Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe

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Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, a romantic story set in Medieval England; embodies the definition of how a novel’s themes are applied to human life. The representation of Jews in Ivanhoe, through the character Rebecca, outlines the most important themes within the novel such as chivalry, romance, and centuries long English Anti-Semitism.

Many interpret Ivanhoe as a solely Anti-Semitic work, focusing on the rituals of the Templar Knight, highlighted in the concluding chapters of Ivanhoe. The Templar Knights are described and consisted of a secret society of Christian militant men dressed in white, condemning any of dark-complexioned skin; all traits and rituals of the Ku Klux Klan. The Ku Klux Klan’s very name echoes the romantic “clans” in Scott’s fiction. However, Rebecca, a Jewess, is saved from the stake, after being condemned. Proving that Scott couldn’t have written Ivanhoe as an Anti-Semitic piece, otherwise his conclusion of the novel would have been completely contradictory to his views.

Chivalry and Romance are treated as one in Ivanhoe; the themes intertwine within the whole of the novel. Rebecca, the Jewess, is the vital element to cultural mixing and its effects on chivalry within the novel. Ivanhoe’s true love, before Rebecca and Rowena, is chivalry itself and his knightly career (page 292):

“thou knowest not how impossible it is for one trained to actions of chivalry to remain passive as a priest, or a woman, when they are acting deeds of honour around him. The love of battle is the food upon which we live—the dust of the 'melee' is the breath of our nostrils! We live not—we wish not to live—longer than while we are victorious and renowned—Such, maiden, are the laws of chivalry to which we are sworn, and to which we ...

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...s chivalry, romance, and Anti-Semitism stay jointly. While knights defend their honor and prose, it is the Jews who hold the world of Ivanhoe together, and Rebecca who is the main vessel that fastens the themes together. Rebecca’s defiance of injustice inspires hope within reader’s who admire Rebecca for her choice of religion over all. There is much controversy surrounding Scott’s representation of Jews in Ivanhoe, but Scott paints Rebecca, our Jewess heroine, in a sympathetic and positive manner which proves that Anti-Semitism, an impression that is commonly prevalent during Scott’s time, is a racist and unjustified notion. Rebecca is the agent that demonstrates that a Jew can reveal qualities of romance and chivalry that the Christian is noted for. Rebecca is an outstanding character whose humility defies all.

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