The Arthurian Legend of Lancelot has changed throughout the ages. Subsequently, the story “Lancelot, The Knight of the Cart” by Chrétien de Troyes and the poem “Lancelot and Elaine” by Alfred Lord Tennyson have contrasting plots, but they ultimately contain the same theme. In the multiple accounts of Lancelot, his actions create unique, different situations. In turn, he must live with the consequences of his actions. Lancelot has changed, and will continue to evolve, whether it is focused on his heroism or another aspect of his character. Much of Lancelot's character and story are based off the topics of love and chivalry, and are prevalent in many of the accounts of Lancelot. Despite that the legend shifts its focus from Lancelot’s chivalrous
According to chivalry, the ideal twelfth century knight should have upheld the values of Chretien de Troye’s The Knight of the Cart – honor, fidelity, and the drive to protect and serve the helpless. For example, “if a knight encountered a damsel or girl alone – be she lady or maidserant – he would as soon cut his throat as treat her dishonorably, if he prized his good name [emphasis mine]” (223). The fault lies in that statement, rephrased and added as a qualifier to the courtly standards mentioned throughout the story: the purpose of chivalry, above all, was to ensure that the knight maintained a reputation that was above reproach. Chretien does not
Lancelot and Gawain are two knightly figures in Sir Thomas Malory's Morte D'arthur. However, reading through the section in class, there is some evidence that shows that Sir Gawain is the bigger man compared to Sir Lancelot. For instance, in Guinevere’s presence, Sir Lancelot becomes instantly distracted and starts swooning. For instance, there is a part where Sir Lancelot is so crazy in love with Guinevere he almost falls out a window. However, Gawain comes to the rescue. Compared to Gawain, Lancelot is easily influenced by his emotions. Another example is when Lancelot asks Guinevere for a kiss after she told him she was becoming a nun. He disrespected her wish to leave her past behind and had the audacity to ask for something so selfish.
Countless people have had their hearts broken due to cheating and deception. However, in the Arthurian legend, these disastrous love triangles have much more devastating consequences. One story in the Arthurian legend is of Iseult, King Mark, and the knight Tristan, and their eventual demise as a result of their love triangle. Then, before King Arthur was even conceived, his father Uther and the Duke Gorlois fought over over Igraine, and waged a war over her, costing many lives. Finally, Lancelot’s affair with Arthur and Queen Guinevere set off a chain of actions that destroy the kingdom of Camelot. In the Arthurian legend, love triangles always have fatal consequences and never end well between its constituents.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a tale about the imperfections of men. In this case, these imperfections are that men try to prove that they have certain desirable qualities and they try to ensure that they get what they wish for. Presenting a challenge, a Green Knight enters King Arthur’s hall on Christmas. If any knight is brave enough to cut off the Green Knight’s head, he can keep the Green Knight’s ax. Furthermore, the Green Knight will then return a strike to that knight in one year. After hearing this challenge, Sir Gawain tries to prove his bravery to King Arthur by cutting the head of the Green Knight off in one blow. Afterwards, the knight leaves with his head, telling Sir Gawain to look for the Green Chapel. On all saint’s day the
Have you or someone you know showed courage in your lives? There was and always will be many stories that probably have the same of amount of courage as the people you know or see in the news. One of those stories is “The Tale of Sir Launcelot du Lake”, which tells the tale of one of King Arthur’s most beloved and talented knight, Sir Launcelot. He loves to adventure and help others with moral courage. However, Sir Launcelot is not the only sense of moral courage in this story. In “The Tale of Sir Launcelot du Lake”, the setting and its tone are two of the many literary elements that develops the theme of moral courage.
Medieval romance novels revolve around knights who follow a code of chivalry and courtly love as well as embark on a perilous quests. Medieval romances typically do not include farce or satire. Farce is a type of comedy which includes exaggerated humor and mockery. Satire is the use of irony and ridicule to criticize or point out various aspects of society. Monty Python and the Holy Grail mocks the characteristics of a medieval romance such as the quest, knightly chivalry and courtly love through the use of satire and irony.
In medieval times, chivalry was something that many men lived up to. If a man lived up to the expectations of chivalry he was said to be loyal, brave and courageous. For some it was difficult to follow certain codes especially when it came to romance, an example: Sir Lancelot in the movie “First Knight.”
Sir Gawain is one of King Arthur’s knights. It is Christmas time in Camelot, the time of the year where knights return home and people celebrate their achievements as well as the birth of Jesus. Every year they have a dinner with the king that must begin with a story before eating. No one has a story to tell which causes the king to postpone the dinner until, all of a sudden, a green knight appeared. This story contains ideas known as the hero’s journey.
Courtly love in the medieval romance story of Lancelot (also known as The Knight of the Cart) is the driving force of this famous romance beloved for generations. This proves to be an interesting subject, seeing is a lot of other medieval stories do not focus on love and instead, show it in a rather negative light. This was obviously seen in another medieval story, Njal’s Saga, where not only were marriages arranged and sometimes unwanted by one or both parties, the relationships between men and women were rought with conflict, hatred, and sometimes even murder. The women were not beautiful, diminutive, helpless creatures; they were as strong as their male counterparts. Men also had relatively no interest in love, only of going on grand adventures
Chivalry is code of conduct used by knights, and heroes of the past. “Chivalry, the order of knighthood and, especially, the code of knightly behavior that was a feature of the High and later Middle Ages in western Europe”(Funk). Along with this idea of Chivalry, Feudalism was used in Europe as well. Feudalism is the system of both government and land ownership, where in exchange for a nobleman 's oath of loyalty, a king would grant them land. The ideas of Chivalry was expressed through out all sorts of different literary works, such as songs, poems, and more. The Two stories of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Morte D’Arthur express some of the ideas of Chivalry.
There are many archetypes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight that help Gawain on his hero's journey. While on his journey, Gawain has learns many different lessons while dealing with these characters. As he travels deeper into the “Zone of Magnified Power” (Campbell 71), he develops as an archetypal hero and recognizes the conflict on his community. A number of characters in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight play key archetypal roles in the perfecting of the hero’s moral development.
Medieval Europe had a code for love know as, The Rules of Courtly Love. These rules were exemplified in characters seen in a book written about that era, The Once and Future King. One of the main characters, Lancelot, follows these rules. Lancelot follows the Rules of Courtly Love because he follows the rules that, the easy attainment of love makes it of little value: the difficulty of attainment makes it prized, he whom the thought of love vexes eats and sleeps very little, a slight presumption causes a lover to suspect his beloved, and that a true lover does not desire to embrace in love anyone except his beloved.
Throughout his Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri encounters with two women, which are antithetical to one another in terms of their roles in the context of love. These two women, Francesca di Rimini and Beatrice have similar emotional experiences with their lovers, both having relationships outside marriage; yet they have opposite interpretations of what they experience and where their fates led them. The reader meets Francesca in Inferno, while meets Beatrice in Paradiso. In other words, one of them is being punished, whereas the other women is placed at a divine level. Thus, the female characters within the poem represents two distinct roles of women: either as a pure and holy being, or as a sinful entity. Dante emphasizes the differing roles
Both the Wife of Bath’s tale and Sir Gawain have trials assigned to their main characters by women. The knight in Wife of Bath’s tale is being punished for raping a young woman and his punishment is to find an answer to the question, “what do women want most?” instead of death. He learns that women want sovereignty, but in return for obtaining his answer he needs to marry the hag that provided him with the answer. The hag later transforms into a beautiful woman once she wins over the right to choose and rule at her own will. This tale is based on the Celtic Sovereignty myth about a king marrying a goddess who initially appeared to be hideous, but with the willing kiss from the king, turned into a beautiful woman. In Sir Gawain, the knight is being tested to see if he will choose virtue and chastity or the beauty and promiscuity of the Lady of the Castle.