Learning Reflections

To begin with, Chivalry is more than opening doors for women. That is a modern take on an ancient tradition. It was a lifestyle. Indeed, seeing as it was a code that knights lived by, it included a lot of violence because their job was to protect the king and his assets. We saw this in Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In both of these stories, there is a man willing to sacrifice himself for a king. The works that we have read that told the story of chivalrous knights were satirizing the code. Knights are supposed to be unadulterated men of honor, but they actually spend their lives killing people in the name of the king.

Moreover, in Morte Darthur, Sir Lancelot is meant to defend the kingdom and he is King Arthur’s best friend, but he is actually sleeping with the queen. Is this something that an honorable man would do? According to the story of Sir Gawain, the answer is no. There is also the question as to whether leaders and kings were senselessly putting their knights’ lives in danger. In the story of The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son, rather than those in charge being praised, they were being criticized for doing exactly that. On the other hand, the fighters were praised for doing their job demonstrating that while they were doing what they were supposed to do, those in charge were not always right.

Of course, courtesy and hospitality are a huge part of this class. In the majority, if not all, of the works that we have read food is what brings people together. This includes works such as Paradise Lost, The Hobbit, The Odyssey, and the aforementioned Beowulf and Sir Gawain. In The Odyssey, Odysseus is allowed to dine with the king and his people without them even knowing his name. This demonstrates that communion is an important part of hospitality. Knowing who a person is comes second to hospitality. The Hobbit is another example of courtesy and hospitality being played out. Bilbo Baggins did not invite thirteen dwarves in his home, but he continued to give them service with a smile even when they started demanding specific foods.

Lastly, the idea of love according to men was quite interesting. In The Knight’s Tale and Morte Darthur, and Dante’s Vita Nuova two, men literally became lovesick over a woman that he didn’t know, a woman that belonged to another, and his dead wife, respectively. There are sure to be more stories like this because in Capellanus’s De Amore, he claims that when you are around the person you love your heart palpitates and you become pale. Apparently, this isn’t a new concept. Speaking of love, women did not have many rights in marriage. Even in Paradise Lost, Eve is not considered her own person. She is seen as only half a person which means that Adam, her husband, is the one to complete her. In Persuasion, the woman was expected to stay home with sick children while the man did whatever he wanted outside of the home. Not to mention, the property of the patriarch went to a distant male relative instead of the eldest daughter. All of this shows that there were great inequalities between how females and males were treated in society.