In The Knight’s Tale of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, a knight tells the tale of two knights who fight for the woman they love. The knight who tells the story exhibits characteristics such as chivalry, honor, and nobility, which is reflected throughout the story he tells. The Knight’s Tale is a story about two knights who fall in love with the same woman. Chivalry, in the knight’s sense, is a display of qualities such as courage, honor, courtesy, and justice. Courtly love, on the other hand, follows the theme of love in the medieval court. Arcita and Palamon exhibit both of these qualities in their quest to win the heart of Emily. According to Charlemagne’s code of chivalry, a knight must exemplify multiple characteristics in order …show more content…
The most prominent concept of courtly love is shown by Arcita and Palamon falling in love with the same woman. According to the rules of courtly love, it is acceptable for two men to love one woman, although it will cause much strife between the two. When Palamon overhears Arcita complaining about how much he loves Emily, he jumps out at his cousin stating, “Arcita, oh you traitor wicked, / Now are you caught, that crave my lady so…/ Either I shall be dead or you shall die. / You shall not love my lady Emily” (45). The sight of a loved one causes heart palpitations, which is another ideal of courtly love, is displayed when both Arcita and Palamon see Emily for the first time. Palamon “cast his eyes upon Emilia, / And thereupon he blenched and cried out ‘Ah!’/ As if he had been beaten to the heart” (32). This passage clearly illustrates the concept of heart palpitations at the sight of a loved one. To add, when Arcita is released and banished from Athens, his health diminishes due to his heart longing for Emily. Arcita, “[b]ereft he was of sleep and meat and drink,” had starved himself to the point where his “eyes were hollow and ghastly to behold, / His face was sallow, all pale and ashen-cold”, because he was not able to see his love, Emily, which preserves the notion of courtly love that one does not eat or sleep due to the fact that their love for another is too strong (39). These ideals reflect the values of both the teller of the story, the knight, along with the medieval nobility of the
The Aurthian legends of chivalry and courtly love are archaic. Chivalric code includes being a courageous knight that is willing to sacrifice himself for his king; to be strong during all battles and have integrity in all situations. Courtly love refers to an unattainable love between a knight and a married woman. Although polite and courteous, the knight may only win a kiss from the lady in the end. With that, satire is used today as a way to make fun of these outdated themes.
With each tale, there are different events that occur in order to reach the main topic of these tales. Within the Knight’s Tale, the Wife of Bath’s Tale, and the Pardoner's Tale, Chaucer does a phenomenal job in having these tales represent the societal problems of his era. Geoffrey Chaucer uses the Knight’s Tale to explains how love can corrupt the trust between two cousins. The knight is telling the story of Palamon and Arcita, two prisoners of wars that are locked up in a prison in the city of Athens. One day, the two look outside the prison window and see a fair young lady called, Emily.
Lauren Arant Mr. McInnis English IV 19 February 2018 The Medieval View of Courtly Love in “The Knight’s Tale” Courtly love can mean different things for different poets, genres, and periods. During The Medieval Times in western Europe, poets wrote in the courts of nobility and developed a new approach to love. In the Medieval Times, the new approach to love was called Courtly Love.
The three ideas of chivalry are respect, integrity, and honor. First of all, the knights are always respectful of the people around them. They have the kindest words towards, people. The knights are also protective of the citizens in Camelot, as shown in the movie. The respect that the knights have for their country is like the men at war,
Palamon declares his and Arcita’s identities to the King and pleads for death. The King quickly orders the men death; however, the Queen and Emily begs the King for forgiveness. Seeing the two ladies weeping, Theseus rethinks his order and agrees to let the two knights live. Theseus forgives in exchange that Arcita and Palamon becomes his allies. Arcita and Palamon thanks the King for his generosity.
Reluctantly the knight marries the old woman, yet he constantly complains about how old and hideous she is. Therefore, the old woman offers her husband a deal: either she can become young, beautiful, and a cheater, or she can remain old and faithful. The knight tells his wife that he wants her to choose whatever shall make herself happy, for that will make him happy as well. The old woman becomes young and beautiful, while also remaining faithful to her husband. Women have been the subject of subservient roles for centuries and medieval literary icons such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Canterbury Tales both depict plots that disvalue women and their
(Chaucer 45-60). Chaucer gives the knight genuine praise to show the virtuous qualities he possesses. Similarly, Chaucer uses the knight in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” to show the importance of honor. The knight shows honor when he promises the queen that he will find what women most desire, “In the end he chose to go away / And to return after a year and a day / Armed with such answer / As there might be sent to him by god” (Chaucer, 91-94).
Throughout the Elizabethan era, in most cases, courtships were nonexistent; most individuals went immediately to marriage. Today, “couples usually spend some periods of time engaged before they actually marry” (Document A). Couples moving towards engagement establish a strong connection which is crucial to a relationship. Without a strong connection with someone, love may fizzle out, or there may even be a lack of love in the first place. Many times in the Elizabethan era, if any, a scarce amount of attraction occurred, let alone love.
“While I admired her understanding and fancy I loved to tend on her, as I should on a favorite animal; and I never saw so much grace both of a person and mind united to so little pretension.” He was in love with her since he saw her and the beauty, both physically and mentally, she
Courtly love in the medieval romance story of Lancelot (also known as The Knight of the Cart) is the driving force of this famous romance beloved for generations. This proves to be an interesting subject, seeing is a lot of other medieval stories do not focus on love and instead, show it in a rather negative light. This was obviously seen in another medieval story, Njal’s Saga, where not only were marriages arranged and sometimes unwanted by one or both parties, the relationships between men and women were rought with conflict, hatred, and sometimes even murder. The women were not beautiful, diminutive, helpless creatures; they were as strong as their male counterparts. Men also had relatively no interest in love, only of going on grand adventures
The Arthurian Code: Chivalry “Chivalry is dead” is a very common phrase, however what does it actually mean? This famous saying refers back to the time of King Arthur in the Middle Ages. In order to be a knight, one had to follow the Arthurian Code of Chivalry. The word chivalry was used to describe what a perfect knight would be, and the code outlines the basic understanding of how a knight should act. The regulations assigned the ethics and morals that a knight had to attain, and the rules were held with great respect and honor.
In “The Noble Tale of Sir Lancelot du Lake” and “The Tale of Sir Gareth of Orkney,” Sir Thomas Malory presents a variety of Arthurian tropes — like magical enchantments, daring sword fights, and damsels in distress — to his English audience. However, as suggested by the titles of the aforementioned tales, Malory seems to be concerned with examining the idea of knighthood, or, in broader terms, looking at what it means to be a knight in King Arthur’s Camelot, because he connects one of the most iconic Arthurian characters, Sir Lancelot du Lake, to (possibly) his own creation, Sir Gareth of Orkney. This explicit connection invites readers to examine Sir Lancelot’s and Sir Gareth’s actions with a critical eye. While Sir Lancelot’s actions fulfill
Arcite and Palamon are the main characters in “The Knight’s Tale” and they both play very important parts in the story. These two men have similar traits but different personalities and methods for accomplishing tasks. Arcite and Palamon are cousins, who are so close, that they consider themselves, and even swear an oath stating that they are brothers. Their brotherly pact, as strong as it may seem, is still helpless against the powers of love. In “The Knight 's Tale”, similarities and differences between Arcite and Palamon are evident when they fall in love with the same person, how they behave after they leave prison, and what they pray for and how the prayers are answered.
The theme pertaining to love and marriage in the “Knight’s Tale” is the inconvenience and ignorance of love. After being imprisoned by Theseus, two knights, Arcite and Palamon, both fall in love with the same woman by love at first sight. The fantasy over the beautiful, youthful woman, Emily, caused inconvenience between the two knights in addition to the ignorance of love. By sharing the same feelings of the same woman, Arcite and Palamon experience a great deal of inconvenience. The relationship between the two brothers, often labeled as cousins, was destructed over this.
Despite popular opinion, love at first sight does not exist. The idea of “love” is widely misinterpreted as a mere attraction between two individuals. However, many do not understand that love goes much further than this, and what follows is a common misconception between love and lust. Shakespeare in his 17th century play Twelfth Night delves deeper into this idea of love. He presents the character Duke Orsino who appear to be infatuated and love-sick for the Countess Olivia, a woman with which he knows little about.