Social Norms In A Knight's Tale

Hollywood has a long and infamous reputation for taking books of historical merit and adapting them in a way that is popular among the mass public. Directors from Hollywood are guilty of pleasing the audience so that the historical accuracy becomes another victim of the American Movie Market. While the movie “A Knight’s Tale” gives movie watchers what they want in terms of comedy and romance, it ignores the change from medieval dialogue to modern dialogue, the dress of women, and social norms of the time period to give the audience a biased view of history. Although “A Knight’s Tale” does not give the audience an exact year that the event happen based on historical context it would be safe to assume the plot took place in the later part of the 14th century, or towards the first half of the Hundred Year War between England and France. (Badders) In “A Knight’s Tale” the characters will one minute use words common to the typical medieval language such as “nay” or

Social norms are as simple as how to address someone formally or as dynamic as the role of a man and a woman. In “A Knight’s Tale” the social norms of the medieval time period are replaced by the social norms of the present. Women today are very independent, unlike during the 14th century. A woman during this time period would have never had the opportunity to sneak around with a knight like portrayed in “A Knight’s Tale”. A woman’s honor wasn 't just her honor but the honor of her whole family. A woman of a high social class was guarded closely to preserve the family’s name. (Gies) Portraying women in independent roles again allows the audience to forget the history of women’s rights. Historical accuracy is important because such a large number of the general public watches movies. Changing history may allow for the audience to be entertained for a short period but in the end it allows for a false sense of how the past played