Griffen Riley

Capstone

Second Reflection

Historical Contexts

My chosen artifact that demonstrates my knowledge in historical and formal

contexts is a research paper I did on the role of chivalry in British literature that I

did in my sophomore year British Literature 1 class, or ECM 3010. In this paper I

looked at the role of the idea of chivalry in British literature as well as its actual

application in medieval society. The paper was a research paper and ended up being

around 10 pages and 3,000 words. The idea of chivalry takes on different roles

throughout both modern and historical literature. Chivalry in the Middle Ages was a

moral, religious and social code of knightly and courtly conduct. While the actuality

behind the execution of this code can be disputed, the idea of it is present all

throughout early literature. The code varied, but it often emphasized honor, courage

and service. Chivalry preaches ideas like honor and courage and service. The actual

practice of these ideas, arguably, was not very common. Societies during those days

were absolutely male centric and females did not have much freedom or power,

which one could argue is very ironic and not very chivalrous. I looked at chivalry in

a variety of contexts, including the context of chivalry and women, which is the most

relevant. Today, the most commonly understood form of chivalry in the Middle Ages

is chivalry towards women. Chivalry towards women included honoring one woman

before all others, as well as a general admiration towards all women. This was

known as courtly love. A famous example of courtly love chivalry in the Middle Ages
was Sir Lancelot. Chivalry towards women was derived from worship of the Mary.

This worship stemmed from the presence of Christianity throughout. It’s important

to note that the Virgin Mary is worshipped even more in the Catholic faith in

comparison to basic Christianity.

There are many similarities between the original ideals of chivalry and the

modern adaptation. One could argue that there is more of a presence of chivalry

today than there ever was. No longer are people raiding each other, villages aren’t

being seized in most parts of the world, women have more rights than they ever

have (although still not quite as much as men), and most governments have some

form of welfare system set up to assist their poor, needy, homeless, and sick. These

weren’t even fathomable ideas in medieval or ancient times. Societies were

completely segregated by class systems. The nobility didn’t even associate with the

peasants, let alone help them. Women were idealized but not taken seriously. Thus

the true essence of chivalry was not even realized until recent years. By doing this

research paper, I learned a lot about how cultures can change, as well as how history

can put a fog over reality. What I mean by that is that growing up, everything I had

learned about the idea of chivalry made me think it was a real and dominant ideal,

when in actuality, true chivalry never really existed.