Skip to main content

What are the ethical differences between "good" and "bad" knights in Morte d'Arthur?

On the surface, the difference between "good" knights and "bad" knights in Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur depends on those knights' adherence to the chivalrous code, the code of ethical behavior that a knight errant was supposed to follow. Knights errant were, ideally, knights that traveled the countryside looking to perform chivalrous acts. In general, the knights of the Round Table were supposed to be knights errant.


Knights errant stood in contrast to knights who sought personal glory or gain from their actions. Such knights fought for their own purposes and did not follow the chivalrous code. Sometimes these "bad" knights were knights that were fighting against the king; or knights that took women against their will; or knights that killed other knights by magic or treachery; or knights that did not treat fallen enemies with courtesy or mercy, as dictated by the chivalrous code.


The problem with Malory's depiction of the knights errant in Le Morte d'Arthur is that none of the "hero" knights (e.g., Sir Gawain, Sir Lancelot, Sir Gareth, Sir Tristram, etc.), save for Sir Galahad, consistently behave in a manner in keeping with the chivalrous code. While none of these hero knights are as "bad" as the evil knights found in Malory, they at different times exhibit behavior that ranges from mild violations of the code to outright villainous behavior, even behavior that goes against their king and cohort.


In this sense, the line between the behavior of the "good" knights and the "bad" knights in Le Morte d'Arthur is blurred. The knights errant who are supposed to be following the chivalrous code often violate that code for their own purposes, and in this way they are nearly as unethical as the "bad" knights, i.e. those who do not follow the code at all. The difference between the "good" knights and the "bad" knights is that the knights errant who stray from the code may be able to make amends, as Sir Lancelot attempts to do, whereas those knights who do not at all follow the codes make no such attempts.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...
Post a Comment
Read more