Recitation: But what happens next???

In its open-mindedness, Fantomina reminds me a lot of Marie de France’s Lanval.  In both, a strong-willed woman goes after what she wants.  In both, the ending of the story allows for multiple outcomes.

Your Mission:

To explore the possibilities that Fantomina enables by debating the third of the questions you were asked to consider as you proceeded through this novella:

Why do you suppose Fantomina ends as it does?  What do we know happened?  How might the story have ended?  Does the open-endedness affect the meaning of the novella, or the pleasure you derive from reading it?  Are you tempted, like the Middle English translators of “Lanval,” to provide more closure to the story–and what would that closure look like?  Feel free to rewrite the ending to you taste.

Preparation:

Encapsulate your views in 100-150 words.  You don’t need to tackle all the questions in your response, if you find one issue more interesting.

Recitation:

Exchange your ideas and fanfics!

Report:

How many different possible outcomes did your cohort detect, and how did they feel about the value of ending without resolving the heroine’s fate?