Knight's Tale Of A Love example essay topic

Chaucer's opinion of women and his views on love are very prominently featured in his poetry. Focusing on women, one must first examine the popular views concerning women during Chaucer's time. Arlen Diamond writes of Chaucer that, '... he accepts uneasily the medieval view of women as either better or worse than men, but never quite the same. ' (Green 3) This is evident in Chaucer's portrayal of women in such poems as 'The Wife of Bath' and 'The Clerk's Tale' which assault the reader with antithetical views of women.

The Wife of Bath is one of the most memorable characters Chaucer ever created. She is considered, in view of Diamond's statement, to be better than the men in her life. Patient Griselda in 'The Clerk's Tale' is a peasant woman, married to a nobleman, who tests her loyalty through a series of ordeals in which she is lead to believe her children to be murdered. In this tale Chaucer is exposing his reader to a woman who is beneath her husband, and is treated horribly by him. Chaucer frequently treats the women he writes about as objects, some prize to be won by the heroic man.

This is evident in 'The Knight's Tale,' in which the two protagonists, Palamon and Arcite, war over the hand of Emily, who they have never met, but only gazed upon from a distance. Their devotion to her branches not from love, but the want of men to contain and control the women surrounding them. Now on to the subject of love. Chaucer writes in 'The Knight's Tale' of a love based on physical beauty, where the two protagonists fall in love at first sight. This is a common device used in medieval literature to create conflict between characters.

'The Book of the Duchess' focuses on the real love between the Black Knight, and the White Woman. This allows Chaucer to explore the nature of love in context. Chaucer's Wife of Bath is a domineering woman who demands the men in her life to be subservient. The reader gains from her prologue that she is concerned with sovereignty, which she views as the control or mastery in the relationship. She does not appear to truly love any of her husbands.

The first three are older men whom she seems to marry for their money. They pass on quickly leaving her with wealth, standing, and the chance to find herself a more suitable man. Her fourth husband was a profligate, a man of loose morals, who keeps a mistress. His death does not cause her any grief. Alison's fifth and current husband is a clerk who reads a great deal of anti-feminist literature. This is offensive to her ideals of how a woman should act and be treated, which is reflected in her tale.

Her tale is considered by Marion Wynne-Davies to be '... a conventional Arthurian romance with an inserted homily on the importance of individual 'gentilesse' or nobility of character. ' (6) This is an accurate description of the nature of her tale. The tale involves a young knight who dishonour's himself by raping a woman whom he caught alone in the woods. He is brought before the king, who happens to be Arthur, who allows the queen to devise the knight's punishment. She sends the knight on a quest to discover '... What thing is it that women most desire.

' (905) He searches for a long time before happening upon an old hag who gives him the answer upon his promise he will marry her. She tells him that what every woman wants is sovereignty over her husband. Upon their wedding night she shows that she can change form into a beautiful young woman. With this she allows the knight to choose whether: To han me foul and old til that I d eye, And be to yow a tre we, humble wy f, And never yow displease in al my ly f, Or ellen ye won han me yong and fair, And take youre a venture of the repair That shal be to youre house by cause of me, Or in som other place, may we be. (1220-6) This is a test for the knight to prove if he has learned what women want. He gives the choice back to her affirming that he now understands women.

The reader can devise two key points from the tale. Primarily, Chaucer portrays a kind of pity for women in his writing. The rape at the start, a common occurrence at the time, is dealt with swiftly and with compassion for the victim; a rare occurrence at the time. Secondly he expresses his desire for equality between the sexes. He does this by showing the consequences that transpire when one sex has control over the other.

'The Wife of Bath's Tale' is an example of female dominance. Chaucer's ideal of equality is more clearly seen after analyzing 'The Clerk's Tale. ' This tale is completely antithetical to that of the Wife of Bath. Where her tale focuses on the dominance of women over men this one is dedicated to exposing the subservience of the medieval woman. The clerk tells a tale of a peasant woman, Griselda, who marries a nobleman, Walter. He devises cruel ordeals to put her through in order to test her loyalty.

She is led to believe that her children are taken away and murdered. Walter rejects her, and apparently substitutes her with a younger, more beautiful woman. This is a cause of suffering for both women. Griselda is forced to stand aside while her children are torn away from her to be killed, and she is pushed away by her husband who replaces her quickly. Her replacement, actually her twelve-year-old daughter, is also caused suffering due to her situation. She has been removed from her family as a child, is to be married to a man she had never seen, who has cruelly put aside his first wife.

'The Clerk's Tale' can be said to serve two purposes. First, Chaucer is able to create a situation in which the reader is forced to sympathize with the plight of, not only Griselda a, but all women who have ever been '... the innocent victims of masculine duplicity. ' (Green 4) Doing this he is showing his distaste for the conventional medieval treatment of women. Secondly the tale provides examples of patience and perseverance, and the rewards that can come of them.

It is because of Griselda's patient suffering that Walter finally reverses all the trials, restoring her children and rightful position as his wife: 'This is yogh, Gri slide my', quod he; Be now na moore aga st ne a payed, I have thy faith and thy, As we as every woman was, assayed, In greet est at, and arrayed. Now know I, deere wy f, thy,' - And hire in his arms took and gan hir k esse. (1051-7) These two tales are primarily representation of Chaucer's attitude toward women. They deal with marriage and dominance within, without looking at love. Chaucer makes a closer examination of love in 'The Knight's Tale,' however the love that is expressed is physical love, without any emotional attachment.

'The Book of the Duchess' focuses on true love and devotion, making these two antithetical views of love as 'The Wife of Bath's Tale' and 'The Clerk's Tale' are opposing conceptions of marriage. Love in 'The Knight's Tale,' as mentioned previously, is superficial. The two primary characters, Palamon and Arcite, fight each other for the hand of Emily. Chaucer uses this in comparison to the devotion of the Black Knight to his departed lady. Both tales deal with undying love, however their treatment of that love is where they differ. Emily is treated as an object, who is worshiped from afar.

The hero's only adore her for her physical beauty, they do not truly know Emily as is displayed when she is first seen: And so bi fel, by a venture or can, That a window, thik ke of many a barre Of i ren greet and square as any spare, He cast his eye upon Emelya, And ther withal he and crime, 'A!' As he were unto the here. (1074-9) Palamon in this scene is described as being struck through to the heart at only the sight of Emily. Arcite is also affected in this manor. These two portray the perfect example of courtly love, in which the lovers love from a distance, without any real affection passing between the pair. Their grief at being separated is only one-sided, whereas Emily has no knowledge of their love, nor in her case wants said knowledge or love. The love that exists in 'The Book of the Duchess' is the true love that is missing in 'The Knight's Tale.

' The Black Knight has lost his love, and this has caused him: Sor we so get won That joe get I never non, (475-6) He continues to lament her loss in the telling of stories that comment on her beauty and her goodness. Chaucer creates an narrator who has trouble understanding the pain of the knight, and who causes the knight to continue to explain his love and the reasons for it. The way Chaucer differentiates between the physical love of 'The Knight's Tale' and the powerful true love present in 'The Book of the Duchess' portrays to the reader his understanding of the subject and his mastery of its form. Chaucer grew up in a time in which women were treated as less then human; a time where it was normal for a man to beat his wife; a period in history where love had no real meaning and was pushed aside when it got in the way. He saw the problems that the contemporary views of society posed, and this is reflected in his poetry. According to Wynne-Davies 'The Wife of Bath and Patient Griselda provide, even allowing for a certain degree of literary licence, two very different exemplars for how women lived in the late fourteenth century.

' (12) Chaucer in these two tales gives an example from each extreme. The Wife of Bath id a controlling woman who is even beaten by her husband because of her domineering nature. Patient Griselda, on the other hand, is the model of the perfect obedient wife. She does not give in to the adversity she is faced with, which is a reflection of the character the Wife of Bath, however she plod silently along while her world is torn apart around her. The prevalent opinion is that Griselda should be considered to be the more accurate picture of the medieval woman. Chaucer also pit the two sides of love against each other in his poetry.

'The Knight's Tale,' as mentioned throughout, is concerned with exposing the futility and destructive nature of false love, or love at first sight. The pointless death of Arcite only emphasizes the hollow nature of this love. Love in 'The Book of the Duchess' is treated differently. When Arcite dies there is no real pain felt for his loss. This is not the case with the death of the Black Knight's lady. Chaucer spends about eight hundred lines allowing the knight to lament his lost love.

In his poetry Chaucer tries to be sympathetic to the plight of women. He endeavors to discuss love honestly, accepting the contradictory types of love and giving them all equal opportunity to prove themselves. The problem, however, lies in the subjects, for no matter how long or intently you look at them, they will always be as complex and incomprehensible as they always were.

Bibliography

Green, Richard Firth. 'Chaucer's Victimized Women. ' Studies in the Age of Chaucer. Ed. Thomas J. Heffernan. Vol. 10.1988.
3-21. Wynne-Davis, Marion., ed. The Tales of the Clerk and the Wife of Bath. By Geoffrey Chaucer. Routledge: New York, 1992.
Edwards, Robert R. Stephen Spector. Ed. The Olde Dance: Love, Friendship, Sex, and Marriage in the Medieval World. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1991 154-176.