Saturday, October 15, 2011

"Courtly Love"

I found the whole "courtly love" thing very interesting. It's kind of cool to think that it was almost acceptable for women to cheat on their husbands during this era. Though it doesn't seem like a big deal (men have been notorious for all sorts adultery throughout history) this must have been a big step for women of the time. Even if it was acceptable only in literature, it's a step towards having women be equal to men.

4 comments:

ParkerC said...

It's nice to see the women, in a way, get back at the men. It seems like men back then didn't really care about relationships. And since this was acceptable, I think it shows that the men back then where a little more lenient. I mean, if women where entirely oppressed, their husbands could probably have easily punished them for this.

sara pendleton said...

It's interesting this little peice of womens liberation took place in the dark ages and early middle ages. What's intresting to me is that here women weild at least some social power where later they become more and more objectified until, really, cirtain puritain sects and the industrial era.

alyb said...

I thought it was interesting that the women were usually of a higher social status than the men that they were courted by. This gave the women power over men which in this time seemed to be unheard of. The men dote constantly on their "friend" which gives the women power. I thought it was weird that the middle ages were the times where women had the most social freedom. During later periods women were much more opressed it seems.

Mallory said...

Yeah i definitely feel like this is a way for women to get back at me for all their cheating in real life. In literature they are given the freedom and almost rite of passage to cheat on their husbands with courtly love. The women were higher in social rank which made them have the power in the relationship rather the other way around