The Flaws in the Concept of Knighthood - Research Paper Example

College The flaws in the concept of Knighthood The concept of knighthood was a strategy to the military which was mainly usedto supply men who were to fight the king’s war. A knight was a soldier who was taught how to fight and it was his duty to serve the king as the Code of Chivalry indicated. A Knight was supposed to be brave and fearless during any fight and was to show all the knightly qualities. He was supposed to guard the Castle and to ensure that the king was safe in the medieval warfare. There were very many virtues of medieval code of chivalry. These virtues included truth, faith, charity, justice, hope, prudence and diligence (Zesmer, 91). All these virtues were supposed to be shown by the people. During the knighthood ceremony, knights swore oaths that they would never associate themselves with traitors; treat a lady with respect and to protect them against any harm. A knight was a soldier who was ready to sacrifice his life in saving children and women. They were brave soldiers who fought wars to defend their religion and justice. They were trained as professional soldiers who were to serve and do good deeds. They were supposed to take their job as a religious contract with God but most of them took their training as chance to kill rape and burn (McGlynn, 72). Most of them never followed the rules that they were taught in their training. There were rules of courtly love which described pure romance and loving another man’s wife. These courtly rules were thirty one in number. It stated that boys were not allowed to marry until they were matured enough. It also stated that, it was not proper to love a woman whom you will be ashamed of. All these rules only existed in writing but were never taken into consideration in the real world. All these concepts of knighthood had many limitations. Some were applied in the real life while others were never. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, there are many limitations to the rules of chivalry. Also, in Wife of Bath tale, not all of concepts of knighthood were accomplished either. Chivalric virtues teach one to be faithful to God. Everyone should fear God and always maintain His church. One should always persevere to any difficulty he comes across. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight poem, we see that Sir Gawain is obeying all these rules before he goes to challenge the Green Knight. Green Knight gives a chance to anyone who wants to strike his neck with an axe if the challenger is ready to offer his neck to be chopped off in the following year on the same date. Gawain agrees to take this challenge and he beheads the Green Knight in one blow but miraculously, Green Knight does not die. He picks up his head which is still speaking to Gawain and tells Gawain that they have to meet at Green Chapel in the following New Year’s morning for them to exchange the blow as they had agreed. Gawain agrees to go to the Green Chapel. Through his faith, he gets guidance from God. This is one of the chivalric values that he is supposed to obey. This value fades away when he is seduced by Lady Bertilak. He has to choose between the request from the woman and his faithfulness to God. He falls into the woman’s trap and his faith in God is shaken. He fails to honor that value that he was taught as a knight (Clein, 35). Chivalry codes states that knight is a brave and fearless warrior who must be ready to die while protecting his people. He should be ready for any situation even if it is very dangerous and may make him lose his life (Mcglynn, 76). When Gawain is riding to Green Chapel to face the mysterious Green Knight, he is alone. He has no one to talk to but to God. He encounters many challenges on his way. He battles giants and beasts and struggles through the hostile conditions. The weather is very cold and could even kill a weak man. His faith in God also helps him defeat the enemies on the way (Clein, 34). This shows how brave Gawain is. When he meets the dangerous Green Knight, who has a monstrous axe, he is horrified. He has to expose his neck to be cut as an exchange of what he did to the Green Knight. Chivalry values states that he should be brave and fearless but this contradicts with what he does when the axe is raised. Gawain flinches from the axe and Green Knight calls him a coward. The third strike injures Gawain’s neck but he is lucky he is not killed. Once again, Gawain disobeys the chivalry code by showing that he is a coward. He fears to die yet he was taught to sacrifice his life in warfare. On his way to the Green Chapel, Gawain comes across a beautiful castle with very strong defense. He asks for a permission to enter the castle and the porter of the castle grants him. He is warmly welcomed by the lord of the castle and he is given the best of care. The company later realizes that he is the Sir Gawain of Arthur’s court. He is treated with the greatest honor. After dinner, Gawain meets the lady of the beautiful of the castle. The lord of the castle tells him that he still has a long way to go; therefore, he has to relax in bed for three days. They make a deal that anything the lord wins in hunting will be exchanged with whatever Gawain is going to win the castle. When the lord is out for hunting, his wife is chatting with Gawain and later demands a kiss to him. She kisses him. Gawain exchanges this kiss with what the lord has won in hunting (Clein, 45). On the second day of hunting, the lady also kisses Gawain. He could not hesitate to exchange it with the lord’s win in hunting. On the third day, the lady goes to where Gawain is sleeping. She wakes him up and offers him her valuable ring but he refuses. He accepts the girdle from her believing that it was going to save him from death knowing the place he is going is dangerous. He has to accept the girdle so that he obeys the rules of courtly love that he must do whatever the lady tells him. He fails to give the lord the girdle as they had agreed because the girdle is going to save his life. This fails him from being virtuous. He breaks his promise, thus making him believe that he has lost his honor. When Gawain is choosing the girdle, it shows that he values his life more than the virtue. This makes him fail to adhere to the code of chivalry. The game between Gawain and the Green Knight is used to satirize the chivalry and the courtly love. Gawain goes to the Green Chapel as they had agreed with the Green knight. He is going to have his neck cut as an exchange blow. This is supposed to be like a battle. No one should be spared. Gawain should be ready to lose his life as a chivalry soldier. He fears the angry Green Knight who is ready to cut his head off. As a chivalry knight, he was trained to be brave and fearless. He should be ready to lose his life in any battlefield. The Green Knight forgives him although his neck is scratched a little. Green Knight was trained to kill during battle but he disobeys this by giving Gawain a chance to live. Knight is a brave and fearless warrior who must at all times be ready to take care of the weak, orphans and women in the society. As any army in the modern world, knights were well trained soldiers (Zesmer, 76). They took an oath to respect and defend women against any harm. They were supposed to protect the church the use of arms. In Wife of Bath’s tale, in Arthur’s court, there is a young knight who meets a beautiful young woman. He is not able to control his lust and through his great strength, he rapes the women. He fails to adhere to rules of code of chivalry. He was taught all these rules in the knighthood ceremony. He is supposed to be killed but Arthur’s queen intercedes and he is given a chance to live under one condition. He is given one year to go and look for what a woman wants most in the world. If he convinces the queen and the other ladies in the court, he is going to be granted another chance to live. Knight knows that if he returns to the court without a right answer, his head was going to be cut off. He goes round the country asking many women the question but he is given different wrong answers. Some women said the best thing they loved is money, some honor, some sex, some remarriage while others loved to be left to do what they wish to freely. Another woman tells him that she loves to be secretive but she knows that is not going to be right answer to the question. He finds an ugly woman in a forest who guarantees him of a right answer in a condition that he is going to agree to what she is going to ask from him. He promises to reward her with anything she is going to demand. He goes with her to court where he gives the answer to the question; the greatest desire of a woman is to be taking control of their marriages and lovers. The queen agrees to this answer and he is given a chance to live again. The ugly old woman comes to the front and asks knight to marry her. He cries but there was no other option but to take her as his wife. They are married in small wedding and are supposed to sleep together on that night. The night is miserable to him. He feels ashamed of marrying an old woman. Code of chivalry states that, knight should treat and respect a woman with all his heart. Knight becomes so sad and he claims that he could not bear the shame of marrying an ugly woman (Crane, 27). She tells him that she is better than the beautiful women because she is loyal and good rather than the beautiful women who are unfaithful. This idea convinces him and he agrees to live with her and they have a good life. “The wife of Bath tale” mainly revolves around women. Men are supposed to serve these women and respect their requests and desires. Arthur is the king in this area. He heads the court and the final decision should always come from him. When knight, who raped the beautiful woman, is brought to court, his wife requests him to deal with the knight. Knight should be subjected to death but the wife forgives him. She is the one to punish the criminal. In chivalry court of love, every man should grant a woman whatever the woman desires. King Arthur obeys this rule by giving his wife power to decide the fate of the criminal (Crane, 24). The ugly woman who saves the life knight also asks him to marry her. This woman is very old and the knight is going to be ashamed if he marries her. He must adhere to the rules of courtly love. He must give the woman her desires. He later agrees to marry the ugly old woman and lived happy life (Minnis, 9). The wife of Bath describes her five husbands. She says that three of her husbands were good while two of them were bad. The first three were very rich and old. She took advantage of the men’s weaknesses. She put these husbands through hard conditions. She uses her arrogant nature to benefit from these men. She, at times, blamed her husband of unfaithfulness yet she was the one who was unfaithful (Crane, 19). She could refuse to sleep with her husband in bed until he gave her some money. She used this to get money from the wealthy husbands. Her old husbands seemed to obey the rules of courtly love. The Wife of Bath later describes the other two husbands to be very bad. They were both very young. She could not command them in any way. Her fifth husband was far much younger than her. He was very arrogant and used to beat her up. He was far much different from the other husbands because she married him for love and not money. She tried to tease him but found herself in a very big trouble. He beat her up and even stroked her on one ear and now her ear could not hear at all. Her fifth husband did not follow the rules of the courtly love which requires him to respect every woman and give her anything she desires to have (Minnis, 14). In the knighthood ceremony, knights were taught very many moral values that were supposed to be adhered to. Some of these values were followed but others were neglected. Some knights tried to adhere to them but under some situations, it became difficult to do so. These rules only appeared in writing but not all of them were applied in reality. Work cited Zesmer, David M. Guide to English Literature from Beowulf Through Chaucer and Medieval Drama. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1961. Print. McGlynn, Sean. By Sword and Fire: Cruelty and Atrocity in Medieval Warfare. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008. Print. Crane, Susan. Gender and Romance in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1994. Print. Clein, Wendy. Concepts of Chivalry in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Norman, Okla: Pilgrim Books, 1987. Print. Minnis, A J. Fallible Authors: Chaucer's Pardoner and Wife of Bath. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. Print.. Read More