Courtly Love

Essay # 54580

History
Literature

Courtly Love

An analysis of the concept of courtly love in historic literature.

992 words () | 5 sources | MLA | 2004 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper briefly looks at the portrayal of courtly love in literature, which is described as an ideal of adulterous love between medieval aristocratic men and women that considers relationships of this nature as being more genuine than the common arranged marriage.

From the Paper:

"The doctrine of courtly love was designed to teach courtiers how to be lovely, charming and delightful. Its basic premise was that being in love would teach you how to be loveable and pleasing; so love taught courtesy. This kind of love is a social phenomenon, designed for communal living at a wealthy court where people had plentiful leisure and desired to entertain and be entertained delightfully. When properly applied, courtly love refers to ?an extravagantly artificial and stylized relationship - a forbidden affair that was characterized by five main attributes...?