The Chivalric Romance

The Chivalric Romance

• It can be a prose narrative or a poetic one treating imaginary characters involved in events remote in time or place and usually heroic, adventurous, or  mysterious. 

• A literary form, usually characterized by its treatment of chivalry, that came into being in France in the mid-12th century.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Major Themes:• The Nature of Chivalry • The Letter of the Law • Theme of Fidelity:

Serious reflection upon human behavior.

1370-1380

"A Loving Critique of Chivalry.” quoted by Christopher Tolkien in his introduction.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Verse Form:Middle English but not Chaucer’s• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is

written in a style typical of the what is called by linguists the "Alliterative Revival" of the 14th century.

• Instead of focusing on a metrical syllabic count and rhyme, the alliterative form of this period usually relied on the agreement of a pair of stressed syllables at the beginning of the line and another pair at the end of the line.

• The line always finds a "breath-point", or pause, called a caesura, at some point after the first two stresses, dividing the line into two half-lines.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Major Themes:The Nature of Chivalry • The world of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is governed by

well-defined codes of behavior. The code of chivalry, in particular, shapes the values and actions of Sir Gawain and other characters in the poem.

• The ideals of chivalry derive from the Christian concept of morality, and the proponents of chivalry seek to promote spiritual ideals in a spiritually fallen world.

1370-1380

• The ideals of Christian morality and knightly chivalry are brought together

in Gawain’s symbolic shield.

• As the poet explains, the five points of the star each have five meanings: 1. they represent the five senses, the five fingers, 2. the five wounds of Christ,[12] 3. the five joys that Mary had of Jesus (the Annunciation,

the Nativity, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the Assumption), and

4. the five virtues of knighthood which Gawain hopes to embody: noble generosity, fellowship, purity, courtesy, and compassion.

• Gawain’s adherence to these virtues is tested throughout the poem, but the poem examines more than Gawain’s personal virtue; it asks whether heavenly virtue can operate in a fallen world.

• What is really being tested in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight might be the chivalric system itself, symbolized by Camelot.

The Wife of Bath’s Tale: Typical of Romances

• Takes place in the days of King Arthur

• Involves the aristocracy (knights and ladies)

• The knight must obey a lady• The knight on a quest• Marvels, especially the

supernatural, routinely occur in romance plots

Not typical of Romances

• The knight is fallen and guilty—his crime is rape. The male gender at its worst.

• Little to no combat or warrior prowess.

• In places, very funny• Ends with marriage

The Brilliance of Chaucer: 3 layers to see the woman.

• The outer narrative from the prologue shows the reader what a viewer of the Wife of Bath would see.– Wears Red– Gap toothed– Rides like a man with spurs– Fair, red faced: Choleric Humor / Fire

• “Uh Oh,” One of those! The typical response of the day.

“Negative Capability” term was originally created by Keats

The Wife’s (Alyson’s) Prologue• The Inner narrative: We learn that she

was married off to her first husband at the age of 12.

• She quickly learns that she can have power of men because of her sexuality (and a scolding tounge)

• Defines her first three as good and her last two as bad—what controle she has.

• One unfaithful the other abusive.• Yet she admits she loved her last

husband the most.

The deepest Revelation: Alyson shows in her tale what she secretly wishes behind that carefree exterior.

"Kiss me," she said, "we are no longer angry,For, by my troth, I will be to you both –This is to say, yes, both fair and goodI pray to God that I may die insaneUnless I to you be as good and trueAs ever was wife, since the world was new.And unless I am tomorrow morning as fair to be seenAs any lady, empress, or queen,That is between the east and also the west,Do with my life and death right as you please.  Cast up the curtain, look how it is.“

And when the knight saw truly all this,That she so was beautiful, and so young moreover,For joy he clasped her in his two arms.His heart bathed in a bath of bliss.A thousand time in a row he did her kiss,And she obeyed him in every thingThat might do him pleasure or enjoyment.

The Tale and Alyson’s Heart

• The Romance is a tale of wonder, and of hope.

• It contains the elements of loss and reclamation.

• In spite of the claim that power is the most important factor, Alyson’s fairy wife like Alyson in her last marriage seeks for the best of her husband.

Sites Cited

• “The Four Humors” Greek Medicine http://www.greekmedicine.net/b_p/Four_Humors.html

• Medieval Romances Defined http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng240/medieval_romance.htm