I’ve been going back and forth with this argument for the past few months or so. I’ve heard many different opinions upon the subject from both sides of the gender pool and have gotten varying responses all over. So let me go ahead and analyze this a little and leave it up to you all to decide and tell me how you feel about it. Let me start with the literal meaning of the word:

“When examining medieval literature, chivalry can be classified into three basic but overlapping areas:

1. Duties to countrymen and fellow Christians: this contains virtues such as mercy, courage, valor, fairness, protection of the weak and the poor, and in the servant-hood of the knight to his lord. This also brings with it the idea of being willing to give one’s life for another’s; whether he would be giving his life for a poor man or his lord.
2. Duties to God: this would contain being faithful to God, protecting the innocent, being faithful to the church, being the champion of good against evil, being generous and obeying God above the feudal lord.
3. Duties to women: this is probably the most familiar aspect of chivalry. This would contain what is often called courtly love, the idea that the knight is to serve a lady, and after her all other ladies. Most especially in this category is a general gentleness and graciousness to all women.

These three areas obviously overlap quite frequently in chivalry, and are often indistinguishable.” (Wikipedia)

So as is the definition it seems we often confuse chivalry with courtly love. Courtly love is defined as “conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration.” With that being said, how is it that we came up with the fact that chivalry is dead?

To me it seems like the idea of chivalry is not dead, not being bias and speaking from a man’s perspective only. I have heard from many friends, coworkers, and classmates that are females that agree that it isn’t necessarily a dead concept but it is an altered concept now. Chivalry is no longer the original idea as it was during the medieval times, however it is still alive in modern forms that have changed as the culture and people have changed. As we have become a more independent and more balanced society  in the roles of men and women, the old traditions have changed and adapted with the times. Women are now more independent than ever before and choose to do things more for themselves and are more self dependent.

That doesn’t give men an excuse not to be a gentleman, but some women seem to not want that because they feel that is belittling them back to the old days when women were thought to have been dependent on men. Understanding that chivalry is no longer the same idea it once was is something that plays an important factor in if it is a dead concept or not. Many people believe by altering it from the original state alone makes it a dead concept, and many obviously argue against that. In my opinion I feel chivalry is not a dead concept and I actually side with those that say it has been modernized as we have grown and changed as a society. I won’t divulge to far into this subject because I want to keep this a open discussion topic and get some more varying opinions on it.

Please feel free to say what you think.