Middle Ages Vs. Renaissance

1286 Words6 Pages
With Christ or Without Between the eras of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, society’s view on how to live one’s life while on Earth was changed. Rather than spending their time praying to God and in an effort to achieve their ultimate goal to be in heaven, people shifted their focus on making the best of their life and doing what they want to do here on earth. The best example of this change though, is depicted through the literature written between these time periods. With the change of people’s values, literature was more secular and worldly like Boccaccio’s Decameron, which portrays bad morals, and Machiavelli’s The Prince, which states having fear instilled into subjects is the best way to rule, versus the more God-themed texts of the Middle Ages such as Sir Gawain, which displayed good morals, and Dhouda’s Handbook for William, the theme of which is that love was the ultimate way to rule. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, good morals are emphasized when Gawain valiantly steps forward to challenge the Green Knight, unlike in Boccaccio’s Decameron where different characters are placed in situations where they react not according to God’s will but secularly. In the story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Green Knight comes and disrupts a dinner with King 2 Arthur and asks anyone to challenge him. When no one does, King Arthur offers himself to go but in a display of bravery, King Arthur’s nephew Gawain steps up and says, “I am weakest of your warriors and feeblest of wit, loss of my life would be grieved the least.” (p.43 l. 356). Here Gawain demonstrates chivalry, a valued character trait that honors God. This is an example of a medieval value that emphasizes how people sought out God and how it was reflected in their decisions. Ultimately, Gawain comes across the Green Knight and prepares to be killed. Unlike the respectable ethics
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