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Tales of courtly love in the middle ages
Female roles in medieval literature
Female roles in medieval literature
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Sir Gawain and The Green Knight and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales are two pieces of British literature that are incredibly interesting and thorough. Women play important roles in both of the texts. Throughout Sir Gawain and The Green Knight there are several important female present. The women being Morgan le Fay, lady Bertilak, and for a small window of time Guinevere. Guinevere is presented at the beginning of the text before The Green Knight barges into the castle, and is presented as the staple of beauty. Sir Gawain encounter lady Bertilak as he nears the green chapel. Lady Bertilak takes advantage of her beauty while Gawain stays in her and her husband’s, lord Bertilak, castle. While staying in the castle Sir Gawain is presented a deal by …show more content…
lord Bertilak “what I win in the woods will be yours, and what you gain while I'm gone you will give to me.” line 1106-1107. Fastforwarding a little, lady Bertilak begins to seduce Sir Gawain over the course of their three day deal, each day kissing Sir Gawain one more time for a total of six kisses in three day. Sir Gawain keeps his promise each day kissing lord Bertilak for a total of six times. Lady Bertilak also grants Sir Gawain, due to her fondness of him, a green sash that will protect Sir Gawain From harm and later saves his life. Morgan le Fay is the old, ugly, servant in the Bertilak castle. Morgan le Fay is a sorcerous that is truly the puppet master in this tale. As for Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the miller’s tale and the wife of bath’s tale have interesting roles for women. The miller, in a drunken stupor, tells a tale of a love affair between a married woman and young man. The young woman, Alisoun, marries a older fellow and is then presented with the opportunity to cheat on him with a young scholar. Alisoun agrees and plays a awful trick on her husband so her and her new lover may be alone. The wife of bath is an incredible character in and of herself. The wife of bath starts with a long prologue, telling of her many husbands and fondness of sex. Considering the standards for women in this time period, obedient, housewives, she has broken the stereotype. She is a smart women willing to challenge men and even the church but her tale tells another story. The wife of bath tells the story of knight of the round table raping a woman. Guinevere steps in during the knights trial and begs for the knight’s life to be spared. The knight is gifted life but must find what makes a woman happy within a year and a day. The knight’s time is coming close to end when he meets an ugly woman who says she will tell him what brings women happiness if she will do whatever she says once. The knight agrees, goes to the king and queen, and is granted life. The old women, after the knight is free, tells the knight to marry her to which the knight, flabbergasted, agrees. The knight after their marriage in bed the knight is unhappy because he has married this ugly woman but the ugly woman says he may choose if she is to be ugly or beautiful. The knight says it is her choice and the ugly woman turns beautiful and they live happily ever after. Between Sir Gawain and The Green Knight and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales the women most definitely change their attitude. The women in Chaucer’s Canterbury tales do things unexpected of in their time period. Even so, do these women break the stereotype of a submissive housewife, destined to cuck their husbands? The women in Sir Gawain and The Green Knight play the role of the medieval woman despite some efforts to change. In the Canterbury Tales women become more outgoing. Women are challenging men and somewhat the church, but still are thought of as destined to cheat and submit to men. Starting off, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has very important female characters despite these females being their own stereotype.
Guinevere had been King Arthur’s wife and is presented to the readers as absolutely stunning. “Guinevere in their gathering, gloriously framed at her place on the platform, pricelessly curtained by silk to each side, and canopied across with French weave and fine tapestry from the far east studded with stones and stunning gems. Pearls beyond pocket. Pearls beyond purchase or price. But not one stone outshone the quartz of the queen's eyes; with hand on heart, no one could argue otherwise.” line 74-84. The purpose Guinevere had in the beginning is unknown but later The Green Knight says to Sir Gawain “She guided me in this guise to your great hall to put pride on trial, and to test with this trick what distinction and trust the Round Table deserves. She imagined this mischief would muddle your minds and that grieving Guinevere would go to her grave at the sight of a specter making ghostly speeches with his head in his hands before the high table.” In this The Green Knight is speaking of Morgan Le Fay and her plan to test the round table and attempt killing Guinevere from shock. As for Guinevere’s role as a woman she is the image of courtly love. This is not her fault per say, thought the knights of the round table definitely have a fondness for her. Now there’s lady Bertilak. She is definitely fitting the image of the cheating woman that men have built to be somewhat of a sin. Her cheating on Lord Bertilak makes her fit the image of men just expecting women to cheat that the wife of bath in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales speaks of when she says “Or where did he command virginity?...Men may counsel a women to be single, but counseling is not commanding; he left it to our own judgement.” line 61-67 in the wife of bath’s prologue. Women may do as they please with their bodies without having to be but into the female stereotype of the time
period. Lady Bertilak tries to seduce Sir Gawain for three straight days while her husband is out hunting. “I come to learn of love and more, a lady all alone. Perform for me before my husband heads for home." Says Lady Bertilak to Gawain. Lady Bertilak also says “And we are left all alone, with my husband and his huntsmen away in the hills and the servants snoring and my maids asleep and the door to this bedroom barred with a bolt. I have in my house an honored guest so I'll take my time; I'll be talking to him for a while. You're free to have my all, do with me what you will. I'll come just as you call and swear to serve you well." line 1230-1240. Finishing up with women from Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, there is Morgan Le Fay. “And in my manor lives the mighty Morgan le Fay, so adept and adroit in the dark arts, who learned magic from Merlin-the master of mystery-for in earlier times she was intimately entwined with that knowledgeable man, as all you knights know back home.” Says The Green Knight at Lines 2446-2451. With those lines from the text it is made clear that Morgan Le Fay is a powerful women. She is the only woman in this poem that breaks the woman stereotype. Nowhere in the story does she attempt to seduce anyone and is depicted as the old, crone, servant woman at the the Bertilak castle. In contrast to Guinevere and Lady Bertilak, who have very small amounts of true power, Morgan Le Fay controls all of this. Morgan Le Fay used dark magic to change Lord Bertilak's appearance to make him The Green Knight to make all this happen. Morgan Le Fay orchestrated all of this with magic and her smarts to test the round table and possibly kill Guinevere. Out of all the women in Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, Morgan Le Fay is the only one who breaks the medieval women stereotype.
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a stranger rides into King Arthur's court with a challenge. This stranger, green in color from head to toe, proposes to play a game with a member of King Arthur's court. This game will be played by each participant taking a blow from a weapon at the hands of the opponent. The person that dies from the hit is obviously the loser. On top of this, the Green Knight offers to let his opponent take the first swing. This sets up the action in the passage beginning with line 366 and ending with line 443.
In the Arthurian romance genre, Guinevere plays various roles; the purpose of her role depends on the story that she is in. In three separate stories, written by different poets, specifically Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Morte Darthur, and The Wife of Bath’s Tale, Guinevere is used to achieve different goals. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Guinevere is the catalyst of all of the stories events. The burning desire of Morgan le Fay to destroy Guinevere through dismantling the Round Table is what spurs the arrival of the Green Knight in Arthur’s court and the subsequent quest that Gawain goes on that tests his character and allows him to learn more about himself. The Guinevere in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the reason that Arthur’s
Queen Guenevere is the first women to be introduced in the poem while the holiday feast is going on. The reason she is seen as having power is because of where she is seated at the feast. The poem states, “The noblest knight in a higher seat, as seemed proper; / Queen Guenevere gaily dressed and placed in the middle, / Seated on the upper level, adorned all about… (Winny 2011: 7).” The fact that she is even mentioned as being at the feast as well as sitting at the same level as all of the noblest knights shows the power she has. It was rare to see a woman seated with knights let alone seated near the noblest of all the knights. Also, the way in which the poem glorifies her appearance and outfit matches the entitlement she is seen having because of her seating position. Many times, descriptions of knights are exaggerated and that is just what is done with Queen Guenevere. In the quote it states that she is “adorned all about…” meaning she was all done up and looking beautiful (Winny 2011: 7). She is described as being “The loveliest to see / Glanced round with eyes of blue-grey; / That he had seen a fairer one / Truly could no man say (Winny 2011: 7).” This quote saying that she was so beautiful and that no man could say that they have seen anything more beautiful than her. This showing that her beauty alone gives her power over the men, power to attract them with her
Lady Bercilak attempts to exploit Gawain’s reputation as she tries to seduce him. She greets him in the bedroom and coyly asks how “a man so well-meaning, and mannerly disposed…cannot act in company as courtesy bids” (189). Lady Bercilak is not subtle (she points out that the door is locked and the two are alone in the castle) as she offers herself to Gawain, saying, “I am yours to command, to kiss when you please” (189). She tries to make Gawain feel guilty by implying that he is insulting her by not succumbing to her seductions and proclaiming his love to her.
In the Fourteenth Century, Feudalism and its offspring, chivalry, were in decline due to drastic social and economic changes. In this light, _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_ presents both a nostalgic support of the feudal hierarchies and an implicit criticism of changes, which, if left unchecked will lead to its ultimate destruction. I would suggest that the women in the story are the Gawain poet's primary instruments in this critique and reinforcement of Feudalism. By positioning The Virgin Mary (as the singular female archetype representing spiritual love, obedience, chastity, and life) against Morgan and Bertilak's wife (who represent the traditional female archetypes of courtly love, disobedience, lust and death) the Gawain poet points out the conflict between courtly love and spiritual love which he, and other critics of the time, felt had drastically weakened the religious values behind chivalry. As such, the poem is a warning to its Aristocratic readers that the traditional religious values underlying the feudal system must be upheld in order to avert destruction of their way of life.
...Thomas Malory, present Guinevere, Arthur's queen, as one of the causes of the fall of Arthurian empire. Guinevere is described as a wicked and unfaithful wife, whose behavior triggers the fall of her husband's rule. And although other factors, such as people's jealousy and evil, influence the outcome of the legendary empire, Guinevere's unfaithfulness is the primary cause of the fall of King Arthur and his Round Table.
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.
... La Faye, Guinevere, and Lady Bercilak were all important factors in making Gawain realize that he is not perfect and that his pride overtakes all aspects in his life. Different characteristics of the women showed how no matter what beauty, magical powers, and obedience they had, they all shared the same goal to influence the men and play a large role in their everyday lives. Without women during the middle ages and also in the present time, society would not be what it is today, because women play very important roles that benefit and influence men.
Throughout both of these stories, we are told many tales about heroic men. Beowulf and Gawain encounter many obstacles, however, they prevail in the end. Weather women play an important role in the stories or not, they exist solely for the use of the men. If all of the women were removed from Beowulf, the plot would not be affected. Even though the women in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight play important roles, they were used as sexual objects. In both stories, women are being degraded, while men remain the heroes.
In Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, our main character is faced with a challenge. A
All three of the main women’s roles are marginalized and reduced in importance, the entire plot of the poem rests on Morgan le Fay, who is introduced at the end of the play with a handful of lines, Lady Bertilak, who is reduced to how the men around her feel about her, and Guenevere, who is another extremely important character mentioned only in a few lines. Morgan le Fay is the single most important character in SGGK. Even though she is an absolutely vital character, she is named exactly once. It is at the end of the poem that the Green Knight (Lord Bertilak) reveals to Sir Gawain that everything in the poem, from the main challenge to the smaller tests, was Morgan’s idea and should be credited to her ingenuity and magic (SGGK, l. 2445-2470). Part of
Guinevere from the very beginning of the legend is portrayed as a passive, typical lady of the court. In stanza four, the author describes Guinevere almost as a trophy or ornament of the court: "Queen Guinevere very gaily was gathered among them/....The prettiest lady that one may describe/She gleamed there with eyes of grey/To have seen one fairer to the sight/That no one could truly say" (74-84). Guinevere does not take an active role in the court. She does not have speaking role and basically just sits among the knights of the Round Table. Her passivity and silence could be the result of medieval anti-feminism. According to Bloch in medieval times what a woman wants is to speak. Medieval authors such as Andreas Capellanus, the supposed author of The Art of Courtly Love writes, "Furthermore, not only is every woman by nature a miser, but she is also envious, and a slanderer of other women......fickle in her speech,....a li...
In the Middle Ages, the roles of women became less restricted and confined and women became more opinionated and vocal. Sir Gawain and The Green Knight presents Lady Bertilak, the wife of Sir Bertilak, as a woman who seems to possess some supernatural powers who seduces Sir Gawain, and Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath Prologue and Tale, present women who are determined to have power and gain sovereignty over the men in their lives. The female characters are very openly sensual and honest about their wants and desires. It is true that it is Morgan the Fay who is pulling the strings in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; nevertheless the Gawain poet still gives her a role that empowers her. Alison in The Wife if Bath Prologue represents the voice of feminism and paves the way for a discourse in the relationships between husbands and wives and the role of the woman in society.
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.
The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight revolves around the knights and their chivalry as well as their romance through courtly love. The era in which this story takes place is male-dominated, where the men are supposed to be brave and honorable. On the other hand, the knight is also to court a lady and to follow her commands. Sir Gawain comes to conflict when he finds himself needing to balance the two by being honorable to chivalry as well as respectful to courtly love.