Comparison of honor

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A Comparison of Honor The Middle Ages were a time when honor was considered the most important things one could possess in their lives. Honor was the cornerstone for everything that was good about medieval society and people would do anything to protect what honor they had. The three poems The Franklin's Tale, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Sir Orfeo all have honor as a central theme in the stories they tell us. Honor is portrayed in different ways as it is shown in each of these poems. The theme of honor is shown to be held higher than anything else in The Franklin's Tale, while in Sir Orfeo his love for his wife seems to push honor aside. The honor that is seen in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the honor for one's own beliefs and standards but hope, in the end, overcomes honor.

One major theme of honor in these poems is when honor is put over everything including love or even one's own life. Honor over everything can be interpreted as trying to maintain an honorable public image and keeping a good name for one's self. This can be seen by what other things honor goes ahead of. For starters, honor would go ahead of love that may be in the form of marriage or not. If, in fact, love is in the form of marriage than the word of honor that someone gives to his or her spouse could be put in back of the public honor. These people would rather dishonor their pledge to their spouse than be seen by the public as someone with a bad name or a dishonorable individual. This is seen in the pledge between Arveragus and Dorigen. He was very forceful in his opinion saying...