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The importance of honor
Essays about the meaning of honor
What does honor look like in the modern world
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More handpicked essays just for you.
The importance of honor
Essays about the meaning of honor
What does honor look like in the modern world
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(Document E). Parallel to this, knights follow a code called, ‘The Code of Chivalry’. In this code, the knight has to be loyal to the king, give mercy to all and live a well-rounded life all together. Meaning, he must be kind and respectful to ladies and must serve his king with a great deal of loyalty. Breaking this code was a huge disgrace to any knight.
He does not look upon the older women with kindness; instead, he treats her as if she is irrelevant or not as important as Lady Bertilak. As a knight he is to uphold compassion towards all people along with companionship, courtesy, chastity, and charity. Lord Bertilak wants to see if Gawain truly values the code of chivalry. One of the virtues of the code of chivalry is the idea of courtly love.
After Gawain comes clean and acknowledges his sin, the Green Knight praises him for being an honorable and chivalrous knight. He then invites Gawain to a great feast, but Gawain humbly states that he must return to his duties and continue to defend and protect King Arthur and his subjects. Sir Gawain even thanks the Green Knight and wishes him well after this frightening test of honor. He says, "I've reveled too well already; but fortune be with you; May He who gives all honors honor you well," (401-402).
The ideals of Christian morality and knightly qualities are represented by Gawain’s gold, star-shaped pentangle. The five knightly virtues that Sir Gawain expresses are: generosity, chastity, friendship, piety, and courtesy. From the beginning of the poem, Sir Gawain portrays his generosity by agreeing to cut the Green Knight’s head with an axe. He makes this decision after King Arthur fails to do so (Cathell, 2014).
In this time period a knight’s honor was everything, without it the noblemen would become a huge disgrace. Sir Gawain’s honor is immediately tested at the beginning of the poem. He gives his word in the beheading game and intends to keep it even though it’s obvious that the Green Knight had tricked him. “Blood gutters brightly against his green gown, yet the man doesn’t shudder or stagger or sink, but trudges towards them […] gripping his head by a handful of hair. Then he settles himself in his seat with the ease of a man unmarked” (429-439).
During the Medieval times chivalry was one of the most important characteristics a knight could display. Chivalry was viewed as a moral obligation that involved bravery, honor, respect, and gallantry. Knights were expected to uphold this code or face social consequences for any infractions, with punishments ranging from humiliation to termination of their knighthood. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” presents the struggles knights faced with honoring the chivalrous code at all times. Sir Gawain, while imperfect, exhibits qualities expected of knights and embodies the internal struggle between honoring the chivalrous code and giving into selfish desires.
Chivalry has many features that shape a knight, however the virtues that Sir Gawain presents the most are courage and honesty. One time when Gawain showed honesty and courage is when he went to fulfill his deal with the Green Knight. The guide leading Gawain to the Green Chapel told Gawain that he should run and that no one would know about his Failure to keep his promise. But Gawain said he must fulfill his deal: “But however heedfully thou hid it, if I here departed,/ faith in fear now to flee, in fashion thou speakest,/ I should a knight coward be, I Could not be excused./ Noy, I’ll fare to the chapel, whatever chance may befall” (85.13-16).
What is chivalry, exactly, and how does Gawain demonstrate the chivalric ethos in the first two sections of the poem? [ ethos= ethical philosophy] Chivalry is the sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight including courtesy, generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms. The way Gawain demonstrates chivalric ethos is that he honors the King and shows bravery and humility by accepting the Christmas challenge and not allowing the king to do so. He keeps his word by going to the Green Chapel on the day agreed. He keeps his word by giving the Lord the kisses he gets from his wife.
The lines 1550-1553 from the Pearl poets epic Sir Gawain and the Green Knight epitomizes two of the most important virtues of a noble knight, and Sir Gawain, the man the story follows, defines what is a true knight. He holds a place next to King Arthur and the queen as well as exemplifying two of a knights most important virtues. The first being chastity and the second being courteousness, both however, are very much entwined in this tale. Throughout this epic and many other Arthurian legends praised these traits in the knight and as we shall see, Sir Gawain although still very much human, is a master of both. The virtue of chastity is extremely important in Arthurian legend and we can see this from examining Gawain’s shield.
In the first tale in the anthology, “The Knight’s Tale”, Theseus very much follows the medieval chivalry honor code. Even though the point of such a code is to bring honor and glory to one who follows it, Chaucer points out that chivalry can sometimes compel one to act without heroics or honor. For example, after discovering the desecration of the corpses, Theseus thinks it is wise to then sack Thebes and desecrate even more corpses. Nowhere in chivalry does an eye for an eye appear, so it would appear that Theseus does not practice what he preaches. Also, when Theseus comes across Arcite and Palamon dueling, his quarrel with them is not over dueling, but it is because they weren’t dueling correctly.
Do the Knights of the round table actually follow the code of conduct for a knight? During I Am Mordred, the knights of the round table showed many characteristics of the code of conduct. Bravery, humility, and generosity are three of these characteristics that were evident in I Am Mordred. The actions of the Knights have shown attributes from the code of conduct and will be explained how in the following paragraphs. Bravery; bravery is seen as an attribute of a person who is courageous and fights fear in whatever situation he goes through.
To be Chivalrous means that a man must stick firmly with christian values that go far beyond the rules of combat. To be that certain type of chivalry, a knight must be honourable, courteous, and brave. This includes not straying from the belief that God will always bless you and help you in your hour of need. While it is true that Sir Gawain does, through most of the story, exhibit that he is a chivalric knight, it towards the end when he shows the most weakness in faith and code. When he takes the “girdle of immunity,” something belonging to the Pagan side, is when he demonstrates that his faith is not as strong as his armour makes him appear.
Honor was one of the main focus points of chivalry. Honor entailed many things and was to live or die by for Knights. Within the Knight’s tale are many instances of honor. A large part of honor was being able to conduct yourself in a way that was helpful to others. “Who can have injured you or who offended, and tell me if the matter may be mended.”
Chivalry isn’t just for the knights anymore. It applies to life now, how we all should be, we should all act with chivalry. We should all want to be chivalrous and perform acts of kindness being selfless. We need to take from our history, we need to see how the knights acted with such honor and loyalty and apply it to today's world. We need to improve our society, we can not allow chivalry to
CHIVALRY IS DEAD IN MODERN MEN The term “chivalry” emerged around the 10th century A.D. in France, referring to the medieval institution of knighthood that developed between 1170 and 1220. The code of chivalry back then represented a combination of Christian and military ideas of morality. As time progressed, the real meaning of the word disappeared and was mated with the fancies of love that resulted in a new definition that stressed on social and moral values. Chivalry got romanticized.