User:Emberk8/Le Roman de Silence

Sound vs Silence
There is an ambiguity attributed to this text. The ambiguity of the way the text is discovered adds on to what the roman is about: silence. The roman is about silence, and tells the reader that through the writing, which leads it to not being silent.Writing about silence being silent is an oxymoron. In lines 4320-4326 Queen Eufeme writes a letter,”On behalf of Ebain, her lord, she writes the king of France a letter that he should cut off the head of the messenger who carries the letter to him; that he not spare him this for any ,reason since he has caused such shame to the king that he does not want to recount it.” This letter that Queen Eufeme represents a silent accusation ie. the letter. She has found a way to silence Silence without using verbal communication, thus keeping to the silence. This shows levels of silence in the text, while the Queen is verbally silent she is not being completely silent because she is using words and language to communicate something. This instance is also reflected in the power of speech and who holds that power. The feminine speech is silenced as seen when Queen Eufeme is killed for her transgressions, while the masculine speech is praised. This can be seen in line 6663 of the poem ,”No man alive lamented Eufeme.” While the feminine speech is killed the masculine is uplifted. Another instance of silence having levels is in the heroine’s name. Silence as a name contains her entire story, her parents specifically pick a name that can be attributed to either gender to not give away the fact that he is actually a she. Silence as a name feels more like a placeholder in this text. In fact names in this roman hold information back rather than give insight. Queen Eufeme’s own name reflects speech being a positive thing and yet she is punished for speaking, while Silence is being named to hide who she is and ends up having to speak out about her gender.

Merlin's "sardonic laughter" poses a challenge due to its ability to be both gender neutral and lack gender entirely at the same time. As a masculine role can be distinguished from a feminine role by how much or little is spoken, laughter too can be both masculine and feminine. A loud, belly laugh assumes the masculine role as it removes all other voices, and a soft giggle proves feminine as it is quiet and docile. What makes laughter different is that it falls somewhere on the continuum of sound and silence. Merlins laughter is described as just that, laughter. We don't know whether it is loud or soft. Merlin's age blurs the gender line that much further as he is described as an old man, and typically with age people lose their sex drive; deeming them asexual.