Courtly Love. Literature & Language. Research Paper

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Courtly Love
The concept of courtly love originated from Europe during the middle Ages whereby nobility and chivalry were emphasized when it came to love. This type of love usually involved cases whereby young men, whether peasants or kings, developed the feelings of love towards a rich lady and set out to do brave things in order to prove that they were deserving of her. In some other instances, the young man in question would sing beautiful love songs to show that he was worthy of the lady. In medieval Europe, it was very common to witness this courtly love driving knights on adventures in a bid to please their ladies. The very idea of courtly love has had an impact on real love in terms of civilizing it and helping improve its morality. Even today, people in love engage in practices and actions that prove that courtly love is still in existence in the modern age as will be discussed in this paper.
Considering the increased attention to the idea of courtly love especially in literature, this type of love has impacted real life love in more than one way. These effects were more evident during the middle ages when the literary concept was introduced. To begin with, knightly behavior became more civilized because of this love. Before the introduction of this idea, knights would use their positions and influence to get whatever girl they wished to have without necessarily considering what their feelings were. However, courtly love made them realize the importance of winning the heart and trust of the lady they were in love with by doing brave and adventurous things. This was important since it also enabled the girl or young woman to develop feelings for the chivalrous knight.
Apart from civilizing the behavior of knights, courtly love also provided alternative avenues through which personal love could be expressed. In medieval Europe arranged marriage were prevalent whereby young girls were given out in marriage to men that were older in age due to political reasons. Even in some of the societies today, arranged marriages are still a real thing. In both cases, the young girls do not really get a chance to express or experience real love because no consideration is usually given to their thoughts or feelings. With courtly love therefore, young girls get an alternative way of experiencing the expression of love and therefore having the ability to decide whether they love the man too or not.
Courtly love has impacted on the overall morality by promoting faithfulness. Since the young man in love has to show and prove himself worthy to the girl he is in love with, he would often engage in activities or adventures that could be witnessed by other people. In effect, most other people would know about the girl and would therefore expect the young man to stay faithful in his quest. By doing this, courtly love in this case helps promote faithfulness thereby eradicating incidences of immorality whereby a m...