The Steps of Medieval Literature - Essay Example

Medieval Romantic Literature The medieval society was famous for the chivalry portrayed in a majority of thenarratives featuring in that period. The commonest of these narratives featured king Arthurs heroic narratives. The majority of these narratives portrayed characters with bravery. In addition, the heroes of the narratives were those serving at the king’s residence. In addition, the narratives portrayed the presence of supernatural beings. This paper will highlight the key features of the ideal medieval world. It is worth noting that, despite the superficial portrayal of an ideal world, these stories reveal a bi9g deal of realistic problems that come to humanity. "Wife of Bath’s Tale" This narrative belongs to King Arthur’s category. The narrator of the tale is the wife of Bath. She tells the story of knight who followed the habits of incubi that existed in the preceding era. The story highlights the consequences that befell one of king Arthur’s knights after he gave in to his fleshly desires. The knight committed rape, an offense that had terrible effects. The knight had come across a maiden who had irresistible beauty1. The knight could not suppress his desire and he decided to use the power bestowed upon a knight and forced the maiden into the ordeal. In those days, knights were real warriors accorded respect and honor by the subjects of the king. However, soon the king came to knowledge of what he had done. The knight had miscalculated his chances of getting away with the crime he had committed2. King Arthur did not intend to spare him from the decapitation that awaited him because of his act. However, the queen made a suggestion to the king. She intended to save the knight’s life. However, she demanded that the knight had to indulge in interviews and provide an answer the inquiry that queen would pose. The queen ordered the knight to find out what women desired most. His life would be safe if he established the right answer to the inquiry. However, if his venture proved a failure, he would face decapitation. The knight embarked on a journey to different parts of the land seeking to establish the one desire that a woman would do anything to have fulfilled. For some time, his venture was proving unsuccessful because different women had varying answers for his inquiry3. However, knowing that finding the real answer was fundamental to saving his life, he did not give up but on with the search. In the end, he found an old woman, who offered to help him out. However, the woman was not pleasing to the eye for she was ugly and old. She offered to help but with conditions. She demanded a pledge from the knight. The knight, knowing that he had a few days left before he presented himself before the queen to provide an answer to her inquiry; he gave in to the demands of the old woman. He promised to commit himself to the old woman4. The old woman provided him with an answer that impressed the queen, saving his life. However, the knight found it hard to live up to his pledges to the old woman who gave him the right answer. However, he was indebted to her and had to marry her. However, after the marriage, it was difficult for him to accept that he going to live the rest of his life with the wretched woman. On realizing his state of unhappiness and displeasure, the old women inquire why the knight was in this state. The knight explained that it was hard to accept the reality he was facing. The old woman gave the knight two options to choose. On one side, the knight was to decide whether if he preferred a beautiful, but unfaithful wife or he wanted her to remain ugly but loyal. At this point, the knight put into application the useful information that he had gathered from the queen’s inquiry. Realizing that a woman’s greatest desire is having her man under her control, he gave her the freedom to choose what she preferred to become to her man. Fortunately, it worked for him because the freedom to choose presented her with an opportunity to feel superior to him. Therefore, out of this superiority, the old woman transformed into a beautiful, but loyal wife5. Superficially, these narratives seem to present an ideal world where happiness dwells. In the end, the couple abides in a state of happiness. At first examination, one would easily find pleasure from the happiness resulting at the end that reflects ideal living conditions. However, the greater of the story highlights the problems that affect humankind. From the beginning, the story revealed the pain caused by rape in society. The women undergoing such ordeals were very unhappy because rape robbed their dignity. These women had to bear the consequences of rearing the children that resulted from the rape. On the other hand, the knight who raped the maiden had to face punishment for his irrational actions. This is a depiction of circumstances in daily lives. Crime prevails and robs people of dignity and happiness. The criminals must face the hard consequences of their crimes. The knight’s devastation after he realized that he was going to face decapitation portrays the level of devastation that humans face as consequences of their wickedness. In real life, regret and guilt has become part of human life. This situation causes people pain and devastation. The knight’s venture to establish the greatest desire and wish of women represents the ventures that humans embark on in the struggle to survive. It portrays the real mode of survival in life. Majority of people in society strive to succeed. Success does not come easily for anyone. Just as the knight struggled without success for a long time, people struggle to achieve their goals in life but with fading hope. This defines the course of life for the majority of people. When the knight had to marry the old woman, it portrayed how people settle for the worst in life because circumstances force them. The knight feels devastated after marrying the old woman. This situation is a replica of how people struggle to get over the numerous disappointments that they face in life. Although many people idealize these narratives as depicting a wishful life, analysis proves that they highlight the challenges that humans struggle with each day. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight This is an additional narrative from King Arthur’s category. This narrative depicts the consequences of a dare game played by knights6. The story begins by highlighting the happy state of King Arthur’s residence on New Year’s Day. From this initial setting, it becomes easy for one to mistake the prevailing of an ideal palace in the medieval romance. However, this happiness and well-being did not last. The emergence of a gigantic and stronger knight caused a freak out in the king’s palace distracting the peace that had prevailed. The strange knight came to challenge the king and his knights with a dare. The knight carried an axe and dared once of the king’s knights to kill him with a single strike on the neck. On realizing that the strange knight was frightening his knights, the king offered to take the dare however, his nephew, who happened to be the youngest of the knights, pleaded to kill the knight himself. The king granted Gawain, the young knight, the opportunity to prove his warrior competence. However, the one accepting the challenge had to have an inner source of brevity to face the same in a year’s time. Gawain took the challenge and managed to behead the green knight in one strike. However, instead of falling after this, the knight reached for its cut-off head and reminded Gawain that he had to face an equal dare after the mentioned duration. The experience was enough to scare Gawain because everything happened so fast and he had to face the same fate in a year’s time. The reality of what lay ahead of him began to appear real. However, times went by and Gawain had to face the green knight in a long- distance green chapel. It is worth noting that Gawain believed that he represented five pillars of moral values. However, this venture was going to put his values to test. Although he decided to keep his pledge, he was afraid deep in his heart. He faced numerous threats in the wilderness including dangerous animals. Finally, Gawain found a castle where he received a warm welcome. In this castle, he found a place to relax after a long journey. He also felt encouraged because the hospitable people made him realize that the chapel was only two miles away. He was afraid he was going to face his death only two miles away. However, he decided to take his time to relax after the long journey, and make himself comfortable. However, the host, Bertilak, came up with a new game challenge. He would go hunting into the wilderness and exchange his catch for the day with anything that Gawain managed to attain back in the castle. Gawain gladly accepted the new game. Lady Bertivlak gave Gawain a hard time through her flirtatious nature. However, despite his continuous declines, she offered him kisses that were the only exchanges he offered his host for the catches from the world. On them third day, the woman offered three kisses and her girdle. The woman drove Gawain into believing that the girdle had potential charms that could shield him from death. Since he was afraid of death, he kept the girdle secretly and only offered the three kisses7. Gawain was to face his ultimate fate with the green knight the following day. Determined not to give up after coming this far, he proceeded to the green chapel. One of the castle guides tried to convince him to forget about the venture promising that he would not disclose his surrender. However, Gawain objected and opted to face his fate. To his surprise, Bertilak, the host at the castle was the green knight. The green knight uncovered his dishonesty about the girdle. In addition, the green knight revealed that the sorcerer accorded ultimate honor in the castle was the cause of the entire episode. The sorcerer had commissioned Bertilak to carry out the scary mission at King Arthur’s palace. The knight hurt Gawain only a little, saving his life. However, Gawain felt devastated because he had succumbed to dishonesty out of the selfish desire to save his life. Gawain started his venture back home, a disappointed knight. Although he had portrayed extreme courage by accepting to face the knight, who was gigantic with supernatural powers, Gawain had failed out of his dishonesty. Gawain returned home with the girdle on his hand and other knights adopted the same practice in memory of an important virtue. This narrative has features of the medieval romance category. In addition, it portrays the situations that affect humankind distracting prevailing peace and forcing people to make hard choices. The story presents the typical struggle, fears, insecurities, mistakes, and their consequences as faced by humankind. Gawain’s predicament started due to the unexpected events that happen in human life forcing people to react. Gawain reacted to the challenge posed by the green knight. He took an abrupt step in addressing the issue, and this placed him prone to a reciprocal of the attack in the future. Such are the occurrences that define daily life. New problems arise without expectation. This story depicts that the choices one makes each day determine the type of life that one will live tomorrow. The venture that Gawain embarked in the wilderness portrays real life challenges that an individual faces. One takes risks as they pursue success. Gawain’s survival depended on his endurance and resilience. He had to cope with each day’s unique challenges, a situation typical in real life. For the majority of the people, only patience and endurance become pillars of strengths when facing challenges. At the castle, Gawain made a mistake that proves that this narrative decribes the struggle with daily challenges. He succumbed to a vice in order to save his life. This explains why people would do anything in order to survive even if that forces them to compromise with their principles. Therefore, the narrative portrays clearly, what transpires in the lives of people. In the end, Gawain realizes that someone was exercising control over his life manipulating the events that transpired. He feels disappointed with himself because of compromising his values in order to save his life. Typical life consists of several disappointments that humans have to content with and hand le critically. In addition, the sorcerer’s manipulation portrays the ways in which wicked people exert their influence on others forcing them to compromise their principles and priorities. The devastation that Gawain feels at the end presents a feeling that people have to learn to handle in real life8. Both narratives belong to tales that existed in the medieval system. Despite the common perception that these novels portray idealized view of the world that consists of happiness and a contented welfare, the analysis of these two tales reveals otherwise. The narratives portray natural people facing different situations. The people are prone to making mistakes as it occurs in real life. In addition, the people face the consequences of their actions as it happens in real life. Moreover, these people face devastation and emotional breakdown as it happens in every day life. They battle with inner weaknesses to survive. When they cannot keep their weaknesses under suppression, they lose. These attributes of real life struggle depict clearly that medieval romantic narratives are no t exactly the way they appear on the surface. The knights discussed in the two narratives reveal this. However, it is worth noting that despite depicting real life problems, they have aspects of the chivalry that many literature experts describe. In both narratives, there are heroic characters who take the winning side at the conclusion of the story. In addition, there is remarkable contribution from supernatural human beings. The influence of these beings controls the character of other characters in the story. The stories provide a happy conclusion at the end indicating that humans can triumph over daily challenges. It is evident that medieval romantic narratives do not portray features of an ideal world in every essence. On the contrary, the two stories analyzed above depict real life challenges, as they transpire e each day. The stories highlight the decisions people make when faced by different situations. In addition, the narratives elaborate the consequences that these characters face according to their preceding actions. In addition, they highlight them emotional states that emerge as an individual faces certain challenges. All these define typical daily challenges in life. People reckon with similar hardships in life. Bibliography Shmoop. The Canterbury Tales: the Wife of Bath's Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer. [Sunnyvale, Calif.]: Shmoop University, 2010. . Swan, Richard. The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale. Deddington: Philip Allan Updates, 2010. Weston, Jessie Laidlay. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 2003. Read More