Courtly Love in The Canterbury Tales

Courtly Love in The Canterbury Tales In all periods, in all forms of literature, love has always found its place within the words of its authors. The ideas and meanings readers create about love can change drastically from one reading of a text to another. However, it is safe to say that when reading a tale of courtly love, the type of love is immediately recognizable thanks to the peculiar behaviour, desires, and extreme heartache of the characters. The experience of love the characters feel is put to an extreme that is unrecognizable to what we know as modern day love. Almost all of the Canterbury Tales contain love and lovers who act upon the conventions and standards of courtly love. Chaucer was greatly influenced by the courtly romance of his predecessors. In this paper I intend to give a brief history of courtly love and explore the influences of courtly love on Chaucer and how it is echoed within his Canterbury Tales. It is difficult to define courtly love when scholars such as C.S Lewis, D.W Robertson, E.Talbot Donaldson and Gaston Paris disagree with both the nature and origin of it. Alexander J. Denomy puts it nicely as he defines courtly love as a type of sensual love and what distinguishes it from other forms of sexual love, from mere passion, from so-called platonic love, from married love, is its purpose or motive, its formal object, namely, the lovers progress and growth in natural goodness, merit, and worth. Courtly love contains an important social component. In the poetry of the troubadours, social promotion is an important theme, particularly when it comes to love. William of Poitriers is the highest of nobility as he is the first troubadour. He proclaimed that love can transform a courtly man into a churl, and a churl into a courtly man. The troubadours find it very important that the woman whose love they seek must be of some nobility, at the same time, they claim that love, though u nrequited, makes them better, inspiring in them an emulation of the beloved through which they hope to become worthy of the elevated love for which they long (Manson 239-240). Courtly love is a highly ritualized practice. Generally, courtly love is practiced only between a woman and a man of noble status who are not married. Usually the characters would be a squire, or a knight and a woman with an aristocratic background. Courtly love is seen as ideal and above intercourse. True love was seen to only exist outside of marriages. Marriages had nothing to do with love as they were arranged more often than not. Having a wife was looked at the same way as owning another piece of property to a husband. The medieval teaching of marriage focused on Pagan and Christian views. The first purpose of marriage is to multiply the human race; the second purpose of marriage is to avoid fornication. Kelly states that other motives were admissible, too, especially the nobler ones of peace-making or the encouragement of love between in-laws, but also less noble ones of desire for the intendeds beauty or wealthà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦mutual love between the spouses is notably absent fr om their lists (Kelly pg 247). In the common society of the medieval world there is ordinary love. Some of Chaucers tales are of ordinary love; these tales are called fabliaux. It is easy for one to spot fabliaux from a courtly love tale as the characters in fabliauxs react to lust; they react to love in its most non complex state, its natural state. All forms of love begin with lust, but to be able to master the art of courtly love, one must take themselves out of the simple state of lust and take it to a superior extremely sensual state of love; its power is elevated to a point of worship. In order to achieve this sense of love the man has to endure suffering for the love he seeks. After he goes through the suffering he is able to rise above the lust and begin to serve the women with courageous deeds and beautiful language. An example of one of Chaucers fabliauxs is The Millers Tale. This tale is lusty and vulgar yet the characters, although somewhat immoral, have more depth and personality than the characters in The Knights Tale. Above I have noted that marriage is not typically placed in with courtly love tradition, although in his book The Allegory of Love, C.S. Lewis states that adultery does have its place in courtly love. He suggests that a wife is no superior. As the wife of another, above all as the wife of a great lord, she may be queen of beauty and loveà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦but as your own wife, for whom you have bargained with her father, she sinks at once from a lady to a mere woman (36-27). Chaucer plays upon this idea in The Millers Tale. It is a criticism of courtly tradition, it is similar to The Franklins Tale and The Merchants Tale in that it is about a young squire who cuckolds another mans wife and enters into an affair. Even though it is not traditional for courtly love to be associated w ith a married woman both The Franklins Tale and The Merchants tale use this idea of stealing a mans wife. Both of the young squires, Damian and Aurelius covet another mans wife, but of course only one commits adultery. On the other hand, The Knights Tale is not at all fabliaux and represents much of the courtly love tradition. Arcite and Palamon are both characters of noble status, and they are the best and ideal of their type. Chaucer does a wonderful job glorifying his characters to perfection, he makes certain that the reader knows how noble, courageous, and beautiful his characters are, that gretter was ther noon under the sonne (863). These characters embody the standards of courtly love; Arcite suffers extreme love pains for Emelye as he has his freedom but does not have access to her. Arcites anguish is so great because he cannot see Emelye that it physically changes him. Palamon can not even recognize him. It is made quiet clear that there has never been anyone to feel the pains of love as bad as what Arcite felt. Theseus even acknowledges the extremes of love-sickness when he asks who may been a fool but if he love? (1799). Palamon also suffers love pains for Emelye as although he can see her through bars, he will never be able to be with her, he will never be able to touch her. Both men suffer for her, and later in the tale both men perform courageous deeds when they decide to fight each other for the chance of being with Emelye. The language in The Knights Tale is quiet extreme and takes every event to a heightened level. Theseus builds a battlefield for the two knights to battle on and he refers to it as a noble theatre as it was / I dar wel seyen in this world ther nas (1885-1886). Thus further embodying the greatness of courtly love. Andreas Capellanus was surely an influence for Chaucer when it comes to courtly love. De Arte Honeste Amandi is essentially a hand book on how to love like a courtier written by Capellanus. Love is a certain inborn suffering derived from the sight of an excessive meditation upon the beauty of the opposite sex, which causes each one to wish above all things the embraces of the otherà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦(Capellanus 40). First is the sexual desire, and then is the excessive meditation on the womens beauty which makes the lover rise above his lust to a realm of innocent passion that makes only the embrace of the love he seeks meaningful. Throughout Capellanuss hand book on how to love like a courtier are examples of problems in which lovers know no answers. One example of a situation is, if a lover dies, how long one must wait until she may seek a new love (Capellanus 49). The answer is two years. Chaucer uses this span of two years in The Franklins Tale, and it strikingly resembles that of wh ich is read in Capellanuss De Arte Honeste Amandi. In The Franklins Tale Arvergus is sent away for two years on duty. The squire Aurelius has loved Dorigen for two years, and he prays to the gods that the waters stay higher than the rocks for two years, and suffers love sickness for two years. As well, after two years of Dorigens husband beings away she considers having an affair. Another influence on Chaucers writing was Guillaume de Lorris Le Roman de la Rose. In this love affair the protagonist greatly suffers for his love. He shows all of the symptoms of love-sickness, as well he listens to the commands given to him by the god of Love. The commands become expected for the young knights in following works of courtly love. Many of Chaucers concepts in The Canterbury Tales derived from the courtly ideas in the Rose. An example of how the rose is interrelated with Chaucers work is how The Franklins Tale and The Knights Tale resemble it. In the poem a young man is wandering in a garden. He leans over and looks into a well of narcissus; this glance into the well causes him to fall in love with the first thing he sets his eyes upon. When they young lover sees a rose bud, cupid shoots an arrow at him; it enters though his eye and penetrates his heart. The young man removes the shaft from his eye but he will forever have the arrow head lodged into his heart. This i dea of love at first sight has held its own place in literature throughout centuries. Chaucer mirrors this representation of an arrow in the heart in The Franklins Tale and The Knights Tale. Aurelius suffers from love, although he appears fine on the outside a keen arrow stuck within his soul / A wound thats only surface-healed can be / A perilous thing, you know in surgery / unless the arrowhead be taken out (435-438). In The Knights Tale Palamon is struck by love through the eye, I have been hurt this moment through they eye, / Into my heart (42-43). In both cases the wounded lovers are inflicted of the gods love, and both will suffer for the one they love. The medieval period in English Literature spends a lot of time being concerned with love and lovers, surely more than any other period. Almost every one of The Canterbury Tales discusses love is some manifestation or another and almost all encounter lovers. Chaucer was neither an enemy nor a companion of courtly love. With him the concept remained unchallenged, serviceable for dealing with love elegantly and useless for dealing with it seriously (Eliason 15). He takes inspiration from authors before him and adds an element of courtly love into his own work that develops the idea with a new sense of creativity and intelligence.

Is technology bringing us closer Essay

The sense of connection between human beings is growing.  Do you feel connected with your family and friends? Do you feel a sense of â€Å"closeness† between each other? Do you feel that, with the help of technology, you finally have the opportunity to easily communicate with anyone you want? The answer to all three of these questions is a simple â€Å"yes†. Three brothers buried their mother about a month ago and were faced with the challenge of running a household, with a debt of more than $10000 to be payed off. Their mother who had suffered with two brain aneurisms had left no life insurance or money in the bank when she died. Their dad had passed away six years ago after battling with a mental health issues. Jarrod (19), the oldest of the three brothers, has pledged to take care of his brothers. After broadcasting their story on A Current Affair, viewers from all over the country has generously donated more than half a million dollars in just one day to help them pay off their mortgage loan. This is just one of the countless stories where technology has made a tremendous impact on a family and brought them closer, along with all the Australians out there who have supported them. Technology does have the potential to increase communication between people. At this present time, technology is in the most advanced form of communication we have. It makes the world small and at the same time, it makes us feel big. It gives us the fortuity to be able to communicate with anyone around the world in a click of a button. Nowadays, we don’t just have options like email or calling up someone, we have features like video chat. Just like that, we’re able to catch up with any old friend of ours. Even though they might not physically be right next to us, technology gives us the enjoyment to be able to feel like they’re right here next to us. Technology has the ability to make us feel that we are not as far away with people who may be in different countries as we think we are. We’re in fact closer than we perceive. Not only does technology benefit to feel closer to those that may be far away from you. Technology also grants the opportunity for you to be closer with the person sitting in the same room as you. â€Å"Dictionary.com† defines the word communication as â€Å" the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing or signs.† There are many people out there who may not be fortunate as you and I, who have disabilities that sadly impinge on their communication. How tough would life be for them? The amount of resilience that they have is inspirational. Technology gives them hope, it gives them something to hold onto, something that has the potential to turn their life around. This disability is called communication disorder. This disorder affects more than 15% of children aged from 4-21 years of age. However, with the ever-improving advances in technology present, this significant obstacle on these people can be overcome. For example, we all know that hearing aids assist people with hearing impairments. However, they are cases where technology isn’t able to help in overcoming a communication disorder. Instead, technology can be used as a substitute for communication. For instance, if someone has trouble speaking, they could use a computer as a means of communication to have a conversation back and forth with someone else. Not only does technology help with the communication between people, furthermore, it is beneficial to help those in need. The medical field has always brought together one of the best, if not best, and brightest of society to provide support for those who needs it. For over more than a thousand years, people have spent a great deal of time repairing, designing and exploring many perspectives in the attempt to  unravel the mysteries and perplexities of the human body. Over time, with the advances in technology, machines have begin to play a much larger role in the medical field, as a result of new developments and better ways to treat illnesses and injuries. Through the use of such technologies, people can live healthier, more productive and independent lives. Many people who formerly may have been ill, disabled, or suffering continuous pain are now blessed to be able to look forward to leading normal, or even close-to normal lives. For example, a small device, the ICD, which is implanted for those at risk of sudden cardiac death now have a 98% chance of surviving a cardiac arrest, compared to only 5% without this device. This is just one of the vast number of benefits that the changes in technology has managed to deliver to us in the present time. Without these technological advances, many innocent human beings would have suffered from deadly diseases and illnesses that are now promisingly able to be beneficial for. Like everything else in this world, technology has both its positives and negatives. Some people may argue that technology doesn’t in fact bring the connection between us humans closer. That it is essentially driving us further away. One of the main reasons why this may be is due to cyber bullying, as it is one of the major issues concerning with technological communication. Just focusing on teenagers, statistics show that at least 74% of teens are on social networking sites. Cyber bullying is more common in today’s society due to the increase in the use of technology. We really can’t stop cyber bullying completely, there is no way for that to be possible. However, an alternative would be to educate teens out there on how to prevent it from happening to them. Teach teens to learn to be smart, safe and secure. Technology needs to be embraced. Although is may be forever changing, we  should at least count on the fact that it is continually becoming greater, faster and more beneficial. The connection between all of us is growing with the help of technology, and instead of disagreeing with this, its time we accept it and use it to our benefit fully.

Psy 1010 Chapter 1 Ra - 807 Words

Xiaokun Chen Lora Harpster PSY 1010 01.29.2014 As the psychology is a subject of science, experiment is important part of this subject. Before designing an experiment, we have to design an experiment and we need to confirm the dependent variable and independent variable. For each of the following scenarios, identify the independent and the dependent variables and explain your choices. 1. Joan is collecting data on gender differences (male, female) in the ability to empathize. In this case, the independent variable is the gender and the dependent variable is the ability to empathize. Because this study is to find the difference between male and female, then the gender is the independent variable, which will be controlled by†¦show more content†¦In this case, the independent variable is violent or non ­violent cartoon and the dependent variable is the violent behavior. What kind of cartoon will decide the different reflect on violent behavior, so the violent or non ­violent cartoon is the independent variable. 7. A chef wants to see if the quality of bread (e.g., texture and appearance) is increased by using an imported Italian yeast, whenShow MoreRelatedMedicare Policy Analysis447966 Words   |  1792 Pagespurposes. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF DIVISIONS, TITLES, rmajette on DSK29S0YB1PROD with BILLS 4 5 AND SUBTITLES. (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 6 ‘‘Affordable Health Care for America Act’’. VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:56 Oct 30, 2009 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3962.IH H3962 2 1 2

The Domains Of Professional Study At Henley Putnam University

There are quantitative and qualitative methods in the realm of academic research seem to be the most relevant to the domains of professional study at Henley-Putnam University. These methods involve the collection of different types of data to help better understand the world around us. Quantitative research is associated with the hard sciences such as chemistry, engineering, and mathematics such as measuring items quantitatively can consist of observing the distance between planets as they revolve around the sun or recording the pressure within a closed container as heat is introduced to a particular liquid. In other words, quantitative methods allow for measuring one thing to compare against another known or unknown quantity to generate conclusions, sometime confirming hypotheses or creating new ones based on research outcomes. However, qualitative research is applied in the soft or social sciences, such as history, sociology and anthropology. According to Qualitative Research Con sultants Association (QRCA), qualitative research seeks out the â€Å"why†, not the â€Å"how†, of its topic through the analysis of unstructured information. For instance, methodological discussions like how data is collected and analyzed. Qualitative research does not rely on statistics or numbers, which are the domain of quantitative researchers. There is a debate between Quantitative and Qualitative methodologies to compare which is more appropriate or which produces better insight or which is bestShow MoreRelatedBoard Dynamics and the Inï ¬â€šuence of Professional Background, Gender and Ethnic Diversity of Directors11390 Words   |  46 Pages218 CORPORATE GOVERNANCE Board Dynamics and the Inï ¬â€šuence of Professional Background, Gender and Ethnic Diversity of Directors* Nicholas van der Walt** and Coral Ingley Exploring the appointment of directors of different professional backgrounds, levels of independence, age, gender and ethnicity, this paper develops a taxonomy describing what is meant by diversity on the board and its implications for decision-making. Board conï ¬ guration is considered in terms of empirical evidence highlightingRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesOrganizational Behavior This page intentionally left blank Organizational Behavior EDITION 15 Stephen P. Robbins —San Diego State University Timothy A. Judge —University of Notre Dame i3iEi35Bj! Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Editorial Director: Sally Yagan Director of Editorial Services: