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In the General Prologue, the Host’s description of the Squire, a young knight, has all the trappings of a traditional courtly lover: he wears fancy clothes, takes care of his appearance, writes music, jousts, dances, and is so passionate in his love that he can barely sleep.
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.
- General Prologue
- The Knight’s Tale
- The Miller’s Prologue and Tale
- The Reeve’s Prologue and Tale
- The Cook’s Prologue and Tale
- The Man of Law’s Introduction, Prologue, Tale, and Epilogue
- The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale
- The Friar’s Prologue and Tale
- The Summoner’s Prologue and Tale
- The Clerk’S Prologue and Tale
At the Tabard Inn, a tavern in Southwark, near London, the narrator joins a company of twenty-nine pilgrims. The pilgrims, like the narrator, are traveling to the shrine of the martyr Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury. The narrator gives a descriptive account of twenty-seven of these pilgrims, including a Knight, Squire, Yeoman, Prioress, Monk, Fri...
Theseus, duke of Athens, imprisons Arcite and Palamon, two knights from Thebes (another city in ancient Greece). From their prison, the knights see and fall in love with Theseus’s sister-in-law, Emelye. Through the intervention of a friend, Arcite is freed, but he is banished from Athens. He returns in disguise and becomes a page in Emelye’s chambe...
The Host asks the Monk to tell the next tale, but the drunken Millerinterrupts and insists that his tale should be the next. He tells the story of an impoverished student named Nicholas, who persuades his landlord’s sexy young wife, Alisoun, to spend the night with him. He convinces his landlord, a carpenter named John, that the second flood is com...
Because he also does carpentry, the Reeve takes offense at the Miller’s tale of a stupid carpenter, and counters with his own tale of a dishonest miller. The Reeve tells the story of two students, John and Alayn, who go to the mill to watch the miller grind their corn, so that he won’t have a chance to steal any. But the miller unties their horse, ...
The Cook particularly enjoys the Reeve’s Tale, and offers to tell another funny tale. The tale concerns an apprentice named Perkyn who drinks and dances so much that he is called “Perkyn Reveler.” Finally, Perkyn’s master decides that he would rather his apprentice leave to revel than stay home and corrupt the other servants. Perkyn arranges to sta...
The Host reminds his fellow pilgrims to waste no time, because lost time cannot be regained. He asks the Man of Law to tell the next tale. The Man of Law agrees, apologizing that he cannot tell any suitable tale that Chaucer has not already told—Chaucer may be unskilled as a poet, says the Man of Law, but he has told more stories of lovers than Ovi...
The Wife of Bathgives a lengthy account of her feelings about marriage. Quoting from the Bible, the Wife argues against those who believe it is wrong to marry more than once, and she explains how she dominated and controlled each of her five husbands. She married her fifth husband, Jankyn, for love instead of money. After the Wife has rambled on fo...
The Friar speaks approvingly of the Wife of Bath’s Tale, and offers to lighten things up for the company by telling a funny story about a lecherous summoner. The Summoner does not object, but he promises to pay the Friar back in his own tale. The Friar tells of an archdeacon who carries out the law without mercy, especially to lechers. The archdeac...
The Summoner, furious at the Friar’s Tale, asks the company to let him tell the next tale. First, he tells the company that there is little difference between friars and fiends, and that when an angel took a friar down to hell to show him the torments there, the friar asked why there were no friars in hell; the angel then pulled up Satan’s tail and...
The Host asks the Clerk to cheer up and tell a merry tale, and the Clerk agrees to tell a tale by the Italian poet Petrarch. Griselde is a hardworking peasant who marries into the aristocracy. Her husband tests her fortitude in several ways, including pretending to kill her children and divorcing her. He punishes her one final time by forcing her t...
The Knight’s Tale is a romance that encapsulates the themes, motifs, and ideals of courtly love: love is like an illness that can change the lover’s physical appearance, the lover risks death to win favor with his lady, and he is inspired to utter eloquent poetic complaints.
Need help with The Knight’s Tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales? Check out our revolutionary side-by-side summary and analysis.
In this tale, the Knight (or Chaucer) implies that the lives of men are influenced by what seems to be chance but, in actuality, is a Prime Mover (God) who controls the ostensibly chance occurrences of the world.
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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.
