Use Of Social Structure In A Knight's Tale

Social Structure in A Knight’s Tale Many historical films have been made for hundreds of years. Whether they are accurate or not they depict a society of history and tell that story. A Knight’s Tale is a story set in the medieval times throughout various French cities and London. It is the story of a man named William Thatcher. He was born a thatchers son but always dreamed of becoming a knight. At nine years old, his dad sent him away to become a servant of the knight, Sir Ector. At the beginning of the movie, it starts off with Sir Ector being killed by jousting and William makes the decision to take his place and start to joust. When he does this, he figures out that he’s really good at it so he starts entering tournaments to joust. The

Back in the medieval times, their job was to care for their children and work around the house. The women that were alone had to fend for themselves so they took whatever job they could get. Just because they got this job did not mean that they would get any business though. In A Knight’s Tale, William’s armor had been messed up and they needed to go to a blacksmith to have it fixed. When they went to one, he did not want to help them so he told them to try the other one which was a woman. They did not seem too happy about going to this woman because, even though she had the title of a blacksmith, she was still a woman and they believed that a woman could not do the job as well as a man. (A Knight’s Tale 31:20-32:10). In comparison, in the book Medieval Women in Their Communities by Diane Walt, there is a chapter, “Gender and Poverty in the Medieval Community”, which discusses women’s roles, what they did if they were on their own, and how they were treated. Walt states, “both outsiders and family could be a threat to a lone woman’s enjoyment of her property but, conversely, early medieval communities could provide a great deal of support” (Watt, Diane. “Gender and Poverty in the Medieval Community”. Medieval Women in Their Communities, 204-221. Toronto: University of Wales, 1997). The film depicted this accurately because a lot of women had to fend for themselves. In the film, there was

As stated before, if one was not someone of importance, they would have a hard time getting anywhere in life. In A Knight’s Tale, William is arrested because they find out that he is not actually a knight. No one could just joust, it had to be a person of a higher social status. (A Knight’s Tale 1:44:09-1:49:30). In comparison, the book Ideology in the Middle Ages : Approaches From Southwestern Europe, by Flocel Sabaté, discusses the roles of people in medieval society. The chapter, “Ideology and Social Order”, specifically discusses the social structure and standards of the society. Sabaté states, “scholars, especially historians of other eras tend to consider the Middle Ages as a period whose outlook was intellectually focused on order and hierarchy. This pertains not only to a political ideology of society being arranged into stable orders and estates, but also to a theory of cosmological articulation in which everything has a place in a great chain of being that incorporates all species from earthworms to angels” (Sabaté, Flocel. “Ideology and Social Order”. Ideology in the Middle Ages : Approaches From Southwestern Europe. 39-51 Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2019). The film was accurate on this depiction because back then, it did matter where one came from. Everyone was focused on the hierarchy when it really does not matter. Everyone was included in everything but they could only do certain things. For