Transcript Courtly Love - SkyView Academy

The Chivalric
Code & Courtly
Love
British Literature
October 30, 2014
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YOUR JOURNALS
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Thursday!
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10/30
Courtly Love Journal
In your journal, take notes on the
following slides and answer prompts.
Origins of the Chivalric
Code
 In literature, King Arthur outlines the proper
behavior of his knights when they are seated at
the Round Table. He proclaims these
“the Chivalric Code.”
 The Code of Chivalry dictates that
the knights follow the will of the
king. Given that this is the era of
the Rightful King, we can see why
these guidelines were so easily
adopted and adhered to.
The Church
 Provided guidance through well
known precepts.
Seven Deadly Sins
 Pride
 Greed
 Wrath
 Envy
 Gluttony
 Sloth
 Lust
Overview of the Chivalric Code
The chivalric code combined Christian
virtues with military virtues:

Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence and
Justice

Faith, Hope, Charity

Valor and strength in battle

Loyalty to God and King

Courtesy towards enemies

Generosity towards the sick, women,
widows and the oppressed
Ten Commandments of the
Code of Chivalry
From Chivalry by Leon Gautier
I.
Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches,
and shalt observe all its directions.
II.
Thou shalt defend the Church.
III.
Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt
constitute thyself the defender of them.
Ten Commandments of the
Code of Chivalry
IV.
Thou shalt love the country in the which thou
wast born.
V.
Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy.
VI.
Thou shalt make war against the Infidel
without cessation, and without mercy.
Ten Commandments of the
Code of Chivalry
VII. Thou shalt perform scrupulously thy feudal
duties, if they be not contrary to the laws of
God.
VIII. Thou shalt never lie, and shall remain faithful
to thy pledged word.
Ten Commandments of the
Code of Chivalry
IX. Thou shalt be generous, and give
largesse to everyone.
X.
Thou shalt be everywhere and always
the champion of the Right and the Good
against Injustice and Evil.
Courtly Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhrBDcQq2DM
In your journal, answer
the following questions:
1) Think about love in our
modern culture. What are the
“rules” of Love in our culture?
Write at least three rules.
The Ideal of Courtly Love
 This relationship was modeled on the feudal
relationship between a knight and his liege lord.
 Remember feudalism? It is the economic system of the
Middle Ages that lords provide land to vassals in
exchange for military service.
 The knight serves his courtly lady with the same
obedience and loyalty which he owes to his liege
lord.
 She is in complete control; he owes her obedience
and submission
The knight's love for the lady inspires him to do great
deeds, in order to be worthy of her love or to win
her favor.
 “Courtly love" was not between husband
and wife because it was an idealized sort of
relationship that could not exist within the
context of "real life" medieval marriages.
 In the middle ages, marriages amongst the
nobility were typically based on practical
and dynastic concerns rather than on love.
The Purpose of “Courtly Love”
 “Courtly love" provided a model of behavior for a class of
unmarried young men who might otherwise have
threatened social stability.

Knights were typically younger brothers without land of
their own (hence unable to support a wife).

They became members of the household of the feudal lords
whom they served.
 The literary model of courtly love may have been invented
to provide young men with a model for appropriate
behavior.

It taught bored young knights to control their baser desires
and to channel their energy into socially useful behavior
(love service rather than wandering around the
countryside, stealing or raping women).
The lady is typically older, married, and
of higher social status than the knight
because she was modeled on the wife
of the feudal lord, who might naturally
become the focus of the young,
unmarried knights' desire.
The "symptoms" of love were described
as as if it were a sickness.
The "lovesick" knight’s typical
symptoms: sighing, turning pale,
turning red, fever, inability to sleep,
eat or drink.
The Stages of Courtly Love
1. Attraction to the lady,
usually via eyes/glance
2. Worship of the lady from
afar
3. Declaration of passionate
devotion
4. Virtuous rejection by the
lady
5. Renewed wooing with
oaths of virtue and eternal
fealty
6. Moans of approaching
death from unsatisfied
desire (and other physical
manifestations of
lovesickness)
7. Heroic deeds of valor which
win the lady's heart
8. Consummation of the
secret love
9. Endless adventures and
subterfuges avoiding
detection
The Twelve Rules of Love
from The Art of Courtly Love by Andreas Capellanus
1. Thou shalt avoid avarice like the deadly
pestilence and shalt embrace its
opposite.
2. Thou shalt keep thyself chaste for the
sake of her whom thou lovest.
3. Thou shalt not knowingly strive to
break up a correct love affair that
someone else is engaged in.
4. Thou shalt not choose for thy love
anyone whom a natural sense of
shame forbids thee to marry.
5. Be mindful completely to avoid
falsehood.
Rules of Love
6. Thou shalt not have many who know
of thy love affair.
7. Being obedient in all things to the
commands of ladies, thou shalt ever
strive to ally thyself to the service of
Love.
8. In giving and receiving love's solaces
let modesty be ever present.
9. Thou shalt speak no evil.
10. Thou shalt not be a revealer of love
affairs.
11. Thou shalt be in all things polite and
courteous.
12. In practicing the solaces of love thou
shalt not exceed the desires of thy
lover.
The Literary Convention
of Courtly Love

In the 12th century, literature written in
French was referred to as "romance" to
differentiate it from "real" literature,
which was written in Latin.

Eventually, the term "romance" began to
refer not to any literature written in
French, but to the specific sort of
literature that was popular among the
French-speaking court audiences of
France and Anglo-Norman England:
stories of the chivalric adventures of
knights and their ladies.

There have been debates about whether
courtly love was a social reality or simply
a literary fiction. Regardless, it was a
widespread and significant notion.
In your journal, answer
the following questions:
2) What examples can you think
of in literature, art, film, culture,
etc. that represents courtly love?
3) What is problematic about
courtly love?
Problematic Aspects of
Courtly Love
1. Unrealistic: Typically the courtly love relationship was not
between husband and wife.
2. Adulterous (although this aspect bothers modern readers
more than past readers)
3. Put women on an inaccessible pedestal: women had to be a
paradoxical ideal (both temptress and virgin).
4. It prevents the knight from reaching his full potential in
some cases.
5. The women would serve as distractions to other important
quests.
6. Knight would suffer from the symptoms of love
Literary Theory
Literary theory is a way of looking at art,
literature, and culture with different
lenses. These different lenses allow critics
to consider works of art based on certain
assumptions within that school of theory.
The different lenses also allow critics to
focus on particular aspects of a work they
consider important.
Answer the following
question in your journal:
4) What is feminism?
5) How are men portrayed in
medieval literature?
6) How are women portrayed
in medieval literature?
Emma Watson’s
UN Speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-iFl4qhBsE
Feminist Literary Theory
These are the foundations of Feminist Literary Theory. (Though there are three waves of
feminism that focus on different aspects).
1.
Women are oppressed by patriarchy economically, politically, socially, and
psychologically; patriarchal ideology is the primary means by which they are kept.
2.
In every domain where patriarchy reigns, woman is other: she is marginalized,
defined only by her difference from male norms and values.
3.
All of western (Anglo-European) civilization is deeply rooted in patriarchal
ideology, for example, in the biblical portrayal of Eve as the origin of sin and death
in the world.
4.
While biology determines our sex (male or female), culture determines our gender
(masculine or feminine).
5.
All feminist activity, including feminist theory and literary criticism, has as its
ultimate goal to change the world by prompting gender equality.
6.
Gender issues play a part in every aspect of human production and experience,
including the production and experience of literature, whether we are consciously
aware of these issues or not.
Masculine Images
How are men portrayed in
medieval literature?
Physically strong hero
Protector
Wise father figure
Super lover extraordinaire
Feminine Images

Aloof princess in a tower
(Think “Damsel in Distress” archetype)

Emitter of life (Think the “Life Giving
Mother” archetype)

Virginal and sweet.

Tempting and desirable.

This is problematic because of Sigmund
Freud’s “Madonna-Whore complex.” This
is the complex that Freud argues men
develop when they see women as either
saintly Madonnas or debased prostitutes.
Men with this complex cannot maintain
attraction to a woman in a committed,
loving relationship. He explains, “Where
such men love they have no desire and
where they desire, they cannot love.”
Feminist Questions to Explore

How does the portrayal of a category (sex) interact with how the “reader”
thinks of a person/character?

Does the person seem to deserve personhood?

Would a character’s actions be viewed differently if they were a different sex?

Is the female perspective simply not there? If so, does it harm the women that
are in the medium?

Do ideas of sex/gender from the time period of a piece linger into the present
and is that a bad thing? (Misogyny, perhaps?)

Does any mention of sex-related words lead to the character being a
stereotype?
Application to Courtly Love

Women as property
Any moral dubiousness is not the violation of the sanctity of
marriage so much as the other man’s affront to the husband’s
ownership of the wife. Thus, the wife that loses some culpability
in wrongdoing because the primary grievance is between the two
men.
Application to Courtly Love

Women as divinity
Courtly love places women on a pedestal, simply for the man to
worship. She is not an individual because any analysis of her
stops at her beauty. The man raises the woman up to a level that
she cannot come down from and interact on a level with the rest
of the world.

Women as inhuman
When women do act of their own agency, they are “mischievous” or
“manipulative”. (Pay attention to Morgan Le Fay in Sir Gawain)
There is no moral reasoning behind a woman’s actions, therefore
she probably always means ill. (When she means anything by it at
all)
Answer the following
questions in your journal:
7) Compare and contrast modern love with
courtly love. How are they similar? How are
they different? Cite examples.
8) Summarize Feminist literary theory in your
own words.
Modern Love vs. Courtly Love
 Modern: A feeling or disposition of deep affection or
fondness for someone, typically arising from a
recognition of attractive qualities, from natural affinity,
or from sympathy and manifesting itself in concern for
the other's welfare and pleasure in his or her presence
(OED)
 Courtly Love: A certain inborn suffering derived from
the sight of and excessive mediation upon the beauty
of the opposite sex, which causes each one to wish
above all things the embraces of the other and by
common desire to carry out all of love’s precepts in
the other’s embrace (Capellanus)
Modern Love vs. Courtly Love:
Female Archetypes
Modern Woman:
Courtly Love Woman:
Personality
Independence
Separated into classes, and each
class has identifiable
characteristics associated with it
Not looking for love, love finds her
Marriage
Initial rejection
Initial rejection, but eventual
submission through the persuasion
of the man in the steps of courtly
love
Growth of love through an external
situation
Conflict between being ‘true’ to
self and surrendering to affection
Conflict between love, class, and
social duties.
Homework
 Read Part Three of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
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