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The Chivalry of Jon Snow and Romeo Montague

By Lauren HumphreysPublished 4 years ago 15 min read
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Literature has a longstanding tradition of originating or propagating stereotypes. Tropes formed in classical literature are still widely prevalent in today’s wider culture; the wise old sage, the damsel in distress, and the heroic knight are but a few examples of the clichés that continue on in current popular culture. The societal expectations and values surrounding these tropes exist to a lesser extent, but they can still be found in abundance if examining the correct character. A damsel in distress written in the twenty-first century will assuredly have more agency than a similar character written four hundred years prior, but characterization around chivalry and masculinity have largely remained the same. From classic to present-day literature, it is the man’s duty to be loyal to his lady, his family, and above all, his lord. But what is a man to do when his family despises his love’s family? Or when allegiance to his overlord means betrayal to his own house? These are amongst the questions that will be examined in this essay, through the comparison of the male leads of both Romeo and Juliet and Game of Thrones—Romeo Montague and Jon Snow. This paper will juxtapose Romeo and Jon’s respective existences in the chivalric code, and how they embody differing aspects of the code by studying the ultimate of their character arcs. In addition, a section of the body will be dedicated to examining the militaristic presence of Jon’s lover, Daenerys Targaryen, and how her inversion of traditional gender roles leads Jon to make the ultimate sacrifice for his country.

Classical portrayals of masculinity are often as harmful as traditional representations of femininity. In differing stages of history, men were expected to perform the role of the protector and the provider with varying degrees of violence, as well as without any regard to their own physical and emotional well-being. The acceptance of violence that was customary in medieval times was enacted through chivalry, a social code that governed the way knights behaved in relation to society around them. In the “Cambridge Companion to Medieval Romance”, medievalist historian Richard Kaeuper defines chivalry as follows: “

For in one of its most significant dimensions, chivalry meant the worship of prowess…it was a code of violence in defense of a prickly sense of honor just as thoroughly as it was a code of restraint. The “deeds of chivalry” is tirelessly used in romance to describe heroic work with lance and sword (3).

The core value of chivalry is to prove superior knighthood over other, similarly pugnacious knights. This harmful emphasis on physical capabilities and skills in battle allows for the creation of detrimental male gender roles and expectations. While the rules of chivalry may seem simple, they are oftentimes at odds with one another; it would be difficult for the young man or knight to know when to be violent, and when to show restraint. In a strange paradox, the same societal system that allowed for permissible knightly violence is also one that restrained said violence. The restraint is seen through a knight’s specific fealties—his lady, his lord, and his family. It is the job of these young men to discover how they fit into the chivalric code, and govern their lives accordingly.

A character like Romeo Montague would largely be considered a masculine outlier during the Elizabethan time in which he was concocted. Unlike many other primary male characters that were written during this time, Romeo does not display the often toxic expressions of masculinity. His soft-spoken nature and forlornness over his unrequited love of Rosaline is sharply contrasted with the competitive personality of his best friend Mercutio and the hyper-masculine temperament of his rival Tybalt Capulet. He does not engage in chivalric acts of violence until he is otherwise provoked. This aversion to violence frames him as a masculine “other”, one who abides the rules of the chivalric code when he deems them necessary. His refusal to initially fight Tybalt is seen as cowardice by all involved. His best friend and most trusted confidant, Mercutio, even states: “O calm, dishonourable, vile submission! (3.1.72).” As he is unaware of the newfound familial connection between Romeo and Tybalt, he pegs Romeo as being fearful of Tybalt’s physical prowess and challenges the King of Cats on his behalf. Naturally, this ends with Mercutio’s death and Romeo’s eventual killing of Tybalt. Throughout this whole debacle, Romeo’s chivalric code is challenged on many sides. His refusal of Tybalt’s request for a dual came from duty to his new family, as he now considered Tybalt to be his kinsman on behalf of his marriage to Juliet. However, once Mercutio is killed, Romeo abandons this knightly duty in his grief . In his mind, despite him breaking his chivalric vows to his lady and his family, he is committing justice by avenging his friend’s murder. His commitment to justice, however grief motivated, could also be argued as a form of chivalric value, as the following quote explains:

So then, if a knight without justice were in the office of Chivalry, this would mean that justice would not be what it is, and Chivalry would be the opposite of what Chivalry is. And since Chivalry has its beginning in justice, what knight who is accustomed to committing wrongs and injustices thinks of being in the Order of Chivalry? (Llull 72).

It would not be entirely inaccurate to describe young Romeo as flighty. This is seen most evidently in his rapid, impassioned jump from loving Rosaline to Juliet, but the same could be argued for his commitment towards his chivalric values. He cherry-picks the ones he abides by based off convenience or circumstance, rather than living by them continuously.

Games of Thrones’ Jon Snow benefits from being portrayed in a time where traditional gender roles are being loosened. However, he is still expected to behave within the traditional masculine confines of Westerosi society. He begins the series already as a social misfit, growing up believing he is Lord Eddard “Ned” Stark’s bastard, living in the castle of Winterfell with Ned’s trueborn children. In reality, he is Ned’s nephew and the secret result of a controversial union between Lyanna Stark and Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. Following Ned’s appointment as Hand of the King, Jon decides to join the Night’s Watch, a military order and brotherhood that guards the realm of Westeros from their seat behind the massive ice barrier known simply as the Wall. No women are permitted to join the Watch, and the men who do are sworn to abandon their hopes for wives, children, and landholding. Vows are sworn for life, only ending with the death of the brother in question. Once Jon arrives at the seat of the Watch, Castle Black, his fellow black brothers become his new family in essence. His loyalty is to them and their interests only. In theory, this sounds like a chivalric dream.

However, Jon’s loyalties are constantly tested. After Ned Stark’s beheading, he races southward in order to join his brother Robb in a war to avenge him. Ultimately, he is persuaded into returning to the Night’s Watch by his fellow black brothers. Despite his urge to run to the aid of his Stark family, he ends up staying true to his Night’s Watch vows, following one aspect of his chivalric duty. He does break a number of his vows when he is dispatched by a superior Night’s Watch officer to infiltrate the enemy wildling camp; falling in love with a woman named Ygritte and beginning a sexual relationship with. It is during this time that his oath to the Night’s Watch is most challenged, due to Ygritte’s spirited influence, his increasing sympathy to the Free Folk’s cause, and the impending threat of the mysterious White Walkers. Although he ultimately makes the decision, it causes great struggle within him, as he thinks:

You were wrong to love her, a voice whispered. You were wrong to leave her, a different voice insisted. He wondered if his father had been torn the same way, when he’d left Jon’s mother to return to Lady Catelyn. He was pledged to Lady Stark, and I am pledged to the Night’s Watch (A Storm of Swords 546).

Similar to Romeo, Jon handpicks and chooses when to abide by chivalric values and when to not. Although he knows his sexual interactions with Ygritte are wrong and outside of the parameters of his mission, he goes through with it anyway and expresses remorse when he has to end it.

This is but the first instance where Jon’s chivalric duties are in conflict with each other; twice he is confronted with choosing between his pseudo-military duty and the woman he loves, with the second time occurring on a much grander, potentially deadly scale.

For contextual background knowledge, Jon was murdered by his Night’s Watch brothers and shortly thereafter resurrected by a mysterious fire priestess. His death, however brief, allowed him a loophole to leave the Night’s Watch and rejoin his Stark family. He and his sister, Sansa, win back Winterfell from a rival northern family, and he is subsequently named the King in the North. In season seven of the series, Jon meets with Daenerys Targaryen, who has arrived in Westeros following a lifelong exile in order to reclaim the kingdom that her family was deposed from. Predictably, the two end up falling in love. Daenerys pledges to lend defenses in Jon’s war against the White Walkers, in turn for him (and the North, by extension) helping her to defeat rival queen Cersei Lannister for the Iron Throne should they survive. It is important to note that at this point of the timeline, Daenerys boasts the largest army that Westeros has ever seen; an entire Dothraki khalasar, the totality of Unsullied soldiers, multiple Westerosi allies, and three fully grown dragons.

Her range of brute military force places her outside the traditional feminine constructs in fantasy literature, especially in a society that is very military focused. Scholar Tom Digby sums up the masculine focus on military might best, stating: “Masculinity in a militaristic society means, in large part, to be dominant and to be ready and willing to use violent force to exert that dominance. In battle men try to dominate male enemies. And in heterosexual relationships they try to dominate female lovers” (101). The extent of Daenerys’ military force, and her willingness to use said force, allows the roles to be reversed in her and Jon’s relationship in a way that Romeo and Juliet’s is not. She is not afraid to use the extent of her army in order to intimidate opponents and reach her personal goals. After learning of Jon’s true parentage (and the subsequent end of their sexual relationship), she attempts to bully him into keeping his Targaryen heritage a secret and threatens the lives of his sisters if they do not recognize her claim as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. Her tendency for burning insubordinates with her dragons comes to a brutal head once she makes the decision to firebomb King’s Landing in order to finally defeat Cersei.

Until this point, Romeo and Jon have shown similarities in how they abide—or don’t abide—by the chivalric code. They both choose what aspects of it to follow when it is convenient for them. Their divergence in the following the code come as a result of their respective romantic relationships with Juliet and Daenerys. Romeo, under threat of a bloodbath between their two families, is forced to keep his marriage to Juliet a secret. Jon, already having pledged his kingship and kingdom to Daenerys, must now grapple between his loyalty to his queen and his loyalty to his family. Whimsical creature that he is, Romeo does not show much loyalty to House Montague, as he sneaks into the Capulet party fully aware of the repercussions it could bring upon his family and then permanently abandons said family when he is operating under the false belief that Juliet is dead. Although she simply is in a deep sleep as a result of a potion, he is unaware of this and decides that life is not worth living without her, proclaiming: “Here, here, I will remain\With worms that are thy chambermaids. O, here\Will I set up my everlasting rest\And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars\From this world-wearied flesh” (5.3.108-5.3.112). He then ingests his own poison and dies next to her slumbering body, choosing his love over life and all else.

Jon does not share in the frivolity Romeo treats his family with. Following her fiery razing of King’s Landing, Daenerys announces that she will turn northward with her last remaining dragon in order to “liberate” the Northern people, all but threatening Sansa directly. Having willingly shielded himself from Daenerys’ descent into madness, it is this declaration that allows Jon to see the danger she truly poses—to his family, to Westeros, and to himself . After speaking with his sister, Arya, he comes to realize that Daenerys will always see him as a threat due to his status as the true heir to the Iron Throne. It is only after urgings from Daenerys’ Hand, Tyrion Lannister, that Jon thinks back to a piece of advice that had been given to him by his former Night’s Watch officer, Maester Aemon: “Love is the bane of honor, the death of duty…We all do our duty, when there is no cost to it. How easy it seems then, to walk a path of honor. Yet soon or late in every man’s life comes a day when it is not easy, a day when he must choose” (A Game of Thrones 553). Jon is plagued with two bifurcating paths; one where loyalty to his queen means subjecting his family and the rest of the kingdoms to Daenerys’ scorching temper, the other where loyalty to his familial house means subjecting himself, his family, and the rest of the kingdoms to Daenerys’ scorching temper. He does confront Daenerys about her actions, and fully recognizes the tyrant she has become following their conversation. Realizing no peaceful path lie ahead in her reign, he makes the heartbreaking choice to kill her.

It is only after the extreme actions taken by their lovers that Jon and Romeo begin to act differently within the confines of the chivalric realm. As Romeo makes the choice to commit suicide and therefore spend eternity with Juliet, he is effectively narrowing his chivalric duties down to exclusive loyalty to his lady. It could be that Romeo is acting under the influence of romantic love, which differs from true love in that it is an “altered state of consciousness, fantastical in its nature, a psychological bungee jump…temporary madness” (Brogaard 10). Whether he was acting simply out of allegiance to Juliet or operating under an ephemeral state of mind, Romeo essentially chose the easier path in which he only had to fulfill one duty. Jon’s scenario is more complicated on account of many of his loyalties overlapping with one another. He pledges to be loyal to his family, but the Starks and Targaryens both qualify as his family. He has a duty to his lover and his monarch, two roles which are occupied by Daenerys. With all of these intersecting influences, it is difficult for him to choose one path that satisfies all of his chivalric loyalties. Unlike Romeo, he chooses duty to his family above duty to his lady, sacrificing his love to ensure the safety of not only the Starks, but Westeros as a whole.

It may not be surprising how similar Romeo and Jon are as characters. Few texts possess the cultural endurance and stability like William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has. Since its initial publication, the Bard’s classic play has spawned countless adaptations and inspired many an author to continue the everlasting trope of the tragic, star-crossed lovers. Due to this influence, Romeo could be considered a prototype for contemporary male heroes and protagonists. Despite its rightfully heavy focus on romance, Romeo and Juliet is also home to many other important themes that can be re-examined and studied as time passes. Many of these themes, such as masculinity and the importance of chivalry, can be connected to the world of Game of Thrones, which has drawn many comparisons to classical works since its premiere in 2011. Although Jon and Romeo do share remarkable similarities, their respective appeals lie within their fundamental differences as characters within a confining, restrictive set of rules. Stories with substantial emphasis placed on romance and fantasy elements do not lend themselves well to one-dimensional characters. It would not be interesting to analyze all of their parallels, the fun resides in acknowledging the codes they live by, and how their decisions diverge based off of their own morals and relationships to others.

Works Cited

Brogaard, Berit. On Romantic Love: Simple Truth about a Complex Emotion, Oxford University Press, 2015.

Crouch, David. “Chivalry and Courtliness: Colliding Constructs.” Soldiers, Nobles and Gentlemen: Essays in Honour of Maurice Keen, edited by Peter Coss and Christopher Tyerman, NED - New edition ed., Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge, Suffolk; Rochester, NY, 2009, pp. 32–48. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7722/j.ctt9qdm9c.11. Accessed 2 May 2020.

Llull, Ramon, et al. “On the Habits that Pertain to the Knight.” The Book of the Order of Chivalry. New edition ed., Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge, Suffolk; Rochester, NY, 2013, pp. 71–79. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7722/j.ctt16173f8.13. Accessed 2 May 2020.

Digby, Tom. “Can Men Rescue Heterosexual Love? More Faith and Fantasy.” Love and War: How Militarism Shapes Sexuality and Romance, Columbia University Press, 2014, pp. 96–123.

Kaeuper, Richard. “The Societal Role of Chivalry in Romance: Northwestern Europe.” The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Romance, Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Martin, George RR. A Game of Thrones. Bantam Spectra, 1996.

Martin, George RR. A Storm of Swords. Bantam Spectra, 2000.

Shakespeare, William, and René Weis. Romeo and Juliet. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012.

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About the Creator

Lauren Humphreys

writer of things • I like nerdy stuff

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