Men in the Middle Ages

Men in the Middle Ages 

Being a man in the Middle Ages was not an easy task. Men were expected to act in ways that conformed to set social ideals and categories: dutiful knight, pious monk, chivalrous lover, etc. Sometimes these ideals could be (re)combined into new categories: monk-knight, penitent layman devoted to poverty, chaste husband, etc. Choose a male character from the text. How does the author portray that character? What does this text reveal about society in the Middle Ages? You should only be citing one source. Please use footnotes in accordance with the Chicago Manual of Style. (No in-text citations) http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html The prompt asks you to make an informed conclusion about masculinity in medieval society based upon your assessment of one character from one text. Remember that you are writing on one category of men—knights or monks. Avoid generalizations about all medieval men. Do not assume that the author is providing an accurate account of the time. Remember that medieval texts were exercises in interpreting reality, not describing it. You are therefore writing an essay on the representation or image of men rather than on how men actually acted and lived. Be specific! Do not simply list masculine attributes. Carefully choose 2-3 attributes of the male character that you are describing. Dedicate one body paragraph to each attribute and use evidence from the text to make an argument about how and why the author emphasizes those attributes as well as the connections between them.