Ethical Behaviors the Lais Present to the Knights in The Lais of Marie De France

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The Lais of Marie De France
The text, Lais of Marie de France, is a collection of romantic narratives composed and credited to a French-English poet. The Lais can be accompanied by played musical instruments, characterizing the Northern French region with Celtic influences. It captures life during the early medieval times when much of the western European society was ruled by noblemen such as kings and knights. It highlights the pertinent issues relating to relationships and marriage at the time with the sons and daughters of these noblemen being the likeliest of partners due to their class in society. Major themes revealed by such literature or art include love, chivalry, and supernatural power (De France 73). Marie de France’s selection of lais is the first surviving written sample since Breton minstrels originally performed them. It provides the deep intricacies of life and the society of the 12th century. This paper examines the kind of behaviors the Lais present for knights and discusses how they were supposed to behave.
Knights were really held in high regard in the society at the time. They were in the upper class of the society and therefore commanded quite a lot of respect from the people. While they commanded respect from the society, they were also expected to also carry themselves in a certain manner- a noble manner, with high levels of discipline, respect and responsibility. The Lais of Marie de France presents knights as individuals exhibiting ethical behavior of chivalry- a scheme of moral and social virtues that developed in the medieval period.
According to Marie de France, chivalry was an ideology of behavior influenced by the church and gradually developed during the 11th and 12th centuries (39). The system presented a code of honor, ethics, and virtues that knights were sown to live by. Examples of expected morals include portraying bravery in combat, behavioral manners in court, and religious piety. In the first Lay of Marie de France, Guigemar is a knight who portrays romantic love and is cursed by a supernatural to suffer until meeting a lady who would heal psychological wounds (De France 44). Guigemar depicts bravery by laying siege to the lord’s lands to reunite with the woman he was banished from. Chivalry served to establish a nation of knighthood, honor, and nobility. It is an illustration that he is wounded symbolically due to lack of romantic love; and that for him to be complete, he needs to seek that.
The 12th century western European society was one that was so fascinated with transformation and continuous change. In the Lais, Marie shares a lot of information that is geared towards portraying a knight as complex but with some clearly distinct elements. These men are also shown to be in a perpetual state of metamorphosis that is wound around their masculine existence. Even in modern society, chivalry is depicted when a man is generous, helpful, and respectful. Such values were acquired from the Middle Ages when the history of chivalry started- owing the knights fo...