Originally Posted by
Dark Muse
Ok, there were a couple of things I wanted to say regarding this passage. It was one of the most interesting I thought in the story.
First of all, the very first time I read the story, to me this seemed very Arthurian. I could not help but to have this imager of Connie as being akin to Queen Guinevere here. Particularly sense earlier she is linked to the rectory, being that Guinevere was the Christian queen.
While Winne seems to be very Morgan, the seductress, who is still connected to the pagan roots. And Coutts relationship to the two different women are very similar to Arthur's own feelings about Guinevere and Morgan. Arthur was never very passionate about his wife but because he was bewitched and seduced by Morgan, he was always filled with regret about the relations he once shared with her, as he was "tricked" into it.
Then when we were discussing the statues, and the symbolism of the pedestal, and the idea of how that relates to the way Coutts does seem to put Conni on a pedestal, this passage, particularly with the words "Queen" and "Knight" used, made me think of this story, as reminiscent as the old ideals of courtly love.
In courtly love, the woman that one would marry, was seen as if she were upon a pedestal, her beauty was worshipped, but from a distance, she was seen as pure, and innocent, and admired in much the same way a statue would be admired, and so the men would not bring themselves to disgrace the "holiness" and "chasteness" of such women, the woman that a man loved, was not the same women that a man lusted after.
The physical passions of men in the courtly love system were unleashed upon women that were viewed as already being "fallen"
And Connie and Winnie sort of represent these two different aspects of women. Though Winnie perhaps actually has not been sexually intimate before, she is an unmarried woman acting as seductress to a man who is engaged, and by Coutts she is viewed in a passionate and physical way. While his relationship with Connie is much more chaste in the way he thinks of her.
