The two facets of raptus, rape and abduction, are again inextricably linked in romance. Rape frequently overlaps with abduction, and even in clear-cut instances of rape or abduction, the more general notion of ravishment colours interpretation; in romance as in secular and canon law, the issue of enforced marriage is of primary importance, and the theme of social disorder is prominent. The structures of chivalry to an extent depend on the concept of raptus: the woman is an object to be fought over and won, and the pursuits of love and prowess are interwoven in the knightly shaping of identity. Yet it is striking that, in chivalric romance as in the saints' lives, rape is repeatedly deferred: abductions occur, rape and enforced marriage are threatened, but the woman's honour is almost invariably upheld.

Actual rape is found only on the margins of romance – in classical legend, in medieval chronicles, in Arthurian pseudo-history and in French non-romance – pastourelles, the fabliau-romance of Renart and the prose tale of the La Fille du Comte de Ponthieu, none of which have English counterparts. Romance responds to the shadow of rape rather than its reality: what has been identified by Antoinette Saly as the motif of the ‘demoiselle “esforciée”’ in fact, as Dietmar Rieger remarks, consists in repeated scenes of attempted rather than actual rape, ‘Il s'agit évidemment en général … de tentatives de viol que l'on empêche juste à temps’.