What would be the connection between Don Quixote, The Great Gatsby and all the stories of Sherlock Holmes? Is there any common element that may be reused in these narratives as a whole? Undoubtedly there are more divergences than similarities. In fact, all of them were written in different ages, cultures, styles and literary genres. Whereas the first Sherlock Holmes ' apparition was in 1886 in United Kingdom, The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by an American and the Spanish Don Quixote belongs to the XVI century.
Chivalric romances are often centered upon the efforts of gallant knights seeking to achieve a concept known as “true knighthood” which involves embarking on quests or adventures to obtain honor, love, and Christian virtue. The brave knights of these stories are met with many obstacles to overcome, commonly in regards to rescuing or protecting a lady. In other words, the typical role of women in this period is that of the damsel in distress or a helpless, dependent lady in need of a hero. However, the stories of Chrétien de Troyes’ Yvain, the Knight of the Lion and Friedrich Heinrich Karl La Motte-Fouqué’s The Magic Ring strays from the typical role of women as the damsel in distress. Many of the women in these stories are portrayed as strong, independent women who, in many cases, are the hero themselves.
This allows Chaucer to have many different kinds of themes in the tales, including greed, love, faithfulness, and many others. While these tales were never finished, they stand alone in literature for their vivid and humorous characterization. Many 15th Chaucer’s style, like John Heywood with his palmer, pardoner, and pothecary that were very similar to Chaucer’s characters (Gassner). John Fletcher based his The Two Noble Kinsmen on Chaucer’s A Knight’s Tale. In addition to these early authors, an increasing number of scholars and critics have studied Chaucer’s works (Lumiansky).
It is true that Lord of the Rings gives the active roles almost exclusively to males, but females had very important duties. He doesn 't denigrate or discriminate against women, but his male characters go to seek conflict and are the ones actively trying to precisely destroy the ring. The three females in the novel are powerful and essential to complete the fellowship’s task in their own way. It may be by fighting with a sword like Eowyn, or by being a giver of very important gifts like Galadriel, or
Austen 's Pride and Prejudice book shows the differences and similarities of the marriage relationships in the 18th century, through the marriage relationships of Charlotte, Lydia, Jane, and Elizabeth. Jane naturally found someone to marry, her attractive beauty and accessible joyful character helped her easily attract Bingley to her. Young Lydia married Wickham, but she did not know anything about marriage yet. Elizabeth fell in love with Darcy because she realized that he is a special person and that her assumption of him was totally incorrect. On the other hand, Charlotte married Mr. Collins for the reason that she wanted to be secure.
The years 1066-1485 were the Middle Ages, and this literary period was known for the Norman conquest, the age and decline of feudalism, and chivalry. Adoring a particular lady (not necessarily one’s wife) was seen as a means of self improvement and this would make a knight braver and nobler. Chivalry was center to one aspect: courtly love, which was nonsexual. Knights could wear their ladies colours in battle, or he could glorify her in words and be inspired by her, but their lady always remained out of reach and was set above her admirer. Geoffrey Chaucer, Giovanni Boccaccio, and the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - some of the most famous writers during the Middle Ages - incorporated chivalry and courtly love into their writings to illustrate the positive effects of the gender roles in that time period.
When hearing the word chivalry, what many people think of first is men opening doors for women, and that is chivalrous, but there is more to it than just that. In the Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, chivalry is defined multiple ways. Some definitions are “gallant or distinguished gentlemen,” “the system, spirit, or customs of medieval knighthood,” and “ the qualities of the ideal knight: chivalrous conduct” (5). Chivalry is a term that can be described as a term often related to medieval institution of knighthood referring to the codes of conduct, including courtly love, adhered to by Medieval knights with gallant knightly values, including honor, bravery, courteousness and honesty. (1) Not something we hear very often anymore, many people may not know what chivalry means.
Courtly love suggests that jealousy strengthens relationships and equates to love. Alison did not feel more for her partner but instead wanted to get away from his overbearing attitude. John however truly loves his wife, “Alas, my wife! And shall she drown? Alas, my Alison” (The Miller’s Tale 414-145).
There are many realism elements in A Doll’s House. The obvious one is the background. This play wrote by Ibsen Henrik in 1879. In that era, the mainstream female values were hard to generalize in just one or two sentence. Thus, I quote from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s The Princess (the most distinctive poet of the age of Victoria in England) “Man for the field and woman for the hearth; Man for the sword and for the needle she; Man with the head and woman with the heart; Man to command and woman to obey.
Although The Franklin’s Tale does identify itself as a Breton Lay, it has been pointed out that when compared to the other Breton Lays, “the differences [in the Franklin’s Tale] are more striking than the likenesses” (Loomis 18). Despite this, it contains many of the elements which are essential to the genre. Like all Breton Lays, first and foremost, The Franklin’s Tale is a love story, between the chivalric knight Arveragus and his beloved Dorigen. The basic plot involves Arveragus going away to battle in England and Dorigen being pursued by a new suitor, Aurelius. Dorigen gives him the impossible task to clear the coast of Britanny of rocks, at which point she will renege on her marriage and become his lover.