Final answer:
Medieval literature often explores themes of heroism, love, chivalry, and the struggle between good and evil. Chivalry can be defined as the noble and courtly behavior expected from knights. The passage provides evidence and context clues to support these interpretations.
Step-by-step explanation:
Literary Themes in Medieval Literature
In a typical epic poem or medieval romance, audiences would often find themes such as heroism, love, chivalry, and the struggle between good and evil. Characters in these works usually include knights, kings, queens, damsels in distress, and supernatural beings like dragons or fairies. The plot points may involve quests, battles, courtly love, and the triumph of virtue over vice.
Definition of Chivalry
The word chivalry refers to the medieval knightly system and values, which emphasized honor, loyalty, courage, and courteous behavior towards women. Based on the context, the word chivalry can also mean courteous or gallant behavior in general. For example, a knight who rescues a damsel in distress is displaying chivalry.
Context clues: In the passage, it mentions that chivalry involved knights and their code of conduct. It also mentions courteous behavior towards women. From these clues, we can infer that chivalry is related to knights and honorable behavior.
Definition: Chivalry can be defined as the noble and courtly behavior expected from knights, which includes qualities such as bravery, courtesy, and honor.
Phrase: The phrases 'knightly code of chivalry' and 'displaying chivalry' were the most helpful in understanding the meaning.
Conclusion
Based on the evidence from the text, we can conclude that audiences of medieval literature would find themes, characters, and plot points related to heroism, love, chivalry, and the struggle between good and evil. Chivalry, in the context of medieval literature, refers to the knightly system and values that emphasize honor, loyalty, courage, and courteous behavior towards women.