Themes in "Les Deux Amanz"

 Some commonly identified themes in "Les Deux Amanz" are: 

• "Love and Suffering" (LitCharts)/ "Love as Suffering" (CourseHero)
• "Virtue, Vice, and Justice" (LitCharts)
• "...condemnation of selfish love" (GradeSaver)
• "moderation" (GradeSaver)

"Les Deux Amanz" is a story about how two lovers sacrifice their health (and ultimately their lives) for one another. Therefore, it exemplifies the "Love as Suffering" theme. This tragic tale shows us that some people will put themselves through pain as a show of extreme devotion to a romantic partner. There is a degree to which this is unhealthy, which is shown through the lovers' actions leading to their deaths at the end of the tale. The story serves as a warning to not sacrifice too much for a romantic partner. 

This is a tale of forbidden love. A princess wants to marry her lover, but her father does not allow her to. However, she could marry her lover on one condition: "...he would have to carry her in his arms to the summit of the mountain outside the city without stopping to rest" (lines 35-38). Her lover suggests that they elope, but the princess refuses, saying: "'If I ran away with you, my father would be grief-stricken and angry" (lines 88-89). So, they are forced to go through with the king's deal. 

By the story's end, the lovers sacrifice their health and their lives for one another. The princess sacrifices her bodily health to make it easier for her lover to carry her up the mountain, helping them secure her father's blessing for their marriage. de France says that the princess "...fasted and dieted, cut down on her eating, because she desired to help her lover” (lines 164-166). Her lover perished in his attempt to carry her up the mountaintop. He had a super-strength potion with him that would have aided in their mission, but "...halfway up the mountain...In his joy for his beloved, he forgot his potion" (lines 181-183). "She noticed he was growing weak" (line 184) and told him to drink the potion. However, he refused, claiming that the large audience that had gathered to watch them would "...have [him] all confused" (line 195) if he had stopped to drink the potion. He even refused her entreaty take the potion later when "...he was on the verge of collapsing" (line 198). He died at the top of the mountain. After he died, "...she lay down and stretched out beside him" (line 223). "She died there too" (line 227). The lovers' mutual deaths rendered the sacrifices they made for one another irrelevant. If they had just eloped like the princess' lover suggested in the beginning, they would still be alive in the end. Therefore, it would have been more beneficial for them to pursue the route that required less pain and sacrifice.