Chivalry in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Knight’s...

The term â€Å"chivalry† refers to one of the most popular medieval social ideals. Indeed, this term has excited the imagination of poets and readers throughout history, and modern cultures continue to revise the chivalric ideals of past ages. However, pinpointing what the term meant within the medieval period is difficult at best. The source of this difficulty lies within the fact that there was never one consistent definition for chivalry. Indeed, the meaning of the word seems to shift between cultures and throughout time. For example, the earliest usage of the word seems to denote only mounted cavalry; however, as time shifts, the word becomes synonymous with certain martial ideals. As the period progresses, the ideal of†¦show more content†¦The fourteenth century work Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of the most famous and complex of the medieval romances. This text puts Sir Gawain, one of Arthur’s greatest knights to the test, and in doing so, interrogates the chivalric ideals. The tale begins with what seems to be a stock romantic scene. Arthur has gathered his knights together for a celebration, and as is typical with Arthur, he refuses to begin the proceedings until there has been an â€Å"adventure.† As if to answer his request, the Green Knight arrives, but the adventure that he offers is certainly not the one that Arthur expected. The Knight, whose appearance clearly marks him as an outsider, offers to trade strokes with any knight brave enough to challenge him. His challenge is met with silence, and it is clear that these knights, who represent the greatest gathering of chivalry in history, clearly fail to live up to their ideals. Angered by this intruder and shamed by his own knights, Arthur himself decides to take up the challenge. The Knight mocks Arthur as a â€Å"berdless† boy, questioning the masculinity of the leader of the chivalric host. Only Gawain recognizes his duty and accepts the challenge. His swing removes the Knight’s head, but the Knight’s magical powers allow him to live. He charges Gawain with the task of seeking him out soShow MoreRelated King Arthur Essay1157 Words   |  5 PagesMonmouth show Arthur as a strong, central character, making him the dominant figure in the story. He is the one who goes on quests and battles, gaining respect and glory for his court. In romances, however, Arthur is most often overshadowed by his knights, staying mainly in the background as the source and the inspiration behind their great chivalric deeds. GRAPH The first written chronicle of Arthurs adventures comes from Nennius, a monk from North WalesRead More The Use of Magic in Medieval Literature Essay2847 Words   |  12 Pagestime, however, in the time period ranging from Beowulf to Malorys Arthur, there has been an evolution in attitudes and the consequent treatment of magic in medieval literature. The discussion of magic involves not only the disparity between Christian and pagan tradition but also of gender roles, most notably in the Arthurian mythos. Beowulf, Marie De Frances Bisclavret and Lanval, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Sit Thomas Malorys Le Morte DArthur involve the concept of magic and magical creaturesRead MoreHistory of British Literature3343 Words   |  14 Pagesimportant continental narrative verse form, was introduced in England. It drew from three rich sources of character and adventure: the legends of Charlemagne, the legends of ancient Greece and Rome, and the British legends of King Arthur and the Knig hts of the Round Table.  Layamons  Brut, a late 13th-century metrical romance (a translation from the French), marks the first appearance of Arthurian matter in English (see  Arthurian legend). Original English romances based upon indigenous material include  KingRead MoreEssay on Chivalry2466 Words   |  10 PagesChivalry Chivalry, as defined by Encyclopedia Americana is a system of values and ideals of conduct held by knights in medieval Europe. In its institutional form, chivalry was an informal, international order to which many, but not all, of the ruling class (nobility) belonged. The word is derived from the Latin caballus (horse) through the French chevalier (â€Å"horseman† or knight). Chivalry was born from Feudalism in the late middle ages introducing a new, feminine point of view stressing

Thomas Hardy free essay sample

But it can be used as a way in to the study of Thomas | | | |Hardys poems generally. | | | |About Thomas Hardy | | | |Hardy lived from 1840 to 1928. He was the son of a mason, from Dorset, in the south west of England. He studied | | | |to be an architect, and worked in this profession for many years. He also began to write prose fiction. His first| | | |effort (The Poor Man and the Lady) was never published, but his second novel was published in 1871. This was | | | |Desperate Remedies. It was not well-received, but the next book, Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), did better. | | | |Hardy eventually published many novels these vary in merit but include many which are established as | | | |masterpieces of English fiction: Far from the Madding Crowd, The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge,| | | |The Woodlanders, Tess of the dUrbervilles and Jude the Obscure. | | | |Back to top | | | |Hardy enjoyed ommercial success, but his work proved controversial, and his publishers continually tried to tone| | | |it down. We will write a custom essay sample on Thomas Hardy or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Critics savagely condemned his last two novels, Jude and Tess (as they are abbreviated for convenience). | | | |Hardy no longer needed to write prose fiction for a living the royalties from his existing work gave him more | | | |than enough security. He had always preferred poetry and believed that he was better as a writer in this form. | | | |He wrote verse throughout his life, but did not publish a volume until Wessex Poems and Other Verses (for which | | | |he did his own illustrations) appeared in 1898. Hardy certainly made up for lost time, eventually publishing six | | | |collections of verse as well as the huge poetic drama, The Dynasts, of which the first part appeared in 1904. | | | |Thomas Hardy was married twice his first marriage, long and mostly unhappy, was to Emma Gifford. They married | | | |in 1874. Emma died in 1912, and in 1914 Hardy married his secretary, Florence Dugdale, who later became his | | | |biographer. Hardy died in 1928, aged 87. He had asked to be laid beside Emma, but his body was buried in Poets | | | |Corner in Westminster Abbey. Only his heart was placed in Emmas grave or was it? There is a curious story that| | | |his housekeeper placed the heart on the kitchen table, where his sisters cat seized it, and ran off into the | | | |nearby woods. In this version of events, a pigs heart was duly buried beside Emma. | | | |Back to top | | | |[pic] | | | |War poems | | | |Hardy wrote poems at the times of the second Boer War of 1899-1902 and the Great War of 1914-1918. Some poems | | | |obviously reflect these particular conflicts (Drummer Hodge and Channel Firing, for example). But others, though | | | |written at the time, have a more general relevance such as The Man He Killed and In Time of â€Å"The Breaking of | | | |Nations†. This is not accidental Hardy explicitly tried to relate specific historical conflicts to a wider | | | |historical scheme. He attempted to do this in a grand or epic poetic drama of the Napoleonic Wars The Dynasts | | | |(which has three parts, nineteen acts and one hundred and thirty scenes). In this he also relates the great | | | |moments of history to the lives of ordinary people. | | | |Hardys war poems show a great diversity of attitude. We cannot, on their evidence alone, identify a clear-cut | | | |opinion of war to which Hardy keeps consistently. Channel Firing presents a horribly pessimistic view of mans | | | |bellicose stupidity. In Time of â€Å"The Breaking of Nations† is triumphantly optimistic in asserting the fact that | | | |the good things of everyday life will survive when wars are long forgotten. | | | |Back to top | | | |The Going of the Battery captures the sadness (for those left behind) that war brings, but no criticism of war is| | | |stated or implied. The reference to â€Å"Honour† in the fourth stanza suggests that the soldiers cause is worth | | | |fighting for. | | | |In Drummer Hodge, while he shows the tragedy and waste of war, and perhaps implies that Hodges sacrifice is | | | |rendered futile by his ignorance of the land over which he is fighting, yet Hardy makes no explicit criticism of | | | |war. | | | |In The Man He Killed, on the other hand, Hardys skilful device of the narrators vain attempt to justify his | | | |action is an obvious indictment of war, as it is clear that he has no reason to kill his â€Å"foe†. | | |Back to top | | | |The Going of the Battery | | | |Stanza 1 | stanza 2 | stanza 3 | stanza 4 | stanza 5 | stanza 6 | stanza 7 | discussing the poem | | | |This poem is about what happens when a group of soldiers and their field guns leave for service overseas. The | | | |guns collectively are the â€Å"battery† of the title, though this noun normally includes also the men who operate | | | |them an artillery company.