Evolution of How Traditions are Reflected in English Literature

Tradition is a set of behaviors performed by societies that help us to learn more about their daily life, routines, belief systems, dialects, what their economy relied on, how they succeeded in becoming a unity, their set of rules and such. Traditions differ from one society to another because of the living conditions and get shaped by the weather, the land, and the location, thus since the conditions are not the same around the world nowadays, it was not the same either thousands of years ago. Societies try and succeed in transcending their traditions through generations. Moreover, traditions come into existence by being performed periodically and regularly in society. Even though we don't know about the conditions back in the day, we can understand them to some extent by observing and interpreting their traditions. Traditions are a light for us to illuminate the past of a nation such as what was living there, how did they stay alive, what food did they eat and such. Whether carved on the walls or told through years, they went into changes through years and got reshaped by society in that conditions we deal with are not the same, the way they were thousands of years ago. However, long story short, our ancestors tried to transcend their traditions through the ages, and aimed to show their daily behaviors and some actions during certain periods.

In King Arthur, it is assumed that there is a chivalric code that defines a knight which is also a set of behaviors and rules. Knights used to and had to be royal, shouldn't be fighting for money, should have fidelity and such. These show the traditional aspect of knights. King Arthur is accepted as a figure of the rightful ruler.

In Canterbury Tales, not only aristocracy is included but also middle and lower-class people are included in the stories. There is a nun, a student, a miller and such characters and different ways of life. Some of them, such as nuns, have great and wealthy lives, wearing gold and jewels, while the college student struggles to pay for food since he only has money that afford his books, on the other hand, the monk is fat meanwhile he shouldn't be, he extends the amount of food he should eat meanwhile the oxford student struggles for food. Moreover, in the Canterbury Tales, another aspect of tradition, rather than hierarchy, is given such as the corruption of the society, even though corruption is not seen as a part of tradition, it happens because of some set of rules that are shown regularly so we might accept them as well. For instance, the Pardoner offers God’s pardon for some money and silver, the man of law defends or announces people as guilty by making up fake documents and besides the knight fights for money, not for the land. These all are sets of behaviors performed by certain groups of society. Moreover, they all are pilgrimages going to Canterbury, to fulfill their religious journey. Religion and actions that are performed for it are part of traditions as well.

In addition in Othello, since he is black, the king Duncan doesn't want Desdamona to get married to Othello, which shows the tradition that a princess had to marry someone white and noble. Even though Othello had lots of victories and was a successful soldier, having dark skin portrays him as someone powerless and helpless which shows the racist aspect of the traditions in those days in the land.

Lastly, in Pride & Prejudice marriage is expected by Elizabeth because the society she is living in urges her to get married. The Bennet family wants their daughters to get married to wealthy people, which shows that marriage and money were the two priorities that were expected from women to dwell in. There were balls organized for people to find their partners, they weren't just running into each other on the street but were a part of events that had the purpose of matching people.

These four works that are written in different periods show the traditions of England back in the days and how those set of rules and norms evolved through years. In King Arthur, we learn that the current tradition for the knights was to obey the king and the chivalric code. Meanwhile, the knight of Canterbury Tales shows performances that are opposite of chivalric code, such as fighting for money and not for land. However, in Othello and Pride & Prejudice, we totally witness two different traditions related to marriage and the way people viewed black people.