Essay On Medieval Castles

Although many gothic novels are written in a complex manner, the novel “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” is very different. This gothic novel is written in a simplistic fashion which is understandable on the surface. However, if one digs deeper than the surface of this novel, “We Have Always lived in the Castle,” proves to be full of details and themes. There are many important themes in this story and some which are not as important. In the novel, “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” there are many extremely important themes such as, domesticity, rich vs. poor, and sibling relationships. Also, in the novel, “We Have Always lived in the Castle,” there is one theme which is not essential to the novel, which is the supernatural and potential witch elements in this story. All of these themes help to portray the message of Shirley Jackson’s novel, “We have Always Lived in the Castle.”

The once subjugated Saxons were required to raise a knoll that was twenty-one meters high and surrounded by a dry trench. There were Wooden pikes or posts that protected the buildings on top of the knoll, while to in the south and east of the knoll there were yards that were protected by banks and ditches this all this was to set in motion the ground work for the castle of Norwich. Edward Boardman a Norwich born architect completed the Norwich Castle, a medieval and fantastic defense structure in the city of Norwich which was one of the greatest castles of its time because of its architecturally advanced structure, a symbol of military power, and a symbol of political control that was founded by the Normans.

At first knights and soldiers in the armies were of little social status. “Many knights in fact possessed little more than peasants” (Spielvogel 244). War was looked as kind of a barbaric act in the beginning and many knights could be found fighting each other. While some of this was tolerated, as they were seen as “defenders of society”, the Catholic Church decided that there should be some ground rules. At the start of the eleventh century, the church urged knights to take an oath to protect churches, and to not harm noncombatants. These rules allowed for battles to follow a civil path and to be carried out in a noble way.

In the 12th century Goodrich Castle, was replaced with stone. This decreased the level of destruction during wars. As a development of Stone Keep castles, concentric castles were built from 1250 onwards. The concentric design was copied from the castles in the Middle East; knowledge and understanding of design and structure came into England through returning crusaders (soldiers) during the 1200’s.

We Have Always Lived In The Castle is a novel written by Shirley Jackson, a popular and influential American writer of the 20th century. The narrative revolves around two sisters, Mary Katherine and Constance, who live together with their amnesic and out-of-touch Uncle Julian in their opulent, ancestral home. The sisters’ parents and brother, as well as Uncle Julian’s wife are dead, all killed by arsenic put into the sugar bowl one night at dinner. Constance, who cooked the meal, was acquitted for the crime but was still held suspect by the village while strangely enough, Mary Katherine had been sent to her room without dinner that night as a punishment and therefore was never questioned. Despite this tragedy, they seem to live happy, stagnant lives until their distant cousin Charles shows up desiring the family’s wealth and bringing radical change. The novel is played out through the consciousness of the younger sister Mary Katherine or “Merricat,” who has wild fantasies and modes of processing the world around her, inserting the reader into her demented imagination. Shirley Jackson employs fairytale and witchcraft into the story through imagery and symbolism presented by Merricat in order to convey the psychoanalytic effects of ignorance and isolation.

Castles were extremely important during 1066 – 1500 and they changed overtime to get more protection. A castle is a fortification that was used in the middle ages to protect territory against an invasion. They were important during these times because many kings and lords wanted to show off how wealthy they are and they used them as bases, controlling their land and people from a higher point.

Living in the medieval time period was not as glamorous as it is often portrayed; peasants and serfs led hard lives, however, kings, lords, and knights lived lavishly and at the expense of those under them. In this paper you will read about all of these lifestyles, as well as the castles in which these lords and kings lived in. Mainly castle designs, fortifications, and siege tactics will be revealed to you; yet there are several sections, dealing with the lifestyles of the above mentioned, leading up to that.

The castle would usually be built on higher ground to see enemies coming from below. This would also help to build a moat, the drawbridge would be the only pathway from the land to the castle. The castle would have multiple stories from basements to dungeons. The toilet would be built at the bottom story to let the waste go down into the water below.

Castles began to be built with stone instead of timber and became stronger to withstand sieges. For example, castles included drawbridges and other features such as ditches, rivers and moats were built to encircle the castle. As the construction of castles improved and new innovations were integrated, concentric circle castles emerged in the 12th century. These were castles with an inner wall and an outer wall, hence the name, concentric, which means a circle inside another circle. The inner wall was higher than the outer wall which allowed archers to shoot over the outer walls and the outer wall was thicker to have a strong first line of defense. More important structures were built within the inner wall and the multiple walls construction made the castle more durable during the event of a siege or an attack. When an attack occurred, the concentric design of the castle resulted in many attackers getting struck in the middle of the inner and outer walls. The soldiers defended the castle took advantage of the situation and the attacker would be bombarded with traps, hot liquid and murder

Parker states, during the Hundred Year’s War, that major states of western Europe could reduce the vertical defense of a fortress to rubble within days, whereas a similar siege without gunpowder-backed artillery could take up to 6 months. It wasn’t until almost 100 years later when Niccolo Machiavelli, using his third technique of installing modern fortifications, provided an adaptation to bombardments that would allow fortresses to defy even the largest armies of the day. Machiavelli called for a fortress that reduced its height and increased the depths of existing walls, which would allow for them to absorb incoming fire more effectively.

Knights were essential for providing security and a sense of safety during the Middle Ages. Knights took a rigorous training process to learn every aspect of warfare and to acquire skills needed for knighthood. After training was complete, knights would have to abide by the Code of Chivalry, which was studied during their training. An ordinary knight’s life involved forty days of service in wars to their lord, and the activities which occupied a knight’s free time . Although knights were elite warriors and honorable men, as Europe crawled out of the Middle Ages, their services were no longer needed.

William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily also displays the same fold-in-on-itself mystery that We Have Always Lived in the Castle calls forth. In both stories, past time is brought to the reader’s attention, both through flashbacks, as found in We Have Always Lived in the Castle and through a narrative present reporter that gives information on a past story-arc, where he or she is well aware of the ending, i.e. the present. The two stories also both hold an element of mystery for crimes that are only implied, but never actually expressly stated by the person committing them. For much of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, the reader does not know that it is Merricat who poisoned the sugar bowl. It is not until the house has already been halfway

Concentric castles were made of stone and built primarily for protection and defense. The building of these concentric designs began in the 1200s. The castles consisted of thick walls surrounding the main castle, usually one large wall surrounding a smaller one. The walls were designed to create obstacles for anyone trying to attack the castle. The hard, tall walls made it difficult for the attacker to get at the castle and made it easier for the defenders to fire at them from above. Its symmetrical shape also made it easier for lookout men to see across the surrounding countryside. The concentric castles, as beneficial as they were, were also extremely expensive and time-consuming to build. As opposed to motte and bailey castles, which only took a few weeks to build, concentric castles required years of

The Siege of a Castle was a guarantied victory, but it took a long time of patience. Patience was the key to victory with this strategy, however it was scarce in the battlefield, because of the angry, impatient soldiers waiting to get home to their families. The city walls were suppose to be fortifying a position that could not be easily overrun, and that it could be strong enough to enable the defense to maintain that position for a long period of time. Siege of a fort, castle, or city walls had four basic concepts. The Sieging technique was directly directed towards these four. In order for the attackers to get inside they would have to go over the wall, tear a passage through the wall, dig a tunnel underneath it, or just wait until the defenders surrendered.

The appearance of universities was part of the same high-medieval education boom. Originally universities were institutions where students could attain specialized instruction in advanced studies. These types of studies were not available in the average cathedral schools. Advanced schools existed in the ancient world, but did not promote a fixed curricula or award degrees.