essay on the knight from canterbury tales

The Knight: Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales Essay

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The Knight is the narrator of the first tale in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The Knight’s character is the complete opposite of the knight in the Wife of Bath’s Tale who rapes a girl. During the group’s pilgrim to Canterbury the Host suggests a story telling competition. The Knight draws the shortest stick and tells his tale first (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2013). Getting to tell his tale first is a sign of his social standing in medieval England.

His tale is about a love triangle involving two knights and a woman. The two young knights, Arcite and Palamon, are prisoners of Theseus, Duke of Athens. While locked up in a tower they see Emelye in a nearby garden and fall in love with her. Later Arcite is set free but on condition that he never sets foot in Athens again.

The Knight presents us with the cruelty played by fate. Arcite is a free man but cannot access Emelye while Palamon can see Emelye but is in captivity. Arcite manages to make his way back to Athens in disguise. Palamon eventually escapes and bumps into Arcite singing about love and fortune.

A duel between the two is thwarted by the appearance of Theseus. The Duke organizes a proper duel between the two where the victor gets Emelye’s hand in marriage. Arcite prays to Mars for victory and Palamon prays to Venus to make Emelye his bride. Arcite defeats Palamon but falls off his horse before he can claim Emelye. Before dying he urges Emelye to marry Palamon. The gods had managed to grant both men their prayers (Finlayson, 1992).

Through his tale, the Knight depicts the knightly aspect of courtly love which was common in medieval Europe. Signs of courtly love in the tale include the two knights falling in love with Emelye at first sight and Arcite risking his life by coming back to Athens. Other displays of courtly love include the mass duel to win Emelye’s love. In courtly love easy attainment of love was of little value (Lords and Ladies, 2013).

The Knight is the ideal medieval crusader. He is brave, a man of honor and morally upright. The tale the Knight tells is full of knightly noble ideals. Chaucer describes him as one who has never spoken a harsh word to anyone (Finlayson, 1992). The Knight is also an idealist, demonstrating an aversion to conflict and gloominess.

In the Pardoner’s tale the Knight makes peace between the Host and the Pardoner. He comes across as the voice of reason in the group (Aers, 1980). He takes offence when the Pardoner tries to sell fake relics to the pilgrims. This further illustrates his morally upright character (A Knight’s Tale, 2002).

Despite being a well travelled and wealthy warrior, the Knight is not vain. Like one dedicated to the Christian cause he projects a humble and prudent image. His upright character is a strong contrast with other narrators such as the Miller and the Reeve. Unlike the Knight, the Miller is rude and contemptuous while the Reeve has a temper (Chaucer: The Knight’s Tale, 2013).

The Knight introduces the concept of justice and judgment to his audience. After Arcite is freed he asks the audience to consider the two knights and ponder on who is better off. (The Knight’s Tale, 2013).

The Knight is keen on creating meaning and order in matters that are ruled by passion and chance (Aers, 1980). He stops the Monk from finishing his tale which he reckons is too sad and gloomy. He prefers a story where the fortunes of the characters make a turn for the better.

Aers, D. (1980). Chaucer, Langland, and the creative imagination . London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Encyclopedia Britannica (2013). The Canterbury Tales (work by Chaucer) . Web.

Finlayson, J. (1992). The” Knight’s Tale”: The Dialogue of Romance, Epic, and Philosophy. The Chaucer Review , 27 (2), pp. 126–149.

Lordsandladies.org (2013). Courtly Love . Web.

Pathguy.com (2013). Enjoying “The Knight’s Tale”, by Geoffrey Chaucer . Web.

Public.wsu.edu (2013). Chaucer: The Knight’s Tale . Web.

Sites.fas.harvard.edu (2013). The Knight’s Tale (general note) . Web.

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Analysis of The Knight in The Canterbury Tales

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Table of contents

Introduction, the portrayal of the knight.

• Chaucer, G. (1390). The Canterbury Tales. [Link to the edition or specific source you are using.]
• Benson, L. D. (Ed.). (2008). The Riverside Chaucer (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
• Hahn, T. (1997). Chaucer's Knight: The Portrait of a Medieval Mercenary. Speculum, 72(2), 394-422.
• Hussey, M. (2012). Chaucer: An Introduction. Routledge.
• Brown, P. (1988). The World of Late Antiquity: AD 150-750. W. W. Norton & Company.
• Roberts, M. E. (1973). Chaucer's Knight in the General Prologue. Modern Philology, 70(1), 1-9.
• Fisher, J. H. (1970). Chaucer's Knight and the Structure of the General Prologue. ELH, 37(3), 341-353.

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The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey chaucer, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions, the knight quotes in the canterbury tales.

He was a verray, parfit gentil knyght.

Whilom, as olde stories tellen us, Ther was a duc that highte Theseus; Of Atthenes he was lord and governour, And in his tyme swich a conquerour That gretter was there noon under the sonne. Ful many a rich contree hadde he wonne; What with his wysdom and his chilvalrie.

He cast his eye upon Emelya, And therwithal he bleynte and cride, “A!”

Wommen desiren to have sovereynetee As wel as over hir housbond as hir love And for to been in maistrie hym above.

“Now,” quod oure Hoost, “I wol no lenger pleye With thee, ne with noon oother angry man.” But right anon the worthy Knyght bigan, Whan that he saugh that al the peple lough, “Namoore of this, for it is right ynough!”

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29 Canterbury Tales: The Knight’s Tale

Introduction.

by Annaleyse G. and Neveen A.

In Chaucer’s “General Prologue,” the knight is described as someone who honorably follows the code of chivalry. The knight is loyal, brave, polite, and kind, perfectly embodying the characteristics of a man of his station. On the journey, he brings along his son, who appears to follow his father in his outlook but, at the same time, represents a more carefree character, one who loves music, dancing, and writing (“ The Knight’s Tales , Parts 1-2.”).

As for his Tale , the Knight tells a story following the lives of Arcite, Palamon and King Theseus who ruled Greece and the city of Athens. One day while riding, Theseus comes upon four women who are all grieving their husbands and their husbands’ improper burial. After Theseus conquers the city and avenges the men who were wrongfully buried,  he discovers two wounded soldiers–Palamon and Arcite–who he allows to live, but condemns them to life in prison. One day, Palamon sees a woman outside, Emelye, in the courtyard below. He immediately falls in love with her; later, when Arcite sees her, he immediately falls in love with her, too. This angers Palamon who, having seen her first, asserts that he has the right to her; Arcite disagrees, claiming he has the right to love her as well. Some years later, Arcite earns freedom but is banished from the city. Arcite is actually unhappy with his freedom because he won’t see Emelye anymore, but Palamon will get to see her every day. Palamon envies Arcite because he believes, with freedom, he will pursue Emelye.

Arcite has a dream where he is encouraged to return to the city of Athens. So he decides to re-enter the city in disguise. Unbeknownst to him, Palamon had escaped from prison earlier; they cross paths unexpectedly in a forest and decide to duel to win Emelye. Theseus finds them fighting in the forest and they reveal their identities; though Theseus wants to sentence them to death, Emelye and the Queen intervene to stop it. Theseus agrees instead to hold a tournament, where the winner will win Emelye. Arcite prays for victory to the roman god Mars (the god of war). Palamon prays to Venus (the god of love) and he prays for Emelye. Emelye prays to Diana (the goddess of animals, hunt, and nature) to remain unmarried, but Diana claims that she cannot grant that desire. Mars grants Arcite the ability to not be fatally wounded in the tournament, and so he initially wins. Moments after the tournament ends, however, Arcite falls and fatally wounds his head. Before Arcite dies, he speaks about how important it is to have love, and not waste time fighting or earning honor. Palamon’s prayer is granted and he ends up with Emelye and they both live happily (“The Knight’s Tales, Parts 1-2”).

This story focuses on courtly love as it exists in a love triangle between Arcite, Emelye and Palamon. Competition is depicted between Arcite and Palamon as they fight each other for the love of their life, Emelye. Another important aspect of “The Knight’s Tale” is friendship and chivalry. Arcite and Palamon face the choice between fighting for love and breaking the chivalric code (“The Knight’s Tale”).

Works Cited

“The Knight’s Tale.” Wikimedia Foundation , 8 May 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Knight%27s_Tale

“The Knight’s Tales, Parts 1-2.” Spark Notes , 2019, www.sparknotes.com/lit/canterbury/section5/

Discussion Questions

• Why is the Knight the first to appear (both in the “General Prologue” and in the Tales themselves)?
• What role do the Roman gods play in controlling the fate of the knights and Emelye? What is the significance of mythology and astrology here?
• Is there a knight (Arcite or Palamon) that is the “better man” and more deserving of Emelye?
• Are the characters of Arcite and Palamon represent aspects of the conflicted self? Why or why not?

Further Resources

• 4-minute animated summary of “Knight’s Tale”.
• A quick video clip providing historical and cultural context for the story.

Reading: The Knight’s Tale

Lines 1-34: about duke theseus, lord of athens, and his achievements, lines 35-93: women complain that they have lost their husbands in battle, lines 94-116: theseus promises revenge, lines 117-146: the achievement of revenge, lines 147-174: two knights, arcita and palamon, are captured and imprisoned, lines 175-233: emily walks in the garden and is seen by the two prisoners, lines 234-264: arcita compares emily with venus, lines 265-293: palamon claims emily to be his lady and love, lines 294-328: arcita rejects palamon’s claim, lines 329-350: arcita is ransomed, lines 351-360: the conditions of the ransom, lines 361-416: arcita is released from prison and regrets losing the sight on emily, lines 417-478: palamon pities himself still being in prison, lines 479-496: the knight asks which of the two knights is the luckiest, lines 497-521: arcita returns to thebes, sequitur pars secunda (here begins the second part), lines 522-540: arcita dreams that he has to go to athens, lines 541-592: arcita disguises himself as a poor labourer and finds employment at theseus’ court, lines 593-629: after seven years, palamon escapes from prison, lines 630-669: arcita walks through the fields and does not know that palamon is hiding in the vicinity, lines 670-715: arcita dreams aloud about emily and angers palamon who responds furiously, lines 716-764: arcita and palamon agree to fight the next day, lines 765-804: arcita and palamon start to fight their duel, lines 805-837: duke theseus goes hunting, lines 838-883: duke theseus interrupts the fight between arcita and palamon and learns their true identity, lines 884-926: the queen and ladies ask for mercy, lines 927-970: duke theseus grants mercy but stipulates some conditions, lines 971-1011: arcita and palamon are allowed to return after a year with hundred warriors each and the winner of the battle shall have emily, lines 1012-1022: the two knights thank theseus and go homeward to prepare for the fight, lines 1023-1055: duke theseus builds an amphitheatre for the fight between arcita and palamon, sequitur pars tercia (here begins the third part), lines 1056-1108: the form and shape of venus, lines 1109-1192: the form and shape of mars, lines 1193-1230: the form and shape of diana, lines 1231-1258: arcita and palamon and their company come to athens, lines 1259-1296: palamon’s company, lines 1297-1331: arcita’s company, lines 1332-1350: the feast at theseus’ court, lines 1351-1412: palamon prays at venus’ temple, lines 1413-1508: emily prays at diana’s temple, lines 1509-1579: arcita prays at mars’ temple, lines 1580-1624: the gods quarrel but saturn decides that palamon shall have his lady emily, lines 1625-1664: the feast and the night at theseus’ court, sequitur pars quarta (here begins the fourth part), lines 1665-1702: duke theseus stipulates some conditions to avoid a bloodbath, lines 1703-1740: everybody goes to the amphitheatre, lines 1741-1777: the battle in the amphitheatre, lines 1778-1793: palamon is captured, lines 1794-1804: theseus declares arcita to be the winner, lines 1805-1817: saturn disagrees with the result of the fight, lines 1818-1841: arcita falls from his horse, lines 1842-1884: everybody recovers at theseus’ court, lines 1885-1958: arcita says goodbye to palamon and emily and dies, lines 1959-1978: athens mourns for the death of arcita, lines 1979-1994: death is the end of every worldly sore,  lines 1995-2023: the preparation of arcita’s funeral, lines 2024-2108: the funeral, lines 2109-2128: political tactics, lines 2109-2128: theseus speaks to palamon and emily about the creation of the world, lines 2169-2208: the power of god, lines 2209-2250: the marriage of palamon and emily, heere is ended the knyghtes tale..

Source Text:

Kökbugur, Sinan, ed.  The Canterbury Tales (in Middle and Modern English).   Librarius.com , 1997, is copyright protected but reproduction expressly allowed for non-profit, educational use.

An Open Companion to Early British Literature Copyright © 2019 by Allegra Villarreal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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A Summary and Analysis of Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘The Knight’s Tale’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Knight’s Tale’ is the first tale told in Geoffrey Chaucer’s long work The Canterbury Tales . Following his introduction in the General Prologue , the Knight proceeds to tell this tale of romantic rivalry between two friends – a story which would later inspire a Shakespeare play (of which more below).

You can read ‘The Knight’s Tale’ in the original Middle English here before proceeding to our summary and analysis below.

‘The Knight’s Tale’: plot summary

The play is set in pagan (pre-Christian) times. Theseus, the duke of Athens, has just successfully defeated the Amazons, a caste of warrior queens, in battle and brought two of the women, Hippolyta and her sister Emelye, back to Athens with him. He forces Hippolyta to marry him.

No sooner has Theseus returned than he has to go and defeat Creon, the tyrannical ruler of Thebes, who has murdered a number of Theseus’ subjects. Following the conflict, two men, Palamon and Arcite – Creon’s nephews – are recovered from under a pile of corpses, still alive. Theseus orders the two men to be taken back to Athens and imprisoned.

While in prison, Palamon spots Emelye outside his window and immediately falls head over heels in love with her. In his excitement he tells Arcite about her, and Arcite, too, falls for this beautiful woman. The two brothers quarrel over their rivalrous love for a woman neither can have. Both of them lose many nights’ sleep in pining over Emelye and the fact they cannot be close to her.

However, one day Arcite is released from prison, his case having been successfully put to Theseus by Potheus, Theseus’ friend. Arcite rises to a high position at Theseus’ court and grows close to Emelye. Later, Palamon manages to escape from prison and when he bumps into his old love rival, the two brothers decide to fight over Emelye’s hand.

But Theseus catches the two men fighting, but when Emelye and Hippolyta intervene on their behalf he agrees to spare their lives, deciding that they should settle the matter in a more civilised way: through a public tournament. He sends them away, giving them a year to raise troops to rally to their respective causes.

A year later, the two men, along with Emelye, go to the religious temple to pray for the right outcome. Palamon and Arcite both believe the ‘right’ result is for them both to win, which is clearly impossible. Emelye is told by the deities that she will marry someone, but she doesn’t know who.

Venus, the goddess worshipped by Palamon, pleads with the god Saturn for Palamon to be victorious. Arcite wins the tournament, but Saturn intercedes and causes the man to die when his horse stumbles, tossing the man from the saddle. Palamon and Emelye are married, with Palamon becoming the ruler of Thebes, his homeland.

‘The Knight’s Tale’: analysis

Although Chaucer appears to have begun work on The Canterbury Tales in 1387, the text of ‘The Knight’s Tale’ probably predates his conception of that longer work, and is thought to have been composed in the early 1380s. Like a number of Chaucer’s tales, it is a loose adaptation of a work by the Italian writer Boccaccio, although Boccaccio himself was reworking older material (the Thebaid by the Roman author Statius).

The Knight’s tale, as befitting a man of his rank and chivalric reputation, is a noble romance about the world of chivalry: the code of nobility to which knights were expected to adhere. However, neither of the tale’s two male leads, Palamon and Arcite, live up to the chivalric ideal. Their first encounter with Emelye is pure courtly love, with the man (or here, men) admiring the unattainable beautiful woman from afar. As they are literally in prison at the time, Emelye couldn’t be much farther out of their reach.

However, they are prepared to squabble over Emelye and it is only Theseus’ tempering influence – and the fact that they are spared execution thanks to the intervention of the two women – that ‘civilises’ their feud so they settle the matter the ‘proper’ way, via a tournament.

As Lesley A. Coote points out in her informative contextual notes to The Canterbury Tales (Wordsworth Poetry Library) (a cheap and highly useful edition of The Canterbury Tales , with the original text presented in Middle English alongside handy glosses to obscure words), the 1380s was a time when knightly chivalry was undergoing something of a reappraisal.

The ongoing war with France (which would become known as the Hundred Years’ War) was out of favour with people at the time, and the English victories at Crécy (1346) and Poitiers (1356) seemed a distant memory. Pacifists like John Wyclif’s Lollards (religious reformers) and even Chaucer’s fellow poet John Gower were questioning the moral case for war.

When analysed in such a context, Palamon and Arcite fighting over a woman seems like petty squabbling rather than the chivalric ideal. And the end of the tale, with Arcite’s sudden death, reminds us that one might win a victory only to be struck down by something else soon after. At a time when the recent Black Death was still a very real and horrific memory for many people, Saturn’s divine intervention would doubtless have carried an extra sting.

It is thought that this element was Chaucer’s addition to the original story, inspired by his reading of the Roman author Boethius, who believed that men were constantly at the whim of fate (the idea of the ‘wheel of fortune’ ultimately stems from Boethius).

One of the weaknesses of ‘The Knight’s Tale’ (its excessive length and relative lack of action aside) is the lack of clear distinction between Palamon and Arcite. If they are meant to embody particular qualities, it is not easy to tell them apart and identify which values they respectively represent.

Nor are the women in ‘The Knight’s Tale’ given an especially active role. Elsewhere in The Canterbury Tales we find them cavorting in trees with their paramours, or presenting their bare backsides out of windows (see ‘ The Miller’s Tale ’, which follows ‘The Knight’s Tale’ in the collection and is a comic response to it); we even encounter witches, whose purpose is to show men the evil of their ways.

But we don’t find such women in the more sober romance that is ‘The Knight’s Tale’. Chaucer made his heroine Emelye less spirited and independent than Boccaccio’s female lead, reducing her to an agentless pawn fought over by the two men. Similarly, Hippolyta is literally a possession owned by her enemies, having once been a powerful Amazonian queen.

‘The Knight’s Tale’ would provide the source material for a lesser-known late (collaborative) play by William Shakespeare, The Two Noble Kinsmen . Later still, in the late seventeenth century John Dryden would adapt Chaucer’s tale as one of his fables, as Palamon and Arcite .

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1 thought on “A Summary and Analysis of Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘The Knight’s Tale’”

Generally one of Chaucer’s most underrated Tales. Though set in ancient Greece and presented in a medieval setting, it has many modern resonances and is of special interest in its treatment of Emelye. Before the combat she prays to Diana, not for the victory of a preferred champion, but in fear of the loss of virginity and childbirth. She sees the idea of a man getting killed for love of her as frighteningly pointless. Palamon and Arcite treat her as a goddess, but in point of fact she is but a pawn in a game whose players are Theseus and her two suitors, and she recognises her powerlessness.

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The Canterbury Tales

The relationship between the knight's tale and the miller's tale in chaucer's canterbury tales anonymous.

The Knight, as the highest ranking member of the train of pilgrims, is chosen "whether by chance, luck, or destiny" (844) to tell the first of the Canterbury tales. When he finishes, the intoxicated Miller demands to go next, despite the Host having asked the Monk, as the next-highest ranking male pilgrim, if he knows "Somewhat to quite with the Knyghtes tale" (3119). The host tells the Miller to wait until "Som bettre man shal telle us first anothe," because they ought to "work" the telling of the stories "properly," (3130-31) but the Miller insists on violating the social order and telling his tale second. He wants to 'match' the Knight's tale, or one-up it.

Both the Knight's Tale and the tale that the Miller tells are love stories, but they could not be more dissimilar. The Knight's tale is long and overall, serious. He self-consciously intrudes into his narrative with clumsy transitions between time and place, and editorializes his censorship of the events. The gentlefolk of the train say it is a 'noble story' and worthy of being memorized (3111-2). The Miller's tale is short and funny; he is a brisk, straightforward, and impersonal narrator;...

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