“Chivalry” is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days. It was originally used to refer to knights’ code of honor in medieval Europe, but just as often as you hear the word, it’s usually connected with the words “is dead” somewhere down the line. “There’s no more nice guys in the world. I tell you, chivalry is dead,” is something that you might hear in a coffee shop or a street corner somewhere. I, however, have a different proposition: chivalry isn’t dead, it’s evolved.
Allow me to explain. A quick Google search will tell you that, according to Dictionary.com, chivalry is defined as “the sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight, including courtesy, generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms.” In the context of the times the term was originated from, this makes total sense. Knights, much like the samurai to the far East, served a lord with almost complete obedience in their name. Barbarians still roamed the lands, myth and legend filled the ears of all who would listen and the ideals of the Holy Roman Empire were still carrying on. It was a very different time.
But I still think that chivalry is alive and well. Just as our society has changed, so have our ideals. Nowadays you don’t see anyone carrying around a sword on horseback in full body armor being escorted by a squire keeping his eye out for anyone who deals a challenge (which knights were required to accept, by the way), because it simply isn’t necessary anymore to be a great swordsman. Improvements in technology over the last several hundred years have seen to that, and the code actually had more to do with how knights conducted themselves in battle. Yet, the ideals still remain.
To draw on a popular example, you might think of someone like Westley from "The Princess Bride" when the word “chivalry” is brought up; a man who drops everything to answer his true love Buttercup’s every whim, each time with a mysterious and loving look in his eye as he calmly says “As you wish.” A man who travels far across the land, fighting and defeating foes who are seemingly mightier than himself, all in the name of love and honor. Though this is fictional chivalry at its best (and I do love that movie), I have to say that this is giving off the wrong idea.
I hate to be the crusher of dreams, but things just don’t work that way anymore for a couple of reasons. The biggest reason I can think of is that women are no longer damsels in distress like they were back in the Middle Ages. Women hold much more status today than their foremothers did several hundred years ago, oftentimes even more so than men. Today’s women don’t need to be rescued from the foul dragons of life’s obstacles; they can surmount those obstacles themselves now that the playing field has been significantly, and rightfully, evened out.
Which brings me to my last point. I’ve mentioned several times that chivalry is still alive, but I haven’t explained how. It’s quite simple, really. Chivalry today is exemplified in the little things that are done as much as the big things. And it doesn’t just have to be for the person you love, or solely men to women either. Holding open doors, paying someone a compliment, spotting them cash if they’re a bit short, allowing them your jacket on a chilly night… even our good man Westley, who would do something as simple retrieve a bucket of water for Buttercup, shows that you don’t have to go and banish the wicked witch casting a plague over the kingdom to be chivalrous. So truly, it’s all in the small things.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a movie to go watch for the umpteenth time.
