During Knepper's A Bad Girl Will Love You to Death she describes two maidens who are considered bad girls. The first is the maiden of Ascolot who receives little to no actual recognition until she dies. Knepper claims her father has more identity than she does, that her only identity is only constituted by her relationship to her father and her desire for Lancelot(230). She tries to play the game of courtly love by making everyone think there is something between herself and Lancelot. This does not work in her favor as she gives Lancelot a favor to wear in the tournament so at the very least the audience will think there is something between her and the knight. Then she asks Lancelot to leave his armor behind as another courtly gesture of his affection for her, he does this so he can make ulterior moves of his own but all she wishes for is his attention. Eventually the maiden of Ascolot cannot take this lack of affection anymore and dies where she finally receives some sort of recognition.

The second bad girl is the sorceress Hellawes, who wishes to keep Lancelot in her possession even in his death. When Lancelot runs into Hellawes he is given a couple of trials in order to prove his faith and is told the punishment for failing these trials will be his death though what he is told to do for the trials is quite the opposite. For example he is told to put down his sword, and yet he refuses and when he does so he is told he has passed his trial. His next trial he is told to give Hellawes a kiss and yet again Lancelot refuses to do so, and it turns out she was offering Lancelot the kiss of death, and since he refused to meet her lips she dies within a fortnight(236).

While the piece claims that by harboring the affection of these two maidens Lancelot is proven to be an object of love and desire. I believe it is in Lancelot's rejection of these maidens that he truly proves his knightly value to his love Guinevere. He is given the opportunity multiple times to fall prey to lechery and yet he denies both maidens willing to give their entire lives for him to remain faithful. Though he is called an object of love and desire I believe this to be a classic case of you want what you cannot have and I believe had it been Lancelot trying to woo these girls it would not have gone so well.