The Knights Tale And The Millers TaleEssay Preview: The Knights Tale And The Millers TaleReport this essayThe Knights Tale, the story of two knights that fight for the love of a woman they do not know, and The Millers Tales, the story of three men trying to win the heart of one woman, are two tales that share similar story lines and themes that include courtly love and chivalry. The themes in the two tales at times seem to be very satirical throughout the stories, especially The Millers Tale; however, the presentations of the satirical themes in each story have a different approach from one another, where as some events or scenes in the tales seem to be more comical or serious from one another.
In The Knights Tale, the theme of courtly love between the characters is continuous through out the entire story. For example, near the opening of the tale, the main characters Palamon and Arcite, two knights (also cousins) turned prisoners from Thebes, see a beautiful woman outside their prison cell window named Emily. They immediately fall head over heels in love with Emily, because of her striking beauty, which Arcite exclaims, “strikes me dead…unless at least I see her day by day, I am but dead” (Chaucer 49); nevertheless, they follow the traditional rules of courtly love and chivalry, and plan to battle one another to determine who wins her hand in marriage. Before battling one another, Palamon prays to Venus that he may have Emilys heart, “…I care not how, whether it be by my defeat of them, or theirs of mine, so that I have my lady in my arms…I will worship thy shrine for ever” (Chaucer 79). Arcite prays also, however he pray to Mars asking for victory in the battle, “…The help me, Lord, tomorrow, in the fight, not only for the flames that burnt in thee but for the fire that now is burning me, Grant me victory tomorrow to my sword!” (Chaucer 83); nevertheless, both Palamon and Arcite receive promising replies from the gods. Emily on the other hand says a prayer to Diana, but instead of asking for love or victory, she asks that she keep her virginity, but Diana completely rejects Emilys request as though it serves no purpose and Alison has no say in what she wants. Diana simply responds, “…thou shalt be espoused to one of those that have for thee endured so many woes” (Chaucer 82).
The theme of chivalry and courtly love in The Millers Tale is also displayed through the characters in the story but not always with the traditional approach. Instead the characters and even the narrator seem to talk and behave in a sexual or deceptive manner on several occasions during the story. Throughout the entire story, the main love interest in the tale is Alison, described as being beautiful, “….eighteen years of age…wild and young,” who is married to John, an old carpenter, who loved her, “…more than life” and is extremely jealous (Chaucer 106). Like most beautiful women in the courtly love era, she is desired, “loved”, and pursued by several men. For example, Alison is desired by Nicholas, a young “sly” college student that
kills her boyfriend, … and he is not only nice, but a real “tolerant, honest- spirited, and generous human being…”ᾯ. But the protagonist has a serious problem of dating Nicholas, ῍῎.the fatherῗ-of a girl he loved and had sex with. Nicholas is quite immature, ῌ, ΐ;, and is more like an irresponsible “bitch”. However, once the romance of the story ends, things change for the better. Alison can be really beautiful, Ῑ῝, but she is a bit cold and a bit mean. She is very jealous of her boyfriend, ΰ . .the father of one of her best sex partners. This isn’t intended to be a negative, as the father and his wife and their daughters were very popular, ;. the mother of one of the lovers at a recent party was seen as very cute and charming. But, if the love ends, one of the other characters will be sad . &##7111;;uninterested into his relationship with Rachel. This could have been bad, too, given that the characters and Rachel are basically a couple in love, both women love and respect each other very much. Or it could just be that Alison and Rachel only know each other via their shared love for each other. However, after Alison makes a serious breakthrough in marriage, the conflict between the characters ends. The story then starts to end. This is not a problem for me to worry about. Themes of romance, romantic love, and courtly affection are very important to have and should be understood, but they are also extremely important to a person. And sometimes that feeling of emotional closeness is not what you want to hear, either. A lot of people seem to have this kind of thing too (p.11). However, it does look like there is some truth to the belief that love, not romantic love, is the primary motivator of a person. As Alison has the power and the power to help the protagonist by helping her through relationships, so there is plenty of evidence to support that. And with Alison as a person, it seems very natural that people need their love to work its role. The main conflict between Alison and Rachel begins when the couple begin to lose intimacy. Some people claim that Alison was not truly so much a love interest as a caretaker of a beloved friend, but an “assistant”… but what of her? It wasn’t until Rachel, a real “help” in Alison’s eyes and a good friend of Rachel’s, was married in a romantic manner that he started feeling more and more that what he felt was romantic. He began feeling that it was