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  • Essay / Were the knights "real" in Shrek

    "A value system that medieval knights were supposed to follow", values ​​that were defined as loyalty, defense, courage, justice, faith, humility and nobility is chivalry (Merriam-Webster & Gonder). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"?Get the original essayShrek presents what is called an "ironic revisitation" of the classic knight's tale, teaching readers that the evolution of Shrek throughout the film represented the characters moving from the ironic mockery of the cliché knight to a character who truly embodies a knight (Travels in Hyperreality). The film presents itself almost immediately as a film set in a fictionalized version of the Middle Ages; the film introduces many fictional characters (i.e. Pinocchio, the Big Bad Wolf, the Three Little Pigs, etc.) and depicts them as the pillars of the world that Shrek inhabits. Despite the fact that the film inhabits a fictional universe, presenting kind and harmless versions of most of the fictional characters, the knights in the film are far from kind and far from chivalrous. Although the knights appear to be of the same socio-economic class as the Middle Ages, noble men who worked under the king, Shrek's knights seem to ignore any sense of courage, justice, faith and the nobility, in favor of overwhelming loyalty. to their tyrannical leader, Lord Farquad. The first act of Shrek begins by familiarizing the audience with a selfish, volatile, contented ogre. Shrek's selfish nature is embodied by his need and satisfaction in living alone – as shown in the opening montage – and his volatility by his insistence on scaring the general public surrounding his swamp. Rather than beginning the film by introducing a character who wants to embody what it means to be a knight, and to be a knight, Shrek presents a character who wants nothing more than the opposite, a tongue-in-cheek satire of the cliché knight. Shrek directly juxtaposes this cliché trope, and this is illustrated very well at the beginning of the film; Shrek begins the film sitting in his outhouse making snide remarks about the "classic" story of the knight. Interestingly, the audience is not even aware that Shrek is in his outhouse until 45 seconds into Shrek's narration of the book he is reading. As he reaches the end of the story and discusses how the knight and princess he had saved would fall in love, Shrek remarks, "like that's ever going to happen", before tearing up the last page of history and - apparently - using history which he considers a "pile of shit" as a means of wiping up his shit (scene 1). While this scene makes it almost immediately clear that this film is a satire and not one meant to be a "love story" – as the first 45 seconds suggest – it also serves as the perfect introduction to Shrek's crude, volatile, and brutal behavior . What further suggests that this film will serve as a mockery of the classic knight's tale, aside from asserting that this (the outcome depicted in the knight's tale) will never happen, is the fact that – as mentioned above – Shrek uses the last page of the story like toilet paper, implying that the story and what it represents are "under" Shrek. Interestingly, this scene actually serves more than just a way to establish the story as a satire, it also introduces the obvious fact that Shrek is clearly not a knight and doesn't want to be. be. Shrek's position as a character juxtaposing a knight is also highlighted bythe sequences following Shrek's time in the bathroom; playing to Smash Mouth's All Star, the montage follows Shrek through his typical day: painting "no trespassing" signs, brushing his teeth with mud, showering with mud, and eating eyeballs (scene 1). Shrek's selfish attitude persists throughout the first act of the film until its final manifestation in which Shrek, for his own reasons, fights numerous knights (who are meant to represent chivalry); remarkably, this also plays a role in the film's overall satire. Rather than fighting the beast and killing it, as the knight did at the beginning of the book (in Shrek's latrine), these knights are actually defeated by the beast (scene 2). Shrek remains a selfish, satirical creature throughout the film's first act but, much like the clichéd hero of the tale he hates, Shrek begins to evolve into something more as the story progresses and his true quest begins. Shrek shows the character's shift from opposition to being a knight to embracing the cause he championed, while his motivations at this point in the film are selfish in nature, his shift from selfish and closed off is also extremely obvious. At this point in the film, audiences have seen Shrek demonstrate loyalty – to the end – courage and even nobility in his cause. It is at this point in the film that the audience also sees Shrek's shift from "creature of satire" - a character whose actions make the film a satire - to a satirical plot - a character whose existence and be are satire. Before the film's second act, it was Shrek's direct actions (his words) that made the film a satire of the classic knight's tale, but during the film's second and third acts, it was Shrek's general action, as a hero, which again makes Shrek a parody of the knight cliché, because Shrek is not a knight. Shrek's growth is best illustrated in a scene in which the audience sees him walking through a cornfield with Donkey. The two eventually reach a clearing and Shrek picks an onion and, after a remark from Donkey, begins to describe how it – like the onion – has layers. This scene in particular expresses how much Shrek has changed since the beginning of the film, after telling Donkey that "ogres are like onions", Shrek explains that they have diapers, then stops his response (scene 2). . At first glance this line doesn't seem to amount to much, but upon careful analysis it actually seems to best represent Shrek's shift to a character that represents a satire of the clichéd knight; Shrek's comments about Ogre's layers also indicate that he wears armor. Much like Shrek and an onion, knights wear protective armor to protect the true human within, and beneath that armor resides a living being full of emotion and depth; by stating that he is like an onion – and by extension a knight – Shrek admits that he is a more complex character than previously thought. Peeling back the layers of an onion, the onion becomes rawer in the literal sense - eyes burning and watery - while Shrek admits, at this point, that he is similar - with emotions beneath his protective skin. Shrek wears figurative armor to protect what his character has buried deep within him. Underneath its layers, it has the potential to be more chivalrous and heroic, successfully establishing the "monster" as the "knight" of the story and further representing the character of the film. satire. By the film's third act, the selfish ogre that audiences met at the beginning of the film is long gone, and in his place, viewers are presented with a character not only –.