Fairy tale (Motif)
The Romance of Tristan is very similar to a typical fairy tale, where prince kills a dragon to gain a princess and kingdom. Here the role of prince is played by Tristan. He also kills the dragon for receiving a wife, however not for himself. He fell in love with this woman despite that their love is forbidden. The story is full of exemplary fairy tale situations, with moral and plot characteristic of a fairy tale.
Drama (Motif)
It is not surprising that this story is played in theaters, because it is an intriguing and perfect drama. Here we can see love, death, treason, tragedy – everything needed for making out of this story a performance on the stage. Also dialogues are written as in a play. They are not long, but express all the specter of emotions and let us understand what particular character keeps in mind. The whole story has the spirit of old times with dramatic events and forbidden love.
Wild life (Allegory)
When Tristan understood that he couldn’t be so long without Iseult, they decided to run in the forest in its wild life. Under “wild life” the author means life without rules and prohibitions that are usual to royal life. They wanted just be together and forget about everything, to be free and not to hide their feelings.
