A Knight's Tale is Inaccurate but Entertaining

                 A Knight’s tale is a hilarious movie describing the story of a squire named William who becomes a knight competing in the tournament with the help of Chaucer an unknown writer. This movie is set in the Middle Ages yet is not entirely accurate.

                Some of the details of the movie that seemed accurate were the Cathedrals that they displayed many times in the movie. The cathedrals featured the stain glass windows that praise the mother of Jesus called the rose glass. Another aspect of the cathedrals that was present in the movie was the flying buttresses which were used to push the weight to the ground making a solid structure. These details can be seen when the Lady Jocelyn and her handmaid Christiana enter in to the cathedral after William Thatcher had just met.

                Another aspect of medieval history that I found was accurately portrayed in the movie was the sport of jousting. The whole movie was based around this sport and appeared in many of the scenes. Tournaments were a big part of history and glory.

                Though there were some aspects of history that were accurate there were many details that were there to just add entertainment to this day and age. One of these obvious inaccuracies was the music and dancing. The music featured artists that did not even exist in the medieval ages. The dancing in the scene where William and Jocelyn are dancing at the party begins medieval but then slowly turns into more modern dance to entertain the audience. One inaccuracy that I found in the movie was the belief that man can change his own destiny. This belief came in the renaissance and was not a common belief during the Medieval Ages.

                Overall the movie is entertaining no matter the inaccuracies. Some could even argue that it is because of these inaccuracies that the movie is entertaining. It  is worth seeing but not for facts on everything medieval.         

               

What Makes You Happy?

            According to Aristotle, a happy life is measured by reasonable and virtuous actions.  Moral virtue is defined by our voluntary actions. Having reason and following it will allow a person to be the happiest, because, on the word of Aristotle, they are fulfilling their purpose or nature as found in the rational soul. These two traits combined influence the person to make the choices that ultimately lead to the overall happy life.

As humans we strive to be happy. We want to be able to look back on the good things in our life to keep us going. Sometimes we are put in positions where we must make a difficult decision. Making a decision based purely on reason influences the decision that is logically right. Sometimes when making this decision logically people may be hurt in the process because one is not also relying on moral virtue. The idea is that if both of these aspects are combined the decisions that are made will be right morally and logically.

But is it really that simple? When comparing this into my life I find that I fall short in different circumstances of Aristotle’s program. It is not always easy to have the perfect balance of reason and morality. There have been times that I have focused on reason shutting out morality. At that time that is what seemed important. But looking back I might have had more joy going to do a service project, instead of finishing my homework. Though I did not make my decision in equal balance of morality and reason in that situation does not mean I am completely unhappy. The fault in this theory is that we will never truly experience happiness until the end of our life. Why can’t we be happy now? Many will say that they are happy now. Just because happiness can come and go does not mean that ultimately one is unhappy at certain times. Happiness is too complex to easily label with a theory. Aristotle is close but not close enough.