Courtly love in today's society?

Question

Alright, does anyone think that courtly love exists in todays society? In my paper I wrote that it doesnt because the behaviors associated with courtly love came about because of the social systems of the medieval world. and because those social systems do not exist anymore. Do you agree or disagree

because at first i thought yes, because of secret love affairs in the modern world (aka age differences, the necessity to sneak around).
HELP ME OUT HERE

Answer 1

I totally agree with your paper. True courtly love has several unique or trademark characteristics, and these have completely disappeared. There was never anything secret about it.

On the contrary, the wandering minstrels or troubadours of the 12th and 13th centuries loudly proclaimed their unrequited love in songs and poems dedicated to the beloved lady. She was always a woman of extremely high social rank, so far above the wandering warblers that there was never any contact between them. In courtly love, the relationship was always chaste.

For example, Eleanor of Aquitaine, probably the best-known of the courtly love object-women, was born a wealthy aristocrat in western France. She became, first, the queen of France, and subsequently the queen of England. Among the children of her second marriage were Richard, who later was king of England and known as Richard the Lion-hearted, and John, known as John Lackland, who became the English king after Richard died. Twice a queen, and twice the mother of kings. You don't get much grander than that.

Unusually for her time, Eleanor was well-educated and could read and write several languages. In her own right, she was fabulously wealthy. As queen of England and long after her marriage to English king Henry II had broken down, Eleanor maintained a glittering court where the glamorati and the literati, so to speak, of her day gathered, and where the troubadours with their haunting music and Provencal poetry were always welcome.

Of course, they wrote and sang about Eleanor. She was the Princess Diana of her age. But they never knew her in person.

In the courtly love tradition, the love-object woman was so adored, so chaste and so unattainable that, over time, she became a metaphor or symbol for Christ. Sometimes she's portrayed as the White Hind (that's a deer) or as the holy grail. In time, the tradition of courtly love poetry merged into mystical religious adoration of the sacred.

Well, now. Please think about our world today. Do you see any of this?

Answer 2

Courtly love used to be a practice in European royal courts. The knight would pick a lady of his heart and go fight in joust matches, holy wars and so on, with her name on his lips. If the lady approved of him she would usually give him some sort of token: a flower, a handkerchief, maybe a signet. A knight would defend the lady's honor. This kind of love was rather pure, neither would ever touch or engage with any kind of sexual activity. The ladies were usually already wed, or promised to someone else, and there was a certain class gap between knights and royalty. So even if it was true love it always remained unfulfilled. That's the basic concept. I am guessing it's your homework assignment so I suggest to look in your textbook for more detail and to your own head for contemporary examples and advantages or disadvantages... ;)

Answer 3

I think you could say that there is courtly love in today's society. It was a set of codes of behaviour that people had to follow, right? I have been out of the dating scene for a while, but I imagine that there are still certain codes of conduct that people are expected to follow. So maybe it's not the same code as it was then (due to the change in social system), but it is still a code nonetheless.
Maybe. I'd have to think about it some more.

Answer 4

I don't agree - I believe that courtly love is exists it just has adapted more modern rules to reflect the current society that we live in the today. That is the nature of how things work in our world.

Good Luck!!!

Answer 5

Crush on someone older richer, married unattainable is todays version of courtly love