1. Based on this scene, how would you describe Lancelot? What effect does Guinevere
have on the outcome of his fight with Meleagant, and why is this important to
understanding Lancelot’s character?
ANS- Queen Guinever
...
1. Based on this scene, how would you describe Lancelot? What effect does Guinevere
have on the outcome of his fight with Meleagant, and why is this important to
understanding Lancelot’s character?
ANS- Queen Guinevere’s actions have the most direct impact on the outcome of Lancelot’s duel
with Meleagant. First, she motivates her knight to fight harder by appearing at the window, as
knowing that the queen is watching makes Lancelot shameful that he let “the combat goes
against him” (Troyes 223). Secondly, Guinevere agrees to spare Meleagant’s life, and her
decision stops Lancelot right at his tracks: upon hearing the queen’s words, he would not fight
further “even if it cost his life” (Troyes 226). This is an important characterization of Lancelot as
character: for him, living up to the ideal of knightly chivalry is more important than surviving.
2. In what ways do Lancelot’s actions and attitudes embody the twelfth-century ideal of
a chivalric hero?
ANS- Lancelot embodies the ideal of chivalric hero, as he is both a mighty warrior and a noble
soul capable of the most elevated love and deepest respect toward a lady. First of all, Lancelot is
a skilled warrior: Meleagant admits to himself that he never met a stronger or fiercer enemy
(Troyes 224). More importantly, Lancelot is also a soul able of the pure and noble love:
“If ever anyone loved
More truly than Pyramus,
It was him (Troyes 225).
One may find pure martial proves in, say, Beowulf, but martial talent combined with courtly love
is what sets Lancelot apart as a chivalric hero.
Do
you think they saw themselves as living up to this ideal?
ANS- The chivalric ideal must have appealed to European nobility because it boosted their
corporate solidarity as an estate. Being the most privileged class of medieval society, nobility
welcomed the ideology that served as foundation of their elevated status, and chivalry appealed
to their pride. The idea that knights embodied “courage, and strength, and virtue” (Troyes 223)
depicted them as morally superior to the commoners and, at the same time, sharing a common
bond of both martial skill and elevated culture of courtly love between them. It is hard to say
whether medieval knights actually saw themselves living up to the ideal, but it definitely
appealed to them and shaped their self-perception.
Chapter 12:4
1. What objections does Aquinas think some people may have to the idea of God’s
existence?
ANS- The general population in the Second Circle of Hell have trespassed out of adoration – for
the most part, out of animalistic want – which implies that their transgression is desire. The
clarifications offered by Virgil leave no uncertainty on the idea of the transgressions of those
present. Dante's buddy makes reference to Semiramis, who had so grasped/lewdness that she
announced it supported, and Helen, whose unfaithfulness to her better half caused a cycle of
numerous underhanded years. Subsequently, in Dante's portrayal, the second hover of Hell is
held for the prurient, which makes desire a moderately unobtrusive sin in the granger plan of
things.
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