|
|
The below is a sample preview of the full essay that is available in our database. To see
the full paper, just register for a free account. You get
access to thousands of example term papers in our super free essay database without paying
a cent.
|
Beginning of Paper
|
The Decline of Chivalry and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
In the fourteenth century, chivalry was in decline due to drastic social and economic changes. Although feudalism-along with chivalry-would eventually fall for other reasons, including a decrease in cheap human resources due to a drop in population caused by plague epidemics and ....
|
|
Middle of Paper
|
.... century knight came with the rise of courtly love in which the knights were led to their great deeds by devotion to a mistress rather than God. The discrepancy between this and the church's mistrust of women and desires of the flesh is obvious, and the poet uses women in the story to deliver this message. In contrast to reality at the time, women in the story are given great power: Mary, when properly worshiped, gives Gawain his power, Lady Bertilak operates alone in the bedroom and singlehandedly taints the chevalier, and Morgan the Fay instigates the entire plo ....
|
|
|
SUBJECTS
