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The Knight's Tale Courtly Love Analysis

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Recommended: Tales of courtly love in the middle ages

Prompt 2: Why does the Miller choose to satirize the knight’s tale?
The Miller chooses to satirize the Knight’s tale in order to expose how the upper class glorifies courtly love and often tells tales unrealistically. In the Knight’s tale, Arcite and Palamon, two men who claim to be in love with Emily, bicker over who should be able to marry her. Initially, Palamon states, “‘The fairness of that lady that I see / In yonder garden, roaming to and fro, / Is cause of all my crying and my woe’” (1098-1100). Palamon confesses his love for Emily to Arcite and is depressed since he believes that he will never have the chance to be with her, as he is currently imprisoned in a guarded tower. Immediately after Palamon states that he is in love with Emily, …show more content…

In general, courtly love is meant to be passionate love between two people who are already married to other individuals. However, as seen through the Miller’s tale, courtly love is usually not as ardent as it is made out to be. In his tale, Absalon “[kicks] his heels about and blithely prance / And play some merry tunes upon the fiddle” in an attempt to make women love him (3330-31). However, when he does this for Alison, she “[makes] poor Absalon an ape, / [Makes] all his earnest efforts but a jape” (3389-90). Alison does not fall for Absalon, even though he tries to express his love toward her on multiple occasions. He follows the ideals of courtly love by singing for her and complimenting her, but Alison rejects him nevertheless. Her rejection, despite his efforts, displays how courtly love is not always successful. After being rejected for the first time, Absalon returns to try to win over Alison. However, when he attempts to kiss her, she tricks him into kissing “her naked arse with eager mouth / Before he [is] aware of all of this” (3734-35). Angered by this, Absalon obtains a hot iron to “smite” Nicholas “right in the groove” (3810). Absalon and Nicholas fight with one another over Emily. They do not obey the rules of chivalry when doing so, and their battle is not fair. Absalon attacks Nicholas while he is unarmed, and Nicholas attempts to trick Absalon while he is trying to charm Alison. They do not have an equal opportunity in attempting to get her to fall in love with one of them. Therefore, the Miller displays through his vulgar tale how courtly love and chivalry, despite their definitions and purposes, are often completely

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In the Knight’s Tale, love dominates the entire story which leads readers the fully understand the courtly love. In the Miller’s Tale, with Absolon, moreover, we have a character who speaks in the high, courtly language of the romance genre, but does so in order to get a girl into bed. This romance even ends with a joust of sorts, with a hot

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Geoffrey Chaucer’s “the Book of the Duchess”, tells a story of a knight’s personal sorrow in regards to something he has lost. At first, the knight shares his story of sorrow to the persona of Chaucer in the form of metaphors. The persona of Chaucer in this paper will be name the narrator. Upon the basic reading of the poem, it would appear that the narrator tries to comfort the knight, but ultimately fails due to the fact he does not fully understand the extent of the knight’s loss. It is not until the knight tells the narrator directly that he has lost his wife that he understands what the knight has lost.

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Arcite and Palamon, friends and foes, both fighting for the hand of the same woman. Love, true love, is that not one of the most popular themes in any type of media? The most common portrayal of love is a forbidden love, but after that is rivaled love. Two people fighting for the love of a single person. In “The Knight’s Tale,” Chaucer gives us this exact same theme.

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The Miller's Tale starts out by mentioning that the carpenter, John, was a rich man "who boarded paying guests" and had just married a young woman who "was eighteen years of age" (Chaucer 151). John was "jealous and kept her on a short leash" even though he knew she was young and full of life unlike himself. John's roommate, Nicholas, was a student who "knew all about secret love and pleasurable consolations", he also took a liking to Alison and began to flirt with her. Alison did not seem to be interested at first, but eventually agreed to sleep with him but only if they could do it without John finding out. While that plan is unfolding, Absalom sees Alison and decides that he has to have her, even though Alison is straightforward about not

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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.

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If a winner was to be chosen from these two tales, then “The Knight’s Tale” would have won. In “The Knight’s Tale,” two men, Arcite and Palamon, are captured and imprisoned after their ruler, King Creon of Thebes, is slain by King Theseus of Athens. Theseus slays Creon after accepting the request of two women dressed in black, who claimed Creon was mutilating the dead bodies of his enemies. Once imprisoned, Palamon and Arcite witness a young princess, Emily, with both declaring their love for her.

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He also utilized fabliaux to fill his stories with multiple sexual accounts that poke fun at the rules of courtly love. Chaucer’s humor had three main components – mockery, irony, and sadism. John, an older carpenter, with a young wife, is at the center of “The Miller’s Tale.” Chaucer mocks John for marrying a younger woman and the fact that their relationship does not follow the rules of courtly love. Courtly love suggests that jealousy strengthens relationships and equates to love.

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The Miller describes this disgusting action as “ingenious”. This shows that men of this time thought invading a woman’s privacy was acceptable and that they didn’t care about women’s feelings. This means that they expected women to be submissive. After pledging her allegiance to Nicholas, Absolon comes to Allison and asks her for a kiss. Before Allison plays a prank on Absolon, she tells Nicholas: “Now hush, my lord, and you will laugh your fill,” (233).

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