Courtly love

What is courtly Love? Courtly love has to do with love over someone or something that has you in a daze, that can’t see what really is going on. Some of the characteristics for courtly love are; the lover cannot eat or sleep, He lives in fear of his beloved’s scorn or of offending her, He cares for nothing but that which will please his beloved. Some of the principles courtly love has are: Married love is oxymoronic; marriage is assumed to be a loveless institution primarily good for business arrangements, one who is not jealous is not in love, and love requires suffering.

The knight’s tale has courtly love in it. The Knight's Tale is also concerned with courtly love, which demanded the loyalty of the knight to just one person: his lady-love. Courtly love was actually a system of love, just as chivalry was a system of knightly behavior. That means there were rules. The system got its start in the literature of the Aquitaine region in France, where troubadours sang ballads about the often secret and illicit love of knights for noblewomen. The Wife of Bath is put on a pedestal because the knights praise her. The love they have for her made them stronger and more honorable knights.

The Miller’s tale portrays courtly love as the main topic in the story. Two of the three main characters are fighting over the third main character Emelye. They are prisoners of war and when they first set eyes on her they lust for her from afar. Once Palamon and arcite find they both lover her, they want her for themselves. So since they can’t come to a conclusion they are set to a joust. Before the joust is supposed to happen Emelye goes the Temple of Diana to pray about her situation.