Introduction
Courtly love and chivalry are two characteristic features portrayed in the majority
of literary works written by British authors in the Middle Ages, or, to be exact,
in the era of King Arthur and knighthood. This era is widely known for its brave
knights fighting with horrible monsters to protect their land and beloved women.
The audience of such literary works as “Beowulf” and “Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight” was mainly women, including the queen, countess
and other ladies of the queen’s court. That’s why medieval authors
put women in the center of the literary setting depicted in their works; this
may be explained by the interest expressed on the side of medieval women. The
concept of courtly love was relatively new in the Middle Ages, however at that
time portraying of brave warriors, such as Beowulf, and the knights, such as
Sir Gawain, was typical for British authors of that historic period. According
to historic evidences, medieval writers and poets were the first ones to depict
courtly love, which was sort of invented by the people living in the Middle
Ages. At that time major place in the life of people was occupied by the transition
from Paganism to Christianity, and thus, before Arthurian era authors used to
depict religious love, such as love towards all people, brothers and sisters
and God, rather than love of men and women.
Generally speaking, courtly love and chivalry are two interdependent concepts,
which may be found in British literature of medieval period. If a man was bestowed
to knighthood on, he was sure to have a lady to love and serve, that’s
why these concepts are so popular among authors of that time.
The main objective of current essay is to speak about courtly love and chivalry
and the way these concepts were depicted and discussed in “The Canterbury
Tales” and “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”
Analysis of courtly love and chivalry in the works of medieval authors
Before speaking about courtly love and chivalry, it is necessary to define these
terms and explain what they meant for the people living in the medieval period.
The term “courtly love” means a relationship between a knight and
his beloved lady, whom he loyally and obediently serves, while she also loves
him and faithfully waits for him to return as a winner after war. This kind
of love usually inspired knights and they accomplished even more feats in order
to prove their courage and strength. Sometimes knights loved women whom they
had never seen, or women even didn’t know about knights’ love, however,
the result was the same. As a relationship courtly love “typically was
not between husband and wife, not because the poets and the audience were inherently
immoral, but because it was an idealized sort of relationship that could not
exist within the context of “real life” medieval marriages”
[4]. The reason for that was because the majority of marriages were decided
in advance and based on material and dynastic advantages rather than on love.
Though courtly love was very popular among readers, everybody knew that this
kind of relationship was unreal and impractical. Speaking about “chivalry”,
this term is also peculiar to this era, and means a collection of customs and
traditions practiced by the medieval knighthood in order to demonstrate the
loyalty to God and king, devotion to beloved ladies, readiness to help innocent
victims and willingness to fight with all sorts of enemies. According to chivalry
the knights should have possessed certain personal traits, including courage,
loyalty, politeness, honor and ability to help the weak and innocent. And exactly
these traits were portrayed by medieval writers. A good example of it would
make a poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, which was rather
popular in the Middle Ages. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” is
written in Arthurian England by an unknown author, who is considered to be a
contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer. The main character of the poem is Sir Gawain,
the nephew of the king Arthur of the Round Table. As any other knights Sir Gawain
is depicted as courageous and loyal, showing the best example of chivalry. The
main character of the poem is shown as the true hero struggling with a horrible
creature, who is neither a person nor an animal. Throughout the poem Sir Gawain
is being tested to show his best qualities and he almost succeeds, however,
the author wants to laugh at his main character, and thus reveals Sir Gawain’s
personal traits which don’t really correspond to the image of a chivalrous
warrior. At first the author of the poem shows Sir Gawain and other knights
as the best examples of chivalry, who are loyal, generous, chaste and courage.
The whole Camelot is being shown the way in which it totally depends on chivalry
rather than truth. For example, when the Green Knight attacks the Arthur and
other knights while their celebration, they are all afraid, but nobody shows
any signs of fear, pretending that they are brave enough to fight with the Green
Knight. Though Sir Gawain remembers that he is a knight, who ought to be courageous
and courtly, his fear and desire just to continue life prevails, which is especially
noticeable in the relationship with Morgan le Fay. Sir Gawain failed to fulfil
the tests, and was bitterly satirized by the author, who was successful at making
a mock out of Sir Gawain, because he was first given a positive perception.
However, not only chivalry is satirized in the poem. The poet also speaks about
courtly love, the rules of which are almost broken by Sir Gawain, while staying
in the hunter’s house. Sir Gawain fails to perform his courtly attitude
to his host’s lady, from whom he receives a number of kisses, trying to
give them back afterwards. From my point of view, this situation shows Sir Gawain
as a ridiculous character, breaking all the moral rules of chivalry and courtly
love. There are other proofs of Sir Gawain’s dishonour and cowardice,
including, Morgan’s second test, during which Gawain performs his strong
feeling of self-preservation rather than preservation of knight’s honour.
By keeping the girdle of the huntress Sir Gawain chooses to be safe, however,
he breaks the image of an ideal knight and shows disrespect towards his court.
Finally, his constant performance of cowardice disgraces the court, the king
Arthur himself and chivalry as a whole. Among the good things which are performed
by the main character of the poem is his realization of the sins, which makes
the readers forgive him, and understand that not all knights are perfect indeed.
Generally speaking, the ideals of chivalry that were created by medieval people
were broken by the knights, who felt ashamed because of that but could do nothing
about it. The evidence of it is the scene when all the Knights of the Round
Table meet the Green Knight and realize their inability to follow the rules
of chivalry, because all of them feel fear and are not able to give their lives
to protect the king.
Another good example of British medieval literature is famous “The Canterbury
Tales” written by Geoffrey Chaucer, who devotes a lot of his verses to
the chivalrous knights. This is especially seen in two of his tales, including
“The Wife of Bath” and “A Knight’s Tale”, where
knights are the main characters. In “A Knight’s Tale” the
author speaks about two knights, who are found wounded and are later imprisoned
by Theseus. While in prison they fall in love with a lady named Emily, and both
treat her very respectfully performing the best example of courtly love. In
“A Knight’s Tale” Geoffrey Chaucer speaks about true chivalry
and courtly love. This can be noticed even in the structure of the tale, where
the author speaks about the kings first and only later introduces the main heroes.
Palamon and Arcite are chivalrous knights whose main goal to receive the love
of Emily. When both of them are free they choose to fight with each other in
order to reach their goal. During one of their fights Arcite was mortally wounded
and asks Emily to marry his friend Palamon as he doesn’t know any other
good man for her. This tale by Geoffrey Chaucer addresses the best moral values
of that period of time, including the observance of moral codes and codes of
honour, emphasised by Theseus, who set the rules for the battle between the
knights, and respect and infidelity of the knights in the relationship with
the lady.
Speaking about “The Wife of Bath”, it is necessary to underline
that this tale by Geoffrey Chaucer is rather different from “A Knight’s
Tale” in terms of how chivalry and courtly love is depicted there. To
be exact, in “The Wife of Bath” all the rules of courtly love and
chivalry are broken rather than obeyed. The first time we meet the Wife of Bath
is in prologue, where it is stated that she has five husbands, which is unusual
for that period of time. The male character in the tale is the knight, who does
not personify any of the ideals of chivalry. The first of his sins is the rape
of a young girl, which breaks all known principles of chivalry, because knights
were supposed to be engaged in platonic love which supposes having no sexual
relations with women and total respect towards them. Though, these principles
were broken by the knight, he was not sentenced to death, which is also very
unusual, but was sent to the Queen, who gave him a special task to get to know
what women want the most. The Queen said “I’ll grant you life if
you can tell to me what thing it is that women most desire” [2]. Trying
to find the answer, the knight met the wife of Bath, who told him that women
most desire:
“Women desire to have the sovereignty
As well upon their husband as their love,
And to have mastery their man above…”
Thus, the life of the knight is saved, but he still didn’t learn how to
be courteous to the women. He remains with the old women and treats her badly,
showing disrespect towards her. The knight had to marry the old lady, as it
was the condition under which she told him the correct answer. At first the
knight denied, but he had not choice but marry the lady, whom he treated badly.
However, by the end of the poem the knight seemed to learn how a true knight
should behave. The tale ended in a happy end, as the old lady turned into a
young and beautiful woman.
Generally speaking, in “The Wife of Bath” tale Geoffrey Chaucer
reveals the true nature of the knights, who only seemed to be chivalrous and
devoted to the principles of courtly love. The knight in this tale behaves indecently
with the women, breaking all the rules existing in that period of time. However,
chivalrous behaviour and courtly love is well depicted in other tales by Geoffrey
Chaucer, including the above mentioned “The Knight’s Tale”.
Though a lot of literary works are devoted to courtly love, marriages in the
Middle Ages were not based on love, the exception is the “Franklin’s
Tale”, where the author describes the life of married couple Dorigen and
Arviragus, who truly loved and cared for each other. “Franklin’s
Tale” shows one of the best examples of how men should treat women, because
the main features of Arviragus are his loyalty and respect towards Dorigen,
who in her turn is also loyal and loving.
Conclusion
Having spoken about courtly love and chivalry and the way these two concepts
are depicted in the works of medieval writers and poets, it is necessary to
make a conclusion. The Arthurian Age is the time of courageous knight struggling
with horrible monsters to protect their honour and love. However, the principles
of chivalry and courtly love created in the Middle Ages were not strictly followed
even by the knights. This is especially noticed in the literary works of that
period of time. The image of a knight was too idealized and often the knights
didn’t correspond to the ideal image. As any other people the knights
could feel fear and be concerned more with their self-preservation rather than
defending their honour. But still, this period of time remains a beautiful era
of courage, love and romance, strong and brave knights and their gentle ladies.
In my opinion, this is priceless literary heritage that should be always remembered
by the British people as well as the readers from other countries.
Bibliography
1. Bisson, Lillian M. Chaucer and the Late Medieval World. London: Macmillan,
1998
2. Geoffrey Chaucer, Nevill Coghill “The Canterbury Tales, in Modern English.”
3. Lee, Brian S. “Exploitation and Excommunication in “The Wife
of Bath’s Tale.” Philological Quarterly, Vol. 74, 1995
4. Schwartz, Debora B. “Backgrounds to Romance: “Courtly Love”.
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl513/courtly/courtly.php
