Erec and Enide displays the themes of love and chivalry that Chrétien de Troyes continues in his later work. Tests play an important part in character development and marital fidelity. Erec's testing of Enide is not condemned in the fictive context of the story, especially when his behaviour is contrasted with some of the more despicable characters, such as Oringle of Limors.[4] Nevertheless, Enide's faithful disobedience of his command to silence saves his life.
Another theme of the work is Christianity, as evidenced by the plot's orientation around the Christian Calendar: the story begins on Easter day, Erec marries Enide at Pentecost, and his coronation occurs at Christmas.[5] Furthermore, in the poem, Erec is killed and then resurrected on a Sunday, an allusion to the story of Jesus Christ.
In the 12th century, conventional love stories tended to have an unmarried heroine, or else one married to a man other than the hero. This was a sort of unapproachable, chaste courtly love. However, in Erec and Enide, Chrétien addressed the less conventionally romantic (for the time period) concept of love within marriage. Erec and Enide marry before even a quarter of the story is over, and their marriage and its consequences are actually the catalysts for the adventures that comprise the rest of the poem.[6]
Gender also plays an important role. Enide is notable for being very beautiful, as Erec asks to bring her along so that she can retrieve the sparrow-hawk towards the start of the story. Enide is also outspoken despite Erec's instruction for her to stay silent, however, and there is debate between scholars about whether Erec and Enide is meant to be a positive portrayal of women or whether Enide's free speech should be seen as good or bad. Erec criticizes and threatens Enide for warning him of danger, but it is Enide's refusal to stay silent that not only awakens Erec, but that ends the fighting between Erec and Guivret when Erec is weakened. Erec's masculinity is also the reason that he and Enide go on a journey in the first place: his inactivity causes many to speculate that Enide has somehow weakened him, making him an object of ridicule.[7]
