is "courtly love." This is an image that isn't at all uncommon in modern stories, in books and in movies. One example that I thought fit rather well- though, it was drawn off of other fairy tales rather than Chaucer- is the Disney movie Enchanted. Various aspects of courtly love are evident throughout the movie, and there is even the added bonus of seeing exactly how silly the classic version of it looks in modern times.

Admit it, though, it would be awesome if  some of this (mostly the whole

 breaking into song thing) worked in real life?

First there is the relationship between Edward and Giselle. He spends all his time saying how much he loves her, what he loves about her, and he says things like, "This is Giselle, the love of my life, my heart's true desire." It's adorable and very sweet, but when it comes down to it, there really isn't any substance to their relationship. In addition, Edward is always doing daring deeds, and in the beginning was pining after a dream of "true love's kiss."

The part that really reminded me of courtly love, actually, was the whole "true love's kiss" thing. It's a very innocent type of love. For instance:

She just doesn't get it.

And of course, when he tries to explain what just happened with Nancy, she's just like, "She thinks we kissed?' "Yeah... something like that."

Anyway, so Enchanted, and I guess, the various fairy tales that it draws from, are all excellent examples of courtly love, as influenced by Middle English literature.