Magnaniposition In The Knight's Tale

Much of the action in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight revolves around carious kinds of games. In a way, all these games are connected. Chivalry is defined as the medieval system, principles, and customs of knighthood. In the time Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written, chivalry was a major deal. The games may have been somehow connected with chivalry, in that the medieval system included the playing of these games.

Strength and Fight Courage (Chivalry in Excalibur) “A gentleman is someone who does not what he wants to do, but what he should do”(Murakami). “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a story that is based on the life of Celtic warriors who fought in the Anglo- Saxon invaders of England in the fifth and sixth centuries”(pg.171). This story presents many acts of chivalry, chivalry is the combination of qualities expected of an ideal knight, courage, honor, courtesy, justice, and a readiness to help the weak. These acts of chivalry are shown from the knights in the story.

Medieval times were a time when honor was valued above all other qualities. All knights, the highest models of medieval manhood, adhered to a code of chivalry. When properly followed, this code allowed men to be truly honorable. Among the qualities most highly esteemed were integrity, loyalty, and courage. The clearest examples of chivalry were King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale,” Theseus possesses a God-like presence, configuring the events and characters to his liking, such as the courtship of his sister Emelye and the tournament between Palamon and Arcite. However, while Theseus cultivates an authoritative greatness through his military prowess and elegant rhetoric, it nonetheless a shallow pretense of greatness that disguises his tyrannical need to control. The Knight’s ekphrastic description of Theseus’s banner– a static image that embodies Theseus’s stately essence and personhood– particularly illustrates his artificial facade. Moreover, the description of the statue of Mars in Theseus’s arena closely echoes the description of his banner, and in turn parallels Theseus

The lines 1550-1553 from the Pearl poets epic Sir Gawain and the Green Knight epitomizes two of the most important virtues of a noble knight, and Sir Gawain, the man the story follows, defines what is a true knight. He holds a place next to King Arthur and the queen as well as exemplifying two of a knights most important virtues. The first being chastity and the second being courteousness, both however, are very much entwined in this tale. Throughout this epic and many other Arthurian legends praised these traits in the knight and as we shall see, Sir Gawain although still very much human, is a master of both. The virtue of chastity is extremely important in Arthurian legend and we can see this from examining Gawain’s shield.

"Hubris calls for nemesis, and in one form or another it 's going to get it, not as a punishment from outside but as the completion of a pattern already started," Mary Midgley, a British philosopher (Brainy Quotes). The cycle of hubris has been the same since the time of Homer and Thucydides. It starts with an important figure, either political or mythological, elevating themselves to the level of the Greek gods. Because of this excess pride, the gods then level this figure back to earth with tragedy more often than not.

A Code of Conduct         In the Medieval era, aristocrats considered knights the nobility in feudal society. Arthurian Knights are equipped with weapons and armor, while partaking in violence and bloodshed. As highly skilled fighting men, they hold power over other members of society. The only way to restrain a knight’s actions is through chivalry, or a code of conduct they have to follow. Without chivalry, Gawain, the “Prologue” knight and the “Wife of Bath’s Tale” knight would not have been able to call themselves knights.

The Knights Tale The Knight’s Tale is a very romantic story as it is presented, of two knights who have fallen in love with a maid without ever physically touching her. This tale is supposedly a true story passed down among the knights of the day. Chaucer presents it with over-stressed traditions of romantic literature. Some of the oddities of the tales are really presented when taken into a whole with the Canterbury Tales. The Knight’s Tale is the first of the Canterbury tales.

He continued to work on the tales through a number of changes in both his personal and professional life. He was made a Justice of Peace* in Kent, since he had moved from London. He also became a member of Parliament representing Kent in 1387. A year later his wife Philippa died of causes unknown to history. In 1389 Chaucer got a job as Clerk of the King’s Works.

In both “The Knight's Tale” and “The Pardoner's Tale,” there are valuable lessons that should be recognized. Each tale was not only educational, but they were also entertaining, they both held a strong meaning behind them. Here is the real question: does one tale trump the other? Did one have a more valuable lesson? Well, the answer is yes.