Character Analysis: Essay.

At the time, clichés imposed concerning relationships were plentiful. For example, Hero and Claudio’s almost robotic relationship is acknowledged as a ‘Courtly love’ relationship: the relationship is modelled on the feudal relationship between a knight and his liege lord.

The knight serves his courtly lady with the same obedience and loyalty that he owes to his liege lord. She is in complete control of the love relationship, while he owes her obedience and submission. The knight's love for the lady inspires him to do great deeds, in order to be worthy of her love or to win her favour.

The ‘courtly love’ relationship typically was not between husband and wife, not because the poets and the audience were inherently immoral, but because it was an idealized sort of relationship that could not exist within the context of "real life" medieval marriages, and so it appears apt that for the vast majority of the plot Claudio and Hero remain unmarried.

In the middle ages, m...