A Knight’s Code of Chivalry or Love
An archetypal character has many traits, especially their growth as an individual and how their collective unconscious can change, possibly even creating a new character in a positive or negative way. Their decisions and behaviour in their personality can alter their relationship with others and how others see them. In the story King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, by Roger Lancelyn Green, Sir Launcelot portrays a variety of archetypes according to Jung’s theory including a ‘hero’ as he develops on his journey and baring the agonizing ‘wound’ from his betrayal to King Arthur for loving Guinevere, but he knows what he did is wrong. His persona is that he is a very humble knight and has dedication to his commitments, even “refusing [to love the four queens]” and “‘would rather die than shame [his] honour and [his] vows of knighthood’” (125). Sir Launcelot reflects on the ‘self’ archetype which shows his acts of individualism as his aspects of his personality never change, especially his honour and worship to King Arthur being his priority. He shows true potential in battle as a skillful adversary and is always there to help others in need. Although being a traitor because of his love for Guinevere, many knights recognize Sir Launcelot as the greatest knight in Logres for his chivalrous actions towards other knights while trying to stay true to King Arthur and himself.
Sir Launcelot’s behaviour strongly follows the code of chivalry, serving the hero King Arthur and keeping his honour while trying to keep the peace between the evil figure with a good heart, himself and the hero. While thinking he is no longer worthy, King Arthur believes he is “the best knight in the world” (273). Sir ...
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...le trying to abolish his sin with Guinevere before it consumes his heart completely. Love blinds him from being a true knight of the Round Table and is not properly following the Order of Knighthood as he is facing the ‘maze’ archetype throughout his journey especially during the Quest of the Holy Grail. The obstacles that he has to face are all from his mind as he continues to try to heal his spirit and heart from his sin throughout the completion of his journey. His whole quest is all both a physical and emotional journey as he follows his code of chivalry while he searches for forgiveness for betraying King Arthur which he becomes a monk in the end. While a knight can sin and ignore the problem, only a true knight such as Sir Launcelot repents for the shameful mistake that affects not only himself individually, but his relationship with other knights and damsels.
One of the most enduring myths in the Western world is that of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Regardless of the origins of the tales, the fact is that by the time they had been filtered through a French sensibility and re-exported to England, they were representations of not one but several ideals. Courtly love and chivalry and the various components thereof, such as martial prowess, chastity, bravery, courtesy, and so on, were presented as the chief virtues to aspire to, and the knights as role models. Arthur's eventual fall is precisely because of having failed at some level to fulfill these ideals in his life.
The poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, tells of one knights struggle to uphold the code of chivalry. What makes a knight a noble knight? Why does this social standard force us to hold this individual to higher expectations? What should we think about Sir Gawain when he breaks his vows in Sir Gawain and The Green Knight? How does Sir Gawain and Arthur’s court pass the test of The Green Knight? This paper will argue that Sir Gawain, despite his mistakes, is the greatest knight because of his repentance and the lesson he learns when he encounters The Green Knight.
Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’arthur, T.H. White’s Once and Future King, and George Romero’s Knightriders encompass the evolution of the Arthurian tale from Malory’s time to the 1980s. Through this time many things have changed and these changes can be seen within the differences between each work. While there are many prominent differences chivalry or the knightly code is one of the main forces that tie these tales together. Malory reworks many of his sources to bring attention to the grand fellowship of Arthur’s Round Table and the chivalry that holds the knights together. Malory idealizes the power of chivalry and gives a great importance to it throughout his text. Unlike Malory, White does not idealize chivalry, but he does see the good and honorable aspects of chivalry. From Sprague Kurth’s article, “Conclusion,” it is clear to see that White gives his text an anti-war stance and shows chivalry and the controlling moral compass of Arthur’s knights. Chivalry is once again idealized in George Romero’s Knightriders the situations within the film are modernized but the emotions and illusions remain the same. T.H. White is directly referenced within the film and Malory’s idealization of the glory of chivalry can once again be seen. In my essay, I will show how chivalry is used in all the texts above as a bonding agent between all Arthurian knights. As Arthur’s knights honor and respect chivalry they remain as one cohesive group, but once they begin to abandon chivalry the Round Table begins to crumble and chaos ensues.
Marie De France’s Lanval is a remarkable short narrative that engages the reader into a world filled with unrealistic elements, but enhances on the true meaning of romance, chivalry and nature during the years that King Arthur reigned. “Sir Gawain and The Green Knight” unfortunately does not have an author that can be recognized but this epic poem demonstrates the ghastly adventure of a knight who decides to defend the honor of young King Arthur against a supernatural being in this malicious game of cat and mouse. Both of these pieces of literature have enchanting characteristics that define them as a masterpiece of their era and that’s why they both are easily compared and contrasted. In addition, both Lanval and “Sir Gawain and The Green Knight” can be classified as similar through their themes, style and plots, although they are different through their language and diction. Even though both of these literatures can be viewed as similar as well as contrasting, in the end, each of these tales have illuminated the realm of fantasy throughout the court of King Arthur.
The evolution of human society consists mainly of ineffective ruling regimes and oppressed peasants. Medieval Europe falls into this same pervasive cycle. Social and political hierarchies intertwine which creates a grossly inefficient system. Hereditary lineage determines nobility. Commoners possess no hope of social mobility. Every aspect of life is virtually preordained. These circumstances revolve around the figure Lanval by Mari de France. Mari de France introduces Lanval as a courteous and distinguished knight of King Arthur’s court. Lanval possesses the most moral nature of all of King Arthur’s knights, yet even so, the other knights of King Arthur’s round table despise him. The many knights neglect acknowledgment of his nature as does
It does this conceptually, by emphasizing human nature over chivalry, and it does this narratively through Gawain’s failure as a knight, and the Green Knight’s illegitimacy as a true villain. In traditional romance of this time, the protagonist could not have faltered in chivalry; Gawain’s “lapses of courage and honour… are highly untypical of the knightly conduct we find illustrated with such stultifying sameness in medieval story” (Shedd 245). But this occurs because the Green Knight is not the true villain; the real conflict is Gawain’s struggle against his own human nature. While the Green Knight appears to be a classic antagonist in the first part of the poem, he proves himself merciful and forgiving in the final part, stating that he does not blame Gawain because it was only because “[he] loved [his] own life” that he failed the final test (95). Rather than merely taking Sir Gawain’s head, the Green Knight gave him the opportunity to prove himself as “faultless” (95), or above his human nature, to “[purge] the debt” (96). Just as Shedd argues, the shift from external to internal conflict in the poem sets Sir Gawain and the Green Knight apart from other works of medieval romance.
It can be difficult to define the unifying themes of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur ; it can seem a tangle of random adventures mired with magic and religion, love and fate. What is the purpose behind all the seemingly similar adventures of so many similar knights? And what is the place that the books of Sir Trystram hold? These books make up the longest section of the work, yet Trystram plays no role in the search for the Holy Grail or the downfall of Arthur. There are many parallels drawn between Trystram and Launcelot: they are both the greatest knights of their time, both the greatest lovers, both become mad for a short time, etc. What distinguishes Trystram from Launcelot; what is his distinctive purpose within the themes of the work? I am indebted to Jill Mann’s “The Narrative of Distance, The Distance of Narrative in Malory’s Morte Darthur ” for helping me work out my answers to these questions. Though I do not fully agree with her theory that Le Morte is primarily concerned with the creation and obliteration of distance, I do find her ideas of narrative distance in relation to identity important.
In the Medieval Period, knights dedicated their lives to following the code of chivalry. In Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, a number of characters performed chivalrous acts to achieve the status of an ideal knight. Their characteristics of respect for women and courtesy for all, helpfulness to the weak, honor, and skill in battle made the characters King Arthur, King Pellinore, and Sir Gryfflette examples of a what knights strove to be like in Medieval society. Because of the examples ofchivalry, Le Morte d’Arthur showed what a knight desired to be, so he could improve theworld in which he lived.
Galahad is an attempt to meld Christian and chivalric ideals in the medieval and Victorian accounts of the Arthurian legend. He first appears in the French Vulgate Cycle, a collection of medieval romances, as the personification of both Christian and chivalric piety, deeply entrenched in Biblical symbolism. Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur upholds Galahad, the quintessential knight, as the embodiment of medieval virtue. Also, in the nineteenth century, as the legend regained popularity, Galahad emerges as the epitome of Victorian moral purity in the works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson and the Pre-Raphaelite painters. Best known as the knight who achieves the quest for the Holy Grail, Galahad remained the ideal knight in the Arthurian legend from his medieval Christian roots to the Victorian Age.
Sir Percival, although spelled in a variety of ways, was one of King Arthur’s legendary Knights of the Round Table. In many accounts, his widowed mother raised Percival; typically the works did not give the names of any siblings or other relatives for this knight, in a secluded forest. Percival’s mother sheltered him extensively, keeping him from knowing of knighthood in particular, although some accounts include that he was illiterate and further, ill mannered. As a result of his sheltered upbringing, in the beginning of his life and career, Sir Percival is consistently portrayed as being uncouth or having a natural innocence or foolishness about society, knighthood, and chivalry. Often, this innocence translates to his quests where he demonstrates
Sir Lancelot, from the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, has become by far the most popular and well-remembered knight. Through Malory's rendition of traditional materials, we have inherited a character that has become the image of the quintessential knight. How is it that "the outsider, the foreigner, the 'upstart' who wins Arthur's heart and Guinevere's body and soul" (Walters xiv) has taken the place that, prior to Malory, was reserved for Sir Gawain? Malory has made this character larger than life. Of the grandeur of Lancelot, Derek Brewer says, "In the portrayal of Lancelot we generally recognize a vein of extravagance. He is the most obsessive of lovers, as he is the most beloved of ladies, and the greatest of fighters" (8). To achieve this feat, Malory has molded Lancelot to fit the idea of the perfect knight and the perfect lover.
As we all known, Lancelot, always considered as one of the greatest knights of the king Arthur, fulfills with all wonderful qualities of being a great knight. He does rescue the Queen Guinevere; nevertheless, he still stays in the quest to gain the love of his beloved. The pure love is the quest for Lancelot, which makes him lose in the balance between chivalrous reason and love, and suffers all the time. However, Lancelot still feels meaningful, and follows the path of love, as we can easily see paradox inside his mind, “Because Love ordered and wished it, he jumped in; since Love ruled his action, the disgrace did not matter.” (Chretien, P117)
When all the courtly love elements that flow through The Knight of the Cart are composed, in addition to a tale of love affair between Queen Guinevere and Lancelot of the Lake, a document revealing the enchanting history of the Twelfth Century Renaissance is created. Troyes, our powerful storyteller, was able to do this by taking us on a journey with Lancelot, not only though his exciting battles to Guinevere but, through his passionate and enamored thoughts and behaviors that yearns for his beloved.
...ghthood within their story. Both poets remind the readers of the disparity between the ideals of chivalries presented in romances, and the reality of lived knighthood, highlighting how problematic the understanding of chivalry and Christianity (knighthood) could be for medieval audiences. Though chivalry shines as a brilliant light of the high civilization in the fourteenth century, both tales suggests that chivalry is at best a limited system, which achieves its brilliant at the cost of a distortion of natural life. It was part of the social and ethical system but did not take into account the entire range of human needs, mainly the fact of human morality and sense of human frailty. The context in which knights are depicted and celebrated in the medieval romance does not support a smooth connection between the harsh realities of a century of internecine strife.
Two conflicting disciplines are prevalent throughout Arthurian Legend; that of chivalry and that of courtly love. The ideal of each clash throughout the medieval tales, and it is impossible to interfuse the two models for society. Chivalry is a masculine code, an aggressive discipline, whereas courtly love is based upon women - their needs, wants, and desires. The consistent problem if Lancelot and Guinevere’s adulterous relationship in different tellings of the affair relates back to the differences presented in chivalric code and courtly love ideals.