Week 11: Story Tristan and Isolde Story

After disguising himself as TANTRIS, Tristan seeks the aid of Isolde in order to cure his wound. As he was passing out into her arms, Tristan has a dream of falling in love and marrying Isolde.

Tristan awakens to find himself in a dark room. Isolde is very angry. She just found out that Tristan murdered Morholt and she is very mad. While all  bound in chains, Tristan starts to feel his throat parch. Isolde, confronts Tristan with a vial of liquid DEATH.

"Why am I bound here?" asked Tristan.
"You deceived me!" replied Isolde.
"I'm sorry, but if you had known the truth, then you would not have cured me."
"Better to let you die a just warrior than a lying scoundrel."
"What can I do to make it up to you?"
"You will answer all my questions!!" barked Isolde.

"Why did you do it? Why did you have to murder Morholt?"
"I did what I had to do to defend my king."

After a few more questions, Tristan realizes that he is extremely thirsty.

"I have lost so much blood, I must have a drink!"
"I am not done asking my questions!"

"Please! I feel I will dehydrate and pass out again if I do not have any water! What's in that vial? let me drink!"
"In this vial holds your fate and your death! Drink it if you dare, or answer my questions and I might spare you."

Tristan goes a few more rounds of the trivia.

"Isolde please! I'm so thirsty!"
"No!"

After a few thousand questions, Isolde finds out that Tristan is not so bad after all and he had to do what he had to do in order to defend his king. Tristan also confesses his secret love for her and that he went in disguise only to see her.

"I forgive you." replied Isolde.
"Finally."

Completely forgetting that the vial is poisonous, Tristan quenches his thirst and immediately dies.

Isolde is unfazed by what just happened and goes about her day merrily. 

source Tristan's death and Isolde over his body

Bibliography:

Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde

R.K. Narayan's The Mahabharata

Author's Notes:
Tristan and Isolde is a 19th century opera based off the legend of Tristan and Isolde, a story about a warrior who slays Morholt and is poisoned, and Isolde is the only one who can save him. In the actual opera and story, Tristan and Isolde fall in love. He disguises himself as TANTRIS and seeks the aid of Isolde, unbeknownst to her that Tristan was the one who murdered Morholt. She eventually finds out and they still fall in love. In Wagner's version, the poison vial is replaced with a love potion and they fall in love.

In my rendition of it, the poisoned vial remains poison and Tristan dies and Isolde does not care.

I took the plot from the Mahabharata where Yudihistera is must confront and answer questions from the spirit at the lake before he could take a drink. In the story, Yudihistera succeeds and the spirit rewards him by bringing back to life the 4 dead Pandava brothers.

I decided to do a twist on the story and have Tristan (taking the space of Yudihistera) answer all the questions, and then instead of receiving grace, by his own forgetfulness, he drank the vial and died. I think it's pretty funny and I hope you like it too

Week 11 Reading Part B

The reading about the fighting with Duryahadna was one again ever more detailed and better than the R.K. Narayan's version. The way that Bhima pounces on top of Durayadhana and beats his thigh is very detailed and more satisfying. The dialogue brings the character to life and portrays how awesome Bhima is. Also, it makes it ever more satisfying that Duryodhana was defeated by him for making fun of the girl. Perhaps I could use some of the imagery when I am expanding my story with the Karamazov brothers when I put it on my wall. The story works great and I am excited to almost be done with Krishna Dharma's version!


Bhima beats Duryodhana's thigh source

Bibliography:

Krishna Dharma's The Mahabharata

Week 11 Reading Notes Part A

Today, the reading of Bhisma's fall is heartbreaking. Krishna Dharma does such a great job of portraying how much Bhisma really did not want to fight. The word choice of "not resisting" is amazing and really leads to how heartbreaking this war really is on both sides. Neither Bhisma nor Arjuna wanted to fight till the death.
My favorite scene is how Bhisma chose to not resist at all the volley of arrows that Arjuna sent his way. Also, I did not know that Sikhandi was even relevant in the battle with Bhisma. That detail of Sikhandi aiding Arjuna in his fight against Bhisma was totally glazed over in R.K. Narayan's version, but Dharma makes great use of it in this story. 

source bhisma on Arjunas arrow bed

bibliohraphy:

Krishna Dharma's The Mahabharata