Chivalry in Literature Essay Example

There  are a billion “what if’s” in the world. Every single organism has thought “what if”. One of the greatest “What if’s” in the universe that has been thought of and sometimes asked is “ What if I could go back in time?” “Where would I want to go? What would I want to experience or change?”. A fitting image to the answer of this question is from a historian lovers’ perspective. Someone interested in history might say that going back to the time of knights, chivalry and battles would be a dream. A history teacher might say that exact same answer but different reasoning relating it to giving them the opportunity to find answers to questions. What exactly was that time? What were knights really like? Why was chivalry important to follow? Chivalry was a code of honor that knights followed that highlighted the importance of honor, honesty, faith and loyalty. In the Middle Ages, chivalry was majorly important for knights to display the dedication to their duty, along with treating a women right. There are a variety of works of early literature that show prominent and abominable acts of chivalry, in particular,  Le Morte D'arthur by Sir Thomas Malory  or “The Wife Of Bath’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer. The above mentioned stories both show satisfactory and inadequate representation of following the code of chivalry. 

In Le Morte D’Arthur, a strong follower of chivalry is King Arthur. The king is preparing to battle his “bastard” son Sir Modred so he can not claim the throne or anything worthy since King Arthur believes he is a bad guy and is trying to protect and save his kingdom from possible destruction. Briefly before the battle, Arthur gets a warning in a dream from Sir Gawain to not proceed with the battle or he will die. After this dream, King Arthur tells his lords and all try to convince him to wait to battle but no matter who is convincing, King Arthur is still determined to try and defeat Sir Modred.  It is crystal clear that King Arthur will not back down from this battle against Sir Modred when he states that “‘My Lords, I care nothing for my life now! And while Sir Modred is at large I must kill him: there may not be another chance’”(Malory 210). Here, it can be seen that King Arthur is a strong follower of chivalry because he would rather die than let Sir Modred defeat him. His intentions are good and he follows the code of chivalry in aspects of fighting for the welfare of all since he is fighting for his kingdom. As one can see, a good follower of chivalry is King Arthur.         

Furthermore, Sir Bedivere also portrays a good follower of chivalry. Once the battle ends, King Arthur defeats Sir Modred in a violent fight, ending many lives while possibly saving his kingdom from destruction. Sir Bedivere and Sir Lucas have been supporting the king as he nears the end of his life from injuries from the battle. Some time after the battle, King Arthur dies. Sir Bedivere is devastated, “..., and when he came to he begged the archbishop to allow him to remain at the hermitage and end his days in fasting and prayer. “‘Father, I wish only to be near to my true liege…’ Thus the archbishop and Sir Bedivere remained at the heritage, wearing the habits of hermits and devoting themselves to the tomb with fasting and prayers of contrition”(Malory 213). Through all the hardwork and dedication that Sir Bedivere takes to help King Arthur in his battle, one might assume that through all the tragedy, Sir Bedivere would mourn King Arthur’s life but then keep going on with his life. Instead he insists on continuing to guard King Arthur’s tomb, dedicating his whole life to King Arthur in the manner of what the king did for his kingdom.  One can conclude, Sir Bedivere is serving the liege lord in valor and faith by dedicating the rest of life guarding King Arthur’s tomb with his life, showing that he is a good follower of chivalry. 

In “The Wife Of Bath’s Tale' ', the knight in the story imitates a careless follower of chivalry. The knight rapes a young lady and is now facing the consequences of his actions by having to fill a quest of answering the question “What is the thing women most desire?”. While trying to fulfill this quest by going to knock on every door to ask the question he comes across an old woman. The old women ends up helping him find the answer to his question. For her help, the knight promises to repay her which ends up having to marry her, disappointing him and making him feel angry. Trying to get out of this marriage in any way possible, the knight expresses his feelings to his wife, telling her “‘Nothing can ever be put right again! you’re old, and so abominably plain, So poor to start with, so low-bred to follow; it’s little wonder if I twist and wallow! God, that my heart would burst within my breast’”(Chaucer 275-279). Through all the women’s done to help the knight to redeem his actions, the knight is outrageously disrespectful to the lady and especially his wife.  The knight has no reason to act this way toward the women. All she has ever done is help the knight out and all she wants is to marry him which he agrees to, saying he would do anything for her for all her help. Now he is just taking the blame out on her for the consequences he is facing for his actions only because she does not meet his expectations as a woman. As context can conclude, the knight is not a good follower of chivalry because he does not follow one of the major important rules of chivalry, which is to respect the honor of women. 

In addition, the King is a good role model for following the code of chivalry.  After the knight’s actions, the king has to think of a way to punish him. The King automatically punishes him by decapitating him to his death. The queen and other women though told the King to think wisely on this decision of punishment. With this in mind, the king “… gave the queen the case And granted her his life, and she could choose Whether to show him mercy or refuse”( Chaucer 72-74). The king's actions were honorable and quite shocking during this time. To give a woman the privilege to make a decision was rare and shows great respect and honor to any woman since back then men were the decision makers of most things. It taught the knight a lesson for his actions instead of just dying. It shows how good of a king, Arthur was. It even let women have an opportunity to impact lives and not just be a chauffeur to men.  Some can identify the King as a good follower of the code of chivalry because he respects women and honors the idea of men being equal to women by granting the queen the right to make decisions.  

To conclude with, one can perceive that these two stories are suitable narrations of enacting the importance of admirable and horrendous actions of following the code of chivalry. Without the ability to go back in time and experience certain periods of society, people have to try and understand what past generations resembled, through resources. Going back to the Middle Ages, the only way to really grasp what life was really like  is through literature and pictures since writing and art were really the only skills that expressed what was happening during that time. These resources of literature, relating to the stories above, show their actions, characteristics, words and what their values were.  This is important to understanding history since as all humankind knows, chivalry plays a key role in the importance of history. Without these resources, how would the universe have known how to evolve? Without knowing the accomplishments and conflicts of life before them and how important chivalry was, society would be much different today. With this acknowledgement and the comprehension of the variation of events, societal opinions and more affecting history,  what would one say is a societal importance in impacting the history of their lifetime?