#sera reads ivanhoe

[mademoiselleseraph]

Brian de Bois-Guilbert doesn't even just fail at courtly love, he entirely inverts it. He doesn't use his feelings for Rebecca as motivation to better himself, as the men in courtly romances do to make themselves more worthy of consideration and love, instead, he embitters himself over the fact Rebecca is not less than what she is.

He projects his lack of convictions onto her at every given opportunity. He wishes she had his same lack of chastity. He calls her own code of honor and dedication to her faith as a Jewish woman "stubbornness" and curses it. At the same time she lists off virtues he, as one sworn into a Christian institution, should have, such as charity toward the less fortunate and defending the innocent against falsehoods made against them, that as a man and a Christian, he is supposed to do these things without the expectation of personal gain. She tries to morally elevate him to her level (as she uses all the means and skills at her disposal to make the lives of even those who will always hate her for being Jewish a little easier and more comfortable), tries to give him a chance to live up to the purpose he proclaimed to the world on swearing to serve Christ as a knight, but he refuses these virtues because they do not gratify his desire for status or Rebecca herself.

I don't think this is an accident. Sir Walter Scott was a Romanticist and went through a lot of writings on the Middle Ages as reference material for Ivanhoe. He of all people would have an understanding of courtly love, and he decided Rebecca would be a more apt depiction of its ideals in her selfless and undemanding love for Wilfred than Bois-Guilbert could ever be in his desire for her.

[mademoiselleseraph]

Also at the risk of sounding like the most reductive tumblrina ever, i will never be over the fact a white Presbyterian author said "incels who think they aren't bigots like their peers because they're horny for minority women but won't offer praxis if it doesn't get them minority pussy should feel so bad about their choices that they die" in his 1819 chivalrous romance. Dude made a Knight Templar character with a mysterious, vaguely troubled past and said "watch this motherfucker fail at literally every step of courtly love while his victim puts up with exactly none of his shit"

[mademoiselleseraph]

Ladies, is it gay to unveil yourself in the pressence of another woman and blush like a tomato when you can sense her admiration on the other side of her own veil?

[mademoiselleseraph]

Sir Walter Scott: Isaac's very beautiful amd very Jewish daughter Rebecca had an aquiline nose and curly black hair

Illustators, apparently: but she's supposed to be pretty! How can she have a bump in her nose if she's pretty?????

[mademoiselleseraph]

Looking up medieval anatomy diagrams for Ivanhoe fanart i wanna draw and most of them are from the Muslim world because they were having a Golden Age of the arts and sciences, not unlike the Christian world's Renaissance centuries later

And it is terrible that Rebecca and her dad Isaac have to seek refuge in Andalusia because they've seen enough to know antisemitism isn't going to get better anywhere else in Europe and it's still there but mild enough to be tolerable under Muslim rule, but i wonder if Rebecca was able to further study medicine when she and her dad settled. Like tbh i don't know if Rebecca, as a Jewish woman, would be able to access the advanced medical texts and diagrams to study them or teachings of the advances, but the entire climax of the book is built on a theological anachronism, so even if it was a hard no irl, in the book's universe there is some wiggle room.

[mademoiselleseraph]

Ivanhoe au where everything is the same except Rebecca has a heavy duty cattle prod except everything wouldn't be the same because Bois-Guilbert would die by elctrocution at Torquilstone and there's a slight chance that could mean the witch trial never happens

[mademoiselleseraph]

I don't get the appeal of any ship with Rebecca because the entire book is built around how even the good Christians don't think of her as an equal and the closest it gets is thinking of her as a future/potential convert or wishing she could have been Christian to begin with when converting isn't even an option in her mind and heart. She'd literally rather die for her faith as a Jewish woman and says as much more than once and the narration treats her as incredibly honorable for it.

She immigrates with her father to Andalusia at the end of the book, centuries before the Fall of Granada, and what could be a happier ending than for her to honor her beloved mentor Miriam's works and memory with a long, successful career as a doctor? For her to grow old in relative peace, doing what makes her happiest and reminds her of her own accomplishments and the love she found in her shattered and oppressed community?

No Christian man who probably doesn't even wash his asshole is worth it to giving that up tbh.

[mademoiselleseraph]

I can also see why so many contemporary readers were so taken with Rebecca. Even to a modern reader she's a breath of fresh air. A sweet, gentle, generous young woman who does not put up with any bullshit and is an accomplished healer and student for her age and speaks a ton of languages including French, Saxon, Hebrew, Latin, and Arabic. She is aware the man she loves will never see her as an option or even his equal because even if he's one of the good ones, he's still entrenched in the prejudices of his culture, and those prejudices are considered a virtue to many. Her response to being told to convert from Judaism and/or give in to a Knight Templar's lust is always "respectfully, i would rather die." I love her so much. I will kill Brian de Bois-Guilbert with my bare hands for her.