Ethical Issues During Louis XIV - Research Paper Example

Ethical Issues during Louis XIV Spitting in public is condemned by many people. This is seen as being manner less and act itself is disgusting. It is argued that we should not spit on or across tables and into a basin that you are washing your hands in. it is advised that when spitting one should turn away as the sputum may fall on someone. If any traces of saliva falls on the ground it should be trodden upon as it may be nauseating to some people. If one is one in a position to do all the above he/she may wrap the saliva in a small cloth (Lama 67). Spitting or scratching oneself at a table especially during meals is strongly discouraged but if at all one has to then he or she should do it politely and unnoticed. The above mentioned laws are not immutable, they can be changed. For example in ancient times one could yawn, provided he or she did not speak in the process but nowadays it could be shocking to a person of rank. Spitting frequently is very much disagreeable but when there is need one should conceal it as much. When one spits he or she has to cover the saliva with the foot. When in house a handkerchief should be used instead while turning aside. Care should be taken especially when spitting so as not to spit on ones clothes or those of others (Corey 78). One should not only spit in a handkerchief while in the house but also when in church and in places where cleanliness reigns. It is an inexcusable habit for children to spit in their playmates’ faces. Too it is a bad habit to spit out of windows, on furniture and on walls. A series of quotations on spitting clearly shows that there has been a change in behavior towards a particular direction since the Middle Ages. Frequent spitting is still being viewed as unpleasant behavior and lack of “cleanliness” unlike it was seen almost four centuries ago. This clearly demonstrates how civilization process has taken place (Hernandez 89). Taboos and restrictions of different kinds view ejection of saliva not as any other natural process but as a “primitive” and “uncivilized”. The distinguishing fact between the former and the latter is that the former views this as an external constraint while the later sees it as an internal constraint (Lama 89). Elias asserts that even Louis xiv, who mostly is seen as the supreme among the omnipotent absolute monarch, proofs when scrutinized as a person whose rank as a king was in a certain network of interdependencies (Barrat 101). He preserved his power by a careful calculated strategy which was under a peculiar structure of court society and by the society at large. Elias understood Louis xiv in the sense of light-recentre-thinking on the nature and structure of the French absolute monarchy. The personal rule of Louis xiv started in 1661, a time of great weakness when all the opposition was crushed. Louis xiv seemed to use the old roman adage as the simplest strategy for his rule but he did not. From the experienced of the Fronde, the king knew that his ruler was under pressure of threats from below. Barrat asserts that to maintain his rule and avoid the unification of the court society against him, Louis had to exert more pressure (100). His genius, from Elias,was that he rose to perfection as a result of careful assessment of the relationship of power at the court and the balancing of tension that was within it. He therefore succeeded by creating organizations which not only maintained the tension and the differences but also facilitated supervision. Louis xiv calculated strategy was implemented during his close to fifty-five years of personal reign. During the period he succeeded in maintaining his rank as a king and instilling the need for it in the French nobility. The king had to use all means at his disposal to maintain and enhance his power. The court and the etiquette as understood by the king were the most important instruments for his reign and power distribution.The king had to channel the tension carefully, cultivate it jealously and maintain fragmentation within the group and their aims and at large in the pressure they exert. It required a high degree and sense calculation to allow the power of the opposition to penetrate one another and hold the pressure at equilibrium (Malcolm and Rosselli). Elias came to realize that Louis xiv did not come up with the mechanism of ceremonial. According to Malcolm and Rossellini, Elias’ sociological analysis of the lever du roi functioning portrays Saint Simon as an eyewitness of the operations of etiquette. Before the coming of Saint Simon in the1690’s, no action by the king was regulated by code of mannerwhether in the presence of others or from the presence of the lever to that of the couchier. Many questions arise from the historical changes that happened during the reign of Louis xiv. Many responses show that Louis xiv’s lever unfolded at different intervals during his rule. This included the layout of the king’s apartments, at the Louvre and then at Versailles. The lever’s development and transformation showed an important shift in the public perception of the French monarchy. These changes occurred in the last latter parts of Louis xiv’s rule. They too showed the implications of the future (Malcolm and Rosselli). Everyday ceremonial life surrounding the French king was part and parcel of the tradition dating back to days before the Sun King. In the early years of the French monarchy, the king’s bedchamber was a public room. Then later there were changes in this such as the multiplication of rooms with specialized purposes. They included those public for eating and sleeping and less public but accessible and the private ones. Louis xiv came up with changes in the architecture of royal chateaux and that of king’s apartments (Barrat 67-68). Louis xiv’s lever in his first days of his rule was in two distinct stages, one public and the other public. The first ever description of King Louis xiv’s lever du roi is from June 1965. This is only told by Marie du Bois, a valet of the king for 17 years. It is said that the king’s apartment at the Louvre comprised two bed chambers among other rooms. At the Louvre Louis xiv acquired a dual sleeping arrangement, one public (chamber de Parade) and the other private (chamber de’l Alcove). In the kings bedchamber the bed was full of amaranth colored velvet and heavy gold embroidery. No rail was around the king’s bed. The dais had many silver vases with tuberoses. Louis xiv’s usual morning ritual at the Louvre had a preserve of the tradition by use of the two bedroom made by Henri IV. Louis xiv ritually and specially enacted this tradition as each morning after arising he used the two bedchambers at King’s Apartments (Malcolm and Rosselli). Barrat asserts that the traditions were not changed just after assumption of power by Louis xiv in 1661. The lever du roi underwent major elaborations between 1663 and 1682 from different points of view. A modern reconstruction project in 1668 for the King’s Apartment showed a public bedchamber (Chambre de Parade or Grande Chambre) and a private bed chamber (Petit Chambre). The rituals too underwent changes; first annual publication known as L’Etat de la France named the persons close to the awakened king who the dressed him. Every article of the king’s clothes was named and each piece of the clothes was received from certain members of the two main services involved in the dressing of the king. In 1669, the king created a new office, the Grand Master of Wardrobe. This was to ensure that the king’s services were handled carefully, with propriety and with utmost dignity of the person. Access to the King was delineated as a list of those permitted entrance was given to entrance officers. In brief the following changed in the lever du roi in the 1660’s and 1670’s; the efficiency of serving the king was increased, clear procedures were established, role were clearly delineated, all necessary persons were brought closer and their entry and stations in the course of the lever were indicated (Barrat 77). In 1682 the lever du roi at Versailles maintained a traditional outlook for only two years after its installation. The king left the Grand Apartment in 1684 install himself in rooms close to the heart of the chateau (Cour de Marbre). The king woke up in one bed chamber and the was dressed in adjoining larger rooms as from 1684 to 1701 (Barrat 89-90). The first ceremonies were staged in the new chamber du Roi in November 1684. The king performed the main rising ceremonies at the chateau’s center. Malcolm and Rossellini In 1701, the king’s bed chamber finally moved to the King’s Salon (Salon du Roi). This was at the very heart or the center of the chateau. It took a fixed “classic” form after the movement to one bedroom ceremony. This was observed by the Duc de Saint-Simon after arriving at the court in 1690. Here the king stayed in a fixed place for a longer period of the year. Too the court was large stationed at Versailles. The king’s growing family also contributed to the shift. This one bed room is what still remains. The king finished symbolism in the design of Versailles by performing both public and private functions in one and same room. He rose, dressed, ate, received ambassadors and retired in the very room facing east. Louis xiv “one body” is and was likened to clockwork, and his presence every time ceremonialized time (Barrat 156). The development chronology of King Louis xiv supports the facts that he abandoned his private life for an actual and real incarnation of sovereign power. Under King Louis xiv, the development of the court ceremonial witnessed the “fusion” of the “King’s Two Bodies.” The private body is over taken by an imaginary body. The two bodies then form one but a glorious on. The glorious body that functions like a clock brings at the court a mechanized ceremonial in the extreme (Barrat 67). This ritual development and the two bedchambers fusion at Sun King’s lever du roi at Versailles give visible evidence for the development of a closed system. This system poses that the attribute or the clothing that the King wore were not exclusively considered royal but only depended on the kings royal attitude together with his personality force and then operating with regard to severely codified component Works Cited Barrat, Pierre. The Taking of Power by Loius XIV (The Criterion Collection) (1966), 2009. Corey, Gerald. Issues and Ethics in the Helping Professions. Boston: Brooks Cole, 2010. Print. Hernandez, Lili. Crossing Cultural Boundaries: Taboo, Bodies and Identities. London: Cambridge scholars publishing, 2009. Print. Lama, Dalai. Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. Print. Malcolm, Derek and Roberto Rossellini: The rise to power of Louis XIV. 18 March 1999. Web. 15 March 15, 2012 Read More