In “The Bronze Bow” many characteristics and themes are displayed. The author uses dynamic characters to express these characteristics. Elizabeth George Speare vividly demonstrates the virtues honor, duty, and love. The first theme that was shown in the book was honor. Honor was clearly demonstrated by Samson. Samson willingly gave his life for Daniel when he was in danger. From when Daniel and Samson first met Samson showed his affection for Daniel. He would sleep so close to Daniel that Daniel could hardly stretch out. Samson would follow Daniel around very closely. He would do Daniel’s chores for him when they were living up on the mountain. Samson would carry the heavy objects for Daniel like the barrels of water. When Daniel had left …show more content…
the mountain for a period of time to live in the village the men on the mountain had not had meat in a while because they were afraid to steal it. When Samson saw Daniel finally coming back up to the mountain he immediately ran and got a lamb for Daniel to eat. Samson was forever grateful to Daniel for his actions Samson’s first night on the mountain. He was ready to do anything and everything for Daniel at any given time. He traveled throughout the night watching Daniel, knowing that protecting Daniel would most likely mean great harm to him. The second he saw Daniel was going to be hurt he acted without hesitation. He gave his own life for a man he had never even spoken to, but Samson didn’t need to use words to show is affection, he used his actions which was ultimately the greatest thing he could do. Samson was definitely an honorable person for the sacrifice that he made for Daniel. Another theme demonstrated in this novel is duty.
Joel was definitely the character that demonstrated duty. Joel had an incredible life ahead of him. His future was all planned out, he was smart, he was destined for greatness. However Joel risked all of that so that he could make a vow with his friend. Joel cared so deeply about Daniel and the vow that Daniel had come up with he made that he put his incredible future in danger to take the same vow. Joel cared far more about his country's freedom from Rome then he did about his studies. He wanted to be on the mountain serving Rosh more than anything. However Joel recognized he couldn't do that, but that didn't stop him from wanting to serve Rosh and fighting the Romans. Joel did everything he was capable of from where he was at. He was ready at any moment to do whatever Rosh commanded. Even though the job Rosh asked Joel to do was risky he willingly completed it. His clever mind helped him to gather every piece of information Rosh had requested. He became a fish seller and sneaked in the slaves kitchen to collect details. Joel was aware of the danger his eagerness to be a rebel would get him in yet he still was eager. He was determined and faithful in every situation. Joel knew and respected Rosh and the vow he took. He recognized his duty, his duty to serve his country. Joel was driven and committed in everything he attempted. He was definitely one of the most if not the most honorable person in the
book. The most important message of this entire work was love. Ironically I think love was perfectly demonstrated by the person who wrestled with it the most, Daniel. I believe Daniel was the character that had the most love inside of him (aside from Jesus). The thought that love was weakness had been hammered into Daniel’s head so many times by Rosh that he just pushed away his love as much as he could. Daniel loved his sister, his grandmother, Samson, Jesus, his friends, and Thacia. I think Daniel loved a lot of people, but he didn’t really ever know what love felt like. Rosh had told him love made him have a soft spot so he would never try to love people, but without even realizing it, he was loving people. Daniel showed he loved Leah because of how scared he was at the thought of her death and how guilty he felt for how he unnecessarily yelled at her. We were able to see that he loved Thacia because of the way he acted towards her and how he felt around her. Like how he felt embarrassed when he went to watch her dance because he did not look like the other men there. After Daniel had finally broken with Jesus and had some alone time with him I think that started to make Daniel slightly calmer and start to actually know who Jesus was. What really made me think that Daniel had finally saw that love wasn’t a bad thing and started to embrace it was after Jesus had healed Leah. Daniel did something completely unexpected and I think he did because of love, he welcomed the Roman soldier Marcus into his home. In conclusion I think the author values the virtues honor, duty, and love. I think she did an incredible job displaying those characteristics in an interesting and meaningful way. However I think she believes that love is by far the most important of the three, and I agree with her.
The archetypes that permeate many different stories all originate from Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces. More specifically, in the medieval story, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a variety of different archetypes are especially necessary to the theme of the story. An understanding of three key archetypes—the temptress the magic weapon, and the task—reveal the essence of Gawain’s role within the archetypal quest motif.
Marie de France’s “Lanval” is a brilliantly witty and captivating narrative poem—one illustrating a knight’s unyielding honor and loyalty to his king as well as his enduring chivalric devotion to the woman he loves. Written in the twelfth century, amidst a time when women were looked down upon and considered useless and unnecessary, Marie’s portrayal of a knight needing to be rescued by his female lover breathes comic irony into this otherwise misogynistic and antifeminist world. In addition to this cleverly depicted romance, a further literary work, Geoffrey Chaucer’s early fifteenth century “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” extends its own explicitly satirical outlook
Marie De France’s Lanval is a remarkable short narrative that engages the reader into a world filled with unrealistic elements, but enhances on the true meaning of romance, chivalry and nature during the years that King Arthur reigned. “Sir Gawain and The Green Knight” unfortunately does not have an author that can be recognized but this epic poem demonstrates the ghastly adventure of a knight who decides to defend the honor of young King Arthur against a supernatural being in this malicious game of cat and mouse. Both of these pieces of literature have enchanting characteristics that define them as a masterpiece of their era and that’s why they both are easily compared and contrasted. In addition, both Lanval and “Sir Gawain and The Green Knight” can be classified as similar through their themes, style and plots, although they are different through their language and diction. Even though both of these literatures can be viewed as similar as well as contrasting, in the end, each of these tales have illuminated the realm of fantasy throughout the court of King Arthur.
The tales of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Lanval offer their readers insight into a common knightly quandary. Gawain and Lanval are both faced with challenges that threaten their ability to protect, uphold, and affirm their very knightliness. The two knights repeatedly see several knightly traits--- each invaluable to the essence of a knight--- brought into conflict. While the knights are glorified in their respective texts, they are faced with impossible dilemmas; in each story, both reader and knight are confronted with the reality that knightly perfection is unattainable: concessions must be made--- bits and pieces of their honor must be sacrificed.
Keen opens his book with an introductory chapter examining three literary works pertaining to chivalry: the Ordene de Chevalerie, the Book of the Ordre of Chyvalry, and the Book of Chivalry. All three of these were written during a period of great religious reform, yet, according to Keen, they appear to not have been influenced by the ideas of the Church. The Ordene de Chevalerie is an anonymous poem that stresses the importance of the ritual required for initiation into knighthood. The popularity of the piece leads to the conclusion that the poem reflects “what men understood chivalry to mean” (8). This poem is then contrasted by the Book of the Ordre of Chyvalry, a narrative work written by Ramon Lull that describes in detail the origins and meaning of chivalry. A consideration of Geoffrey de Charny’s ...
“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Element of Literature, Sixth Course. Austin: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston, 1997. 161-172. Print.
The greatest part of these studies have involved the middle-English text Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Extensive work has been done on this alliterative four-part poem written by an anonymous contemporary of Chaucer: feminists have attacked his diatribe against women at the end, or analyzed the interaction between Gawain and the women of Bercilak’s court; those of the D. W. Robertson school seek the inevitable biblical allusions and allegory concealed within the medieval text; Formalists and philologists find endless enjoyment in discovering the exact meaning of certain ambiguous and archaic words within the story. Another approach that yields interesting, if somewhat dated, results, is a Psychological or Archetypal analysis of the poem. By casting the Green Knight in the role of the Jungian Shadow, Sir Gawain’s adventure to the Green Chapel becomes a journey of self-discovery and a quest - a not entirely successful one - for personal individuation.
In the anonymous poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the character of Sir Gawain is portrayed as the imperfect hero. His flaws create interest and intrigue. Such qualities of imperfection cannot be found in the symbol of the pentangle, which he displays on his shield. This contrast between character and symbol is exposed a number of times throughout the poem allowing human qualities to emerge from Gawain’s knightly portrayal. The expectations the pentangle presents proves too much for Gawain as he falls victim to black magic, strays from God, is seduced by an adulterous woman, and ultimately breaks the chivalric code by lying to the Green Knight.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a medieval poem by an unknown author, written in Middle English in the 14th century. This poem is uncanny to most poems about heroism and knightly quests as it doesn’t follow the complete circle seen in other heroism tales. This poem is different to all the rest as it shows human weaknesses as well as strengths which disturbs the myth of the perfect knight, or the faultless hero. The author uses symbolism as a literary device in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to give the plot a deeper and more significant meaning. Symbolism is used to emphasise the difference of this heroism story against others and therefore symbolism is of great importance in this poem. The importance of the following symbols will be discussed in this paper; the pentangle, the colour green, the Green Knight, the exchange of winnings game, the axe and the scar. This paper argues the significance of the use of symbolism as a literary device in the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Goldhurst, William. The Green and the Gold: The Major Theme of Gawain and the Green Knight. November 1958.
In the allegorical story, “The Red Bow” George Saunders writes with amazing yet perceptive talent to interpret for the reader how the people of the United States and the government responded to the terroristic events on September 11, 2001. Ed, the narrator, is a father whose daughter Emily has just been killed by rabid dogs. His uncle, who lives with them, becomes authoritarian and takes on a vigilante campaign to put down all the sick dogs in town. Although his goal for doing this is so that no other family has to go through this pain, he ends up going overboard and his policy quickly degenerates into assassinating every single animal in town. Saunders uses three symbolic characters; Mr. Bourne, Ed and Uncle
...ghthood within their story. Both poets remind the readers of the disparity between the ideals of chivalries presented in romances, and the reality of lived knighthood, highlighting how problematic the understanding of chivalry and Christianity (knighthood) could be for medieval audiences. Though chivalry shines as a brilliant light of the high civilization in the fourteenth century, both tales suggests that chivalry is at best a limited system, which achieves its brilliant at the cost of a distortion of natural life. It was part of the social and ethical system but did not take into account the entire range of human needs, mainly the fact of human morality and sense of human frailty. The context in which knights are depicted and celebrated in the medieval romance does not support a smooth connection between the harsh realities of a century of internecine strife.
The poem’s intricately balanced structure challenges the reader to seek out a resolution coherent with his or her own ethics. An admirable knight of King Arthur's renowned court, Sir Gawain is directed by a complex set of ethos, a collaboration of principles symbolized by the mystical pentangle. A five-pointed star composed of five interlocking lines; the figure represents a multitude of guiding tenets, representing both religious and knightly ideals. One can recognize that “the pentangle cognizance is explicated by the poet to signal Gawain’s complete Christian perfection, and for the reader to be aware of contemporary concerns about magical protective practices, hinting at human frailty” (Hardman 251).
An interesting aspect of the famous literary work, "The Canterbury Tales," is the contrast of realistic and exaggerated qualities that Chaucer entitles to each of his characters. When viewed more closely, one can determine whether each of the characters is convincing or questionable based on their personalities. This essay will analyze the characteristics and personalities of the Knight, Squire, Monk, Plowman, Miller, and Parson of Chaucer's tale.
Milton begins Samson Agonistes after the most famous part of the biblical story, after he has been betrayed, blinded and sent to prison. The opening lines speak to the purpose of the whole poem: “A little onward lend thy guiding hand/ To these dark steps, a little further on;/ For yonder bank hath choice of Sun or shade.” (1-3) On the one hand, these lines are merely an exposition of Samson’s movements, but on the other, they reveal a preoccupation with the major themes of the play: guidance and salvation. Milton does not clarify to whom Samson is speaking. As the poem was written to be read, not performed, it is easy enough to imagine a companion to lead Samson on, but that companion is nowhere in the text. Whose, then, is “thy guiding hand?” There is no clear answer, but it...