"The Knight's Tale" is the reflection of the Knight's world, which is full of honor, duty, reason, and order. Among these themes order plays one of the major roles in the Knight's tale by eliminating disorder and making the universe work according to the law of order. The Knight passes this idea through the whole tale by resolving all conflicts with the help of reasoning and making order win over disorder. The Knight shows a presence of order in his tale through the authority of Theseus, who reestablishes order throughout the tale.
From the beginning of the tale the Knight shows us examples of disorder. These examples are two recent wars that were fought and won by Theseus, the mighty ruler of Athens. Theseus is shown as the person of honor, noble, wisdom, justice and reason and who likes order in everything that is under his rule. The first war was fought with the Amazons, women warriors, who were ruled by Hippolyta, a female ruler. The second war was with Creon, the ruler of Thebes, and who was full of "cruel tyranny" (25). Both societies represent disorder in one or another way.
Even though there is no disorder inside the Amazon society and Hippolyta is characterized as being "the fair and doughty queen" (23), the fact that a ruler and her warriors are female represents disorder within medieval society. It is a man's duty to rule, fight, protect his country, and make decisions. A woman should complain to a man and seek his help and protection. The Knight emphasizes it by showing woeful ladies of Thebes that are asking Theseus for help,
."..but we beseech you, of your nobleness, / mercy and help.../ we have been waiting all the last fortnight; / now help us..." (24-25). Within the Amazon society woman's role is of a greater importance - they rule, fight, and decide - and it is opposing to the idea of womanhood in medieval society.
There is only one way for Theseus to resolve this problem, which is "by his wisdom and his chivalry" to conquer "by war the realm of Femeny" (p.23) and bring the order of his society to the Amazon people. Theseus as a veritable knight decides to fight with Hippolyta and her people. Even though Amazons are known as being fierce warriors they lose battle to Theseus and his knights.
In the story, the supreme ruler of Athens, Thesius ends up marrying Hippolyta, the Queen of the Jungle. However, during the whole story, Hippolyta never throughly discusses her feelings and ideas about the marriage. She acts as if she has no choice but to marry Thesius. This can be proven by examining Hippolyta's position in the relationship between herself and Thesius. Hippolyta was captured by Thesius during battle and Thesius intimidates Hippolyta into marrying him since he is a supreme ruler and she was defeated by him. Thesius reveals that he capture Hippolyta in battle in the following quote, "I wood thee by my sword/ And won thy love doing thee injuries" (Act I, Pg 7). The above quote and the fact that Hippolyta never discusses her feelings about the wedding leads the re...
Over the course of time, the roles of men and women have changed dramatically. As women have increasingly gained more social recognition, they have also earned more significant roles in society. This change is clearly reflected in many works of literature, one of the most representative of which is Plautus's 191 B.C. drama Pseudolus, in which we meet the prostitute Phoenicium. Although the motivation behind nearly every action in the play, she is glimpsed only briefly, never speaks directly, and earns little respect from the male characters surrounding her, a situation that roughly parallels a woman's role in Roman society of that period. Women of the time, in other words, were to be seen and not heard. Their sole purpose was to please or to benefit men. As time passed, though, women earned more responsibility, allowing them to become stronger and hold more influence. The women who inspired Lope de Vega's early seventeenth-century drama Fuente Ovejuna, for instance, rose up against not only the male officials of their tiny village, but the cruel (male) dictator busy oppressing so much of Spain as a whole. The roles women play in literature have evolved correspondingly, and, by comparing The Epic of Gilgamesh, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Wife of Bath's Prologue, we can see that fictional women have just as increasingly as their real-word counterparts used gender differences as weapons against men.
...or a chivalric Knight embodies the battle of the righteous self against corruption. Gawain’s strength comes from his discovery of his own flaws. Beowulf’s ideals concerning honor and nobility exist only within the context of his society. Remove him from other people, and his life would be meaningless. This is the true flaw of Beowulf, which the character of Gawain, by the end of his story, comes to realize. The notion of "winning" can be applied at all times to the personality of the chivalric Knight. The battleground becomes the mind, which is separate from the realm of reality. Beowulf does not have the capability to win, without the recognition of his fellow warriors. Within the mind, all sorts of battles are waged. The true winner is the person who can learn from that struggle, and who is able to apply that knowledge within both solitary and societal venues.
In Medieval Times knights are the protectors. The knights fight for, and obey the king. And for that reason Knight’s are in high rankings in the class system, compared to the peasants and merchants. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, people are going on the pilgrimage to Canterbury for Salvation. The knight is Chaucer’s ideal of a night should be. The knight is a highly principled killer who travels the world and fights for what he believes in with unequivocal bravery and valor.
The center of the story revolves around the women who do nothing really. They are mere objects whose sole purpose is for love and beauty. Hippolyta and Emily, as I mentioned before, are spoils of war after their land are conquered by Theseus. The quote “He gained the realm of Femininity” (738) which as it reads is closely related to female attributes. The women are considered the weaker sex, as men are depicted as strong and brave. This proves true as Hippolyta was the Queen of the Amazons who was first conquered by Theseus’s violence and then by the title of a wife.
“Remember we are women, we’re not born to contend with men” (Sophocles, 18). The popular literary works, Antigone and A Doll’s House, written by Sophocles and Ibsen, are two famous tragedies that have been performed and read throughout the decades. Although countless audiences have been entertained by these well written plays, few would care to guess that many lessons and several unfortunate truths can be found with a less than tedious inspection of the characters and the reactions they give to their circumstances. The two main characters in these stories, Antigone and Nora, face adversities and problems that are amplified by their society’s views on the rights and abilities of women. The two main male characters in these plays, Creon and Helmer, cause the greater part of the struggle that the female protagonists face. The difficulties that Helmer and Creon create during the plot of these stories are the cause of three major characteristics of what one would consider typical to a headstrong man in a leadership position. The three features of Creon and Helmer that lead to the eventual downfall of Antigone and Nora, are pride, arrogance, and ignorance.
In Gordon M. Shedd’s “Knight in Tarnished Armour: The Meaning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, he argues that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is truly about the strength and weaknesses of human nature. One particularly interesting part of his argument asserts that Gawain’s humanity broke medieval romance tradition.
Thesesus in The Knight’s Tale is a protector of the rules and order and sees to it that everyone
In the Medieval Period, knights dedicated their lives to following the code of chivalry. In Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, a number of characters performed chivalrous acts to achieve the status of an ideal knight. Their characteristics of respect for women and courtesy for all, helpfulness to the weak, honor, and skill in battle made the characters King Arthur, King Pellinore, and Sir Gryfflette examples of a what knights strove to be like in Medieval society. Because of the examples ofchivalry, Le Morte d’Arthur showed what a knight desired to be, so he could improve theworld in which he lived.
This shows disorder because there are rebels fighting. Any orderly kingdom would not have these rebels and fights going on.
“Lanval” was written by a female poet and therefore enlists a somewhat feminist perspective on the idea of patriarchy. In this poem, a beautiful woman asks a knight to keep their love a secret: “I command and beg you, do not let any man know about this. I shall tell you why: you would lose me for good” (144-46), and “He answered that he would do exactly as she commanded” (151-52). Here, the gender roles are swapped and the female figure holds the social power to command instead of the male, clearly subverting patriarchy. In a patriarchal theme, the knight would command the woman and she would obey his command without hesitation. The same idea can be seen when the Queen asks the King to punish Lanval after she claims that he insulted her. She said she would never “get up unless the king gave her satisfaction for the offense against her” (301-10), and the king obeyed her, deciding to hold a trial. If this text were patriarchal, the King would have punished Lanval on his own terms rather than doing it for the Queen. It seems as if the Queen is being treated as an equal ruler to the King by being allowed to hold the political power in this
Chivalry is the basis of how all knights reacted and prided themselves in. It is still used to some point today, but it is on the downfall because of how today’s people act. Whether its from, how you are required to treat a women in their society, to how you uphold your honor through your word, and finally through courage. Chivalry can come in many other different forms, but these are the main goals. Clearly, you can see how Chivalry was a life goal to Knights of Arthur’s day, and how these two amazing stories express this.
In the 'Odyssey' women can easily play the role of a wife, a mother, caretaker and a loyal lover. These roles do not show many positive implications than the roles that men play in society, yet it is proved that women and their roles in society contributed a bigger picture. The power and authority of women lies within her at the same time using the combination of wit and incline attributes, they seem to fulfill their feminine roles. Even though the role of a man might be to lead, women seem to fulfill the roles of a leader.
Closely associated to the romance tradition are two idealized standards of behavior, especially for knights: courage and chivalry. The protagonist within many medieval romances proved their worth by going on quests, as many a knights went in those times, thus returning with great tales of their travels and deeds. Many modern people think of chivalry as referring to a man's gallant treatment of women, and although that sense is derived from the medieval chivalric ideal, chivalry could be seen as more than that. Knights were expected to be brave, loyal, and honorable-sent to protect the weak, be noble to...
Throughout time and across many cultures, women have had the lowest status in society. In a patriarchal world, women have consistently been viewed as weaker and inferior to men. As a result, it is no surprise that men have found themselves in places of power and admiration. However, this does not mean that society completely neglects the impact of women; in Greek lore, women take on passive yet important roles, weaving the destinies and doom of many men and earning themselves a reputation as banes of manipulation and deception. Negative as that portrayal may seem, other societies have defined the roles of their women differently. Anglo-Saxons also flaunted the heroics of their men, as exemplified