3. How are we to read Tristan’s madness? Is it far-fetched? More trickery? How might these symptoms manifest themselves today for instance?
Tristan goes mad because he has been apart from Yseut for a long period of time. He talks to his ring she has given him - to no avail. He lives a life with the "other Yseut" passionlessly and suffering. Throughout many points in the text, we see clearly that Tristan lives solely for his love. Though risking his life, blinding himself to reason, and isolating himself have been great sacrifices Tristan has made, his madness is a great culmination of everything. His "madness" leads him to walk day and night, making himself unrecognizable to even his truest of loves. It is not trickery, it is the result of the mind set he has lived in, and the loss of reason for living- his lover. Today one would be having a "mental breakdown." Though in Tristan's times he is simply considered mad, in a modern relationship he would be justified.
4. Why do you think Tristan and Yseut must die at the end of the text? How do you interpret these deaths? How does the text present their deaths? Why do you think this is the case? How might the ending comment upon the text as a whole?
Tristan and Yseut die at the end of the text because their love has finally broken them to the point of unrepair. They have been through struggle after struggle, that they finally realized their love simply cannot exist within the world they live. Often, they would confess they're love is free from malice, that it is "right." Clearly, it is not by the standards of their society. One can only fight for so long. In he text, the lovers simply die for their love and each other. This is the case. They can no longer go on physically, though it is suggested that they remain together in death. Death is the only way they can peacefully be together.
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