This thesis explores the ways in which speech and silence are used by characters in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" in order to deal with the identity conflicts of the fourteenth century....Show moreThis thesis explores the ways in which speech and silence are used by characters in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" in order to deal with the identity conflicts of the fourteenth century. Characters use speech to either show others which external behaviour belongs to their reputation or to control and regulate others’ external behaviour, which shows they believe their external behaviour is more important than their internal selves. Characters use silence to gain power over others or to save themselves, which shows they prioritise the individual instead of the community and favour the internal self instead of external behaviour.Show less
The thesis concerns a research on the medical theory present in fourteenth-century Florence and London and look at how this translated in the measures their local authorities took against the...Show moreThe thesis concerns a research on the medical theory present in fourteenth-century Florence and London and look at how this translated in the measures their local authorities took against the plague. Through this, an attempt has been made to determine how medical theory could be exercised in either a similar or different matter, and thus determine whether an English city was truly as backwards as some historians claim or if its authorities did provide sanitary regulations against the plague. The research limits itself to the period 1347 to 1400, thus on the plague outbreaks of the fourteenth centuryShow less