Two Midterm Essays
The question: how does Chaucer's Knight show his awareness that tale telling can express one's sense of the world, that how one goes about telling a tale can say as much as what one intends to mean? Compare the Knight's tale-telling with that of one other pilgrim whose tale we have read thus far. Give special attention to how narrative procedures, that is, the way the pilgrim tells his or her tale, can tell us something of the way the pilgrim apprehends the world. (Does this how in some cases tell us more than the pilgrim intends for us to see?) Be sure to describe the genre the pilgrim's tale falls into and how the tale relates to that genre.

 
 

An essay by Shahrnaz Ayrom:
 

In the Canterbury Tales, the Knight begins the tale-telling. Although straws were picked, and the order left to "aventure," or "cas," Harry Bailey seems to have pushed fate. The Knight represents the highest caste in the social hierarchy of the fourteenth century, those who rule, those who pray, and those who work. Assuming that the worldly knight would tell the most entertaining and understandable story (that would shorten their pilgrimage to St. Thomas Becket), Harry tells the Knight to begin.

The Knight's tale of love, loyalty, and battle is placed in the chivalric romance genre. The courtly romance concerns the mythical kingdom of Theseus, wealthy rulers, and pagan (mythical) gods. Throughout the tale, the Knight and the other characters refer to the concept of the "wheel of fortune." In the beginning of the tale, weeping, broken women plead to Theseus to help them avenge their husbands. Although impoverished, they tell Theseus that they were all at one point wealthy and of high rank. Even though Theseus is glorified and powerful now, the goddess will spin the "wheel of fortune" and he will one day be low. The concept of destiny and the wheel of fortune represents the Knight's acceptance of an incomprehensible world. His inclusion of the mythical gods, Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Diana furthers this idea. Emily, Arcite, and Palamon each pray to a diety, asking for help and their unattainable wish. In the end, father Saturn decrees Arcite's death. Thus, paradoxical human emotions and senseless tragedy are safely distanced; they are attributed to the will of the pagan gods. Similarly the love triangle between Arcite, Palamon, and Emily stresses that human beings cannot attain happiness. Although he is free from prison, Arcite laments his fate and envies Palamon, who can see Emily on a daily basis. Palamon, in turn, envies Arcite. Therefore, individuals do not know what they want or need from life.

However, the Knight, as narrator of the tale, does not leave the story as senseless acts of fate. In the tale the figure of Theseus represents human intervention. He decides to end Arcite's and Palamon's initial duel and postpone it for a year later. It is Theseus who, after Arcite's death, brings Palamon and Emily together in love. Therefore the Knight does believe that humans can assume some control over their lives. In the tale there is a sense of symmetry that reflects the Knight's intervention. Both the battles occur in May, during Spring, the time of love and rebirth. The Knight's lofty and high tale reflects his hope and optimism for the world. The Knight is the ideal; he has fought in many Christian wars against heathens, and yet is still humble. His "trouthe, fredom, and curtesy" earn him the admiration of the narrator and, presumably, the other pilgrims. His world is built around honor and justice, and the story reflects his belief system. He ends his tale by commenting that love that comes at a price and preserves nobility should not be denied. He prays that everyone on the pilgrimage is and will continue to be blessed.

The Miller, however, does not share the Knight's virtues or belief in a romantic, optimistic world. Once the Knight concluded his tale, and it appeared that the Monk would preserve the socially influenced order of tale-telling, the Miller interrupts. The general prologue describes the Miller as a strong, loud man with a golden thumb. Unlike the Knight, he is not humble or chivalric - he is vulgar and robs his customers. Consequently, he is amused, not in awe of the Knight's tale. The Miller's tale parodies the Knight's tale, and is part of the fabliau genre.

Bakhtin's theory of carnival claims that individuals enjoyed themselves and lost their inhibitions during the festive time. It was a chance to be free before the strict tenets of Lent had to be upheld. Therefore, the pilgrims could laugh at the vulgarity in the Miller's fabliau because it mocked social institutions. To begin the parody, the Miller employs the same structure as the Knight. His tale, like the Knight's, involves a love triangle between Alisoun, Nicholas, and Absolom. However, the Miller's tale includes little romance. The characters are all working class, and know nothing of the courtly lifestyle. Instead of pining away for Alisoun, the clever and handy Nicholas simply grabs her. Alisoun is not goddess-like, but a married woman, ripe like fruit. Thus the working class Millermocks the high social institutions. The figure of Absolom mocks the courtly lover - nightly he sings under Alison's window and sends her bourgeois gifts to entice her. Unlike the Knight, the Miller's characters are not moral or honorable; they simply want to gratify themselves. While the Knight's story ends with an honorable death and a union between lovers, the Miller's tale ends with humiliation: the cuckholded husband is branded insane, Absolom suffered and prank, and Nicolas a painful burn. Consequently the Miller mocks the Knight's prayer. He wishes the company well, but the content of his tale expresses his laughter. In a way he "paid back" the Knight's tale.

The Miller tells his tale momentarily to amuse and and embarrass (the Reeve and his own cameo appearance), while the Knight tells a story strong on "sentence" or meaning. The two different motives reveal the fundamental differences between the two men: the noble Knight can still believe in a higher beautiful world, while the Miller cannot accept it ever existed.
 


 

An essay by Sheena Berwick:
 

As the Knight begins his tale, which he embarks upon without preamble, we are instantly reminded of the stateliness of the Knight, his overwhelming human dignity and moral world view, which Chaucer described in the general prologue. The Knight is the epitome of a man of the first estate - noble and humble, courageous and gentle, a warrior and a saint. As befits his elevated class, he speaks with elegance and seriousness about the important attitudes and values that any human - and a privileged human in particular - should cherish.

While as the beginning tale-teller by virtue of his rank he is committed to follow Harry Bailey's order to entertain and inform with "sentence and moost solas," like all his other activities in life he approaches his story with a sense of purpose: to teach his fellow pilgrims of the vital importance of embracing a worthy philosophy. Deeply embedded in his tale of Arcite and Palamon is a critique of courtly love and of a right-ordered world, which happens to correspond to the writings of Boethius, a work that, not incidentally, was translated into English by Chaucer.

The Knight's tale - a tragic historic romance - is about a world he knows well. The father figure in the story - a man not unlike the Knight himself - is Theseus, who has married Ypolita, the Amazon queen whose people he has conquered. Two of the defeated warriors from Thebes, Arcite and Palamon are taken captive to Athens and imprisoned. From their cell in a tower they see, and fall in love with, Ypolita's beautiful sister Emylye. The path of this true, and courtly, love does not run smoothly. For in addition to the love object being completely out of reach, the two close friends are locked in deep enmity: they both love the same woman: Palamon, who saw her first and therefore feels he has the first claim, but Arcite is resistant to this logic. As a result a life-long friendship is shattered.

As the Knight's story proceeds we hear of Arcite's freedom, a boon he is loath to accept because he must return to Thebes. But he accepts the conditions of his release, only to later betray his promise to Theseus and return to be near Emelye in Athens. Palamon escapes from prison and as he flees, he encounters Arcite in a wood. In what is a travesty of courtly ideals, they unleash all their hatred for each other and fight brutally, almost to the death. Theseus intervenes, is dissuaded from his first impulse to slay them both by his Queen and her sister, and resolves to return order to the disordered lives of Palamon and Arcite by staging a tournament: the winner will win Emyle as his bride.

The symbolism of the tournament as created by the Knight is a stroke of philosophic genius. The stadium is a perfect circle - a symbol of a perfect world - and the circle is marked by temples to the three gods, Mars, Venus, and Diana. The Knight has skillfully introduced his world view into his story: three warring emotions are presented for discussion. Mars represents Arcite, and the human instinct for aggression, Venus the passionate impulses of love, and Diana represents Emyle's desire for chastity. The battle ends with Palamon's victory , his death, and Acite's marriage to Emyle [actually the other way around].

The Knight ends his story with a profound philosophical sermon about the need for patience and honor in life and a quiet acceptance of one's fate. Man, he tells us, does not know what's best for himself. It is better to leave fate in the hands of the gods [or God?]. Fortune's wheel always turns; man cannot control his destiny.

In contrast the Wife of Bath's Tale is a raucous, bawdy, highly personal, and utterly subversive of ordered and accepted societal values. In her telling, which is filled with humour certainly, and often at other's expense, one has the sense of turmoil, even chaos.

She cocks a snoot at the Church, refusing to honor the rigid laws that makes society orderly, while using the clerical weapons of scripture fo argue her own case for multi-marriage and female maistre. The Wife is devoid of decorum, a fact she relishes; she likes to drink, party on pilgrimages, and compete with men in every way possible.

However, in spite of her brazen stance, one senses Alison's dissatisfaction with her life - she is a victim of her own chaotic behavior - and one senses her longing for her youth and sexual vitality.

The tale she tells of the ugly old hag and the rapist knight is a mirror of her own inner life and longing. She tells her tale, a fairy tale, in fact, of what she wishes her life could be. One wonders about the veracity of her mastery of her husbands as a consequence of her tale. Is she in fact the old woman who is restored to beauty and youth by the love of a young man?

In this tale, Chaucer shows us that the concept one spouse's mastery over another is a losing proposition. Happiness and peace come from living together in harmony, one out of concern for the other - sharing respect and courtesy.

The Knight would agree.