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Courtly Love The ideal of courtly love was

The ideal of courtly love was practiced in the Middle Ages. This formal method of courting a member of the opposite sex, often involved a relationship between the courting individual and someone who was married. According to Thompson (1998), the ideal of courtly love includes three main aspects: 1) the ennobling force of human love, 2) the elevation of the beloved above the lover, and 3) love as ever unsatisfied, an ever increasing desire (1).

One of these aspects, ôlove as ever unsatisfied,ö may help to explain why the ideal of courtly love emerged during the Middle Ages. Ironically, adultery was a taboo in Middle Ages cultures, so the fact that an admirer often courted a married individual might seem odd. However, when one looks at the institution of marriage during the Middle Ages, one better understands how a culture that looked upon adultery as taboo might have accepted the ideal of courtly love. In the Middle Ages, many marriages, particularly among the upper classes, were arranged marriages. Therefore, courtly love might have emerged in order to allow some aspect of loveÆs expression from a suitor who was prevented from marrying his true love because of arranged marriage.

Thompson (1998) maintains that ô[the] power of transformation, of ennobling the lover, is the distinguishing characteristic of courtly loveö (1). It is not difficult to imagine that courtly love included the power of ôtransformation,ö because many courting a married beloved might hope that they could transform the situation to one in their favor. Ennobling the lover also permitted him a higher position of worth in the eyes of his beloved. Likewise, many women in arranged marriages might have wished their situation could be ôtransformed,ö if they loved someone else before their marriage arrangement.

Courtly loved also existed on two others levels of society in the Middle Ages. One of these was to provide women with some mea

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Courtly Love The ideal of courtly love was. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 02:56, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1710456.html