Palamon and Arcite
In “The Knight’s Tale” one can find, as expected, many similarities with between the two main characters Palamon and Arcite. Although they are very similar, there is a difference that can help us distinguish them.
The Knight’s Tale is a story found in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. It is a story with conflict, romance, friendship, treason, etc. The two main characters that are going to be compared are Palamon and Arcite. These two men were cousins, but more like brothers. They were brothers to the king of Thebes, enemies of king Theseus of Athens, where this story takes place.
There is a long list of similarities, as one would expect because these two characters are kin. Because they are related to the enemy of
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It all goes well. He manages to serve lady emily, and to become the king’s page under another name. He acts this way to get Lady Emily to notice him like everyone else is. In the meantime, Palamon gets help from Thebes and manages to escape from his cell. He escapes in order to fight in battle against Theseus and win Emily. Their plans do not really work, because they end up meeting each other accidentally, and Arcite confesses his lies not knowing Palamon is listening.
Along with the similarities already mentioned, they are both willing to fight for what they want and love. Following their encounter, they agree on having a duel to see who wins Emily. It is interrupted by the king and his company, and they decide to make it an official duel, and postpone it for an appointed day, where they would fight with a judge. They fight, and Arcite is injured and dies telling Emily to marry Palamon, because he will always love her.
Finally, a difference that they have, is that Arcite decided to live a lie to get what he wanted, he pretended to be who he was not, and it did not get him very far, he lost his love. Palamon on the other hand, told the truth. He confessed to the king what he had done, and what Arcite had done. The sad part is that he only told the truth because he was