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Virtues In Chretien's Knight Of The Cart

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In “Knight of the Cart,” Chretien presents several conflicts between virtues and between virtues and vices; generosity and compassion clash in the episode when Lancelot must repay a maiden’s favor by giving her the head of a defeated foe who begs for mercy, and throughout the work Lancelot must balance love and reason as he proves himself a true lover. Chretien further explores the complexities of virtues and vices through paralleling the father-son relationships of the suitor knight and his father and of Bademagu and Meleagant. Beyond simply depicting the relationships as representations of rashness versus reason, Chretien humanizes the father-son interactions by suggesting the sons’ motivations and positive qualities, as well as the protective …show more content…

The suitor knight’s father immediately rejects, though not unkindly, his son’s boast that he “can bring any knight to quick submission,” declaring, “I have no doubt, dear son…that you believe this, so greatly do you trust in your own strength. But I do not consent and will not consent this day to have you test yourself against this knight” (229). While he recognizes his son’s need to prove himself, he also recognizes that Lancelot is very skilled – or, more likely since he didn’t know Lancelot, perhaps knows that his son is not skilled enough to fight any knight – and is trying to prevent his son from earning disgrace through defeat. The suitor knight’s father gets his knights to restrain his son, despite the son’s protests, and thus prevents him from fighting Lancelot, demonstrating the triumph of reason over …show more content…

Chretien’s word choice is significant: Bademagu is first described as “most scrupulous and keen in every matter of honour and right and who esteemed and practiced loyalty [emphasis mine] above all other virtues” (246). Bademagu’s loyalty is what makes him unwilling to take his disapproval of Meleagant’s actions to the next step and truly act against him, even as he claims that “if you [Meleagant] ignore my advice, I won’t care if he gets the better of you” (247). In fact, Bademagu protects his son from the consequences of his actions, firstly by keeping Guinevere “securely confined, safe from the lusts of men, even from that of my son” (249), and secondly by relentlessly trying to restrain and dissuade Meleagant, even if he cannot stop Meleagant from fighting Lancelot. By keeping Guinevere from Meleagant (with the implication that Meleagant has considered raping her), Bademagu ensures that Meleagant does not incur the king’s wrath in a rash action that likely would lead to a more severe punishment than a humiliating defeat in combat. Additionally, by intervening to end the fight once Lancelot puts down his sword, and getting the barons to restrain Meleagant, Bademagu ensures that Meleagant will not get himself killed, because he knows very well that Lancelot has come too far to show mercy and will “kill his son if he were to let them

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