Here in the Real World

In Medieval Europe and England, the chivalric code was a set of moral and behavioral principles for knights, who were elite warriors sworn to serve their feudal lords, their realm, and the church. Chivalry is based on Western Christian ideals and the values of honor, loyalty, courage, and protecting the weak. Weakness isn’t a purely physical concept in the code; it includes anyone who lacks the power—physical, political, or structural—to defend themselves. Therefore, those who were weak and defenseless included women, children, the elderly, peasants, and especially the church. Knights were trained for war to protect the realm, but their moral compass emphasized justice, mercy, and good works.

Chivalry evolved throughout Medieval Europe and England during the 11th and 12th centuries, based on a combination of Christian doctrine and feudal values. By the 11th century, knighthood had become both a military role and a social class within the nobility. The code was a marker of that class, the knight’s version of noblesse oblige, or the belief that privilege carries responsibility. The code was less of a strict doctrine and more a set of ideals and practices. It became formalized through literature, like the 11th-century French poem The Song of Roland, which celebrates the noble deeds of a military leader during the reign of Charlemagne, and tales of the legendary British King Arthur, which circulated throughout the 12th century. While Roland was a real historical figure, King Arthur was a literary legend, and both equally contributed to the ideal of the chivalrous knight.

The contemporary notion of chivalry comes mainly from the 20th-century retelling of the Arthurian legends, King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table (1953) by Roger Lancelyn Green. Sir Lancelot and his son, Sir Galahad, represent the quintessential chivalrous knights on their quest to find the Holy Grail. The fantasy elements of the tale, such as the sword and the stone, Arthur Pendragon, Merlin the magician, and the evil Morgana le Fay, have become staples of modern-day storytelling that extend beyond the strictly historical representations of knights and their code.

Here in the Real World builds on the real and fictional concepts of chivalry. Ware sees himself as a knight and wants to uphold the code’s honorable values—but he plays chivalrous scenarios out as fantasies in his head and has unrealistic expectations for how to apply them. The strong associations between chivalry and Christianity make the abandoned church Ware finds highly symbolic in his journey. Over the course of the novel, he learns to apply knightly values to his actions in the “real world.” Then, the chivalric code becomes something that connects Ware with others rather than isolates him.