Lord Or Lover Essay Research Paper The

you end up losing both. During Sir Lancelot’s affair with Queen Guinevere the other knights of the Round Table discover his treason and are determined to not let King Arthur be shamed by Lancelot’s dishonor. Agravain speaks for many knights when he says, ” And all we know tt it is so, and it is shamefully suffered of us all that we know should suffer so noble a king as King Arthur is to be shamed”(Darthur 346). Because Lancelot’s grief is a “thousand” fold greater for her than for himself, he has realized the trouble he h caused. He chooses to fight for his love instead of pleading for forgiveness. The almighty value of truth was disregarded and not only removed Lancelot from his nobility but caused the downfall of an entire medieval way of life. Once the ” pillers and bbers were come into the field to pill and rob many a full noble knight” it is clear the devastation that Sir Lancelot has caused. The whole system of knights and chivalry has been eradicated in one short battle all because of one man letting his love f a woman interfere with the love for his lord. In actuality Lancelot was only following the ethics of courtly love because “A true lover is constantly and without intermission possessed by the thought of his beloved” (Capellanus). In a way, when a man falls in love, he is under the control of the woman and is physically unable to disobey or deny the woman of anything. Love is like a highly addictive drug. Being a good lover as most knights were is like being a drug addict. They e unable to resist the desires of the beloved. It is for this reason the Sir Gawain in his role in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’ is unable to resist Bercilak’s wife’s offer of the girdle. One of the characteristics of courtly love is courteousness. is being courteous to the seductress, but at the same time he must lie to the lord in order to save his own life. Gawain “bore with her words and withstood them no more,/ And she repeated her petition and pleaded anew,/ And he granted it, and gladly shgave him the belt,/ An besought him for her sake to conceal it well,/ Lest the noble lord should know-and, the knight agrees/ That not a soul save themselves shall see it thenceforth”(Green Knight 240). By following the rules of courtly love, he is oblid to succumb to her wishes as a sign of courtesy. Once he agrees not to tell anyone of his gift he directly creates a conflict between two sets of values. The girdle becomes a symbol of disgrace when the author says, ” With rage in heart he speaks,/ Andrieves with many a groan;/ The blood burns in his cheeks/ For shame at what must be shown” Gawain acknowledge this when he addresses the court and says, “This is the badge of false faith that I was found in there,/ And I must bear it on my body till I eathe my last” (Gawain 253). Unlike Lancelot his misdeed is forgiven because he was acting out of human nature, but it still represents a conflict caused by the attempt to obey both sets of ethics. Human nature can not be controlled just like love can n be tamed. When there are so many forces pushing in the same direction, one of them is bound to collide with the other causing a disastrous contradiction. I suppose if the beloved were not the lord’s wife, these two sets of rules could run smoothly parlel to one another without a collision. Although without these contradictions the hero wouldn’t be flawed and the story would have a shallow meaning.

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