Relationships In The Knight's Tale

A very common theme in medieval English literature was that of Romance. One example of this is found in The Canterbury Tales, a collection of short stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the early 15th century. More specifically, the short story, “The Knight’s Tale.” Love is the driving force of the story, and makes its appearance in three main ways. Love between husbands and wives, and example being Theseus and Hypolita. There is love between brothers, as demonstrated by Arcite and Palamon. We also see how quickly that brotherly love can be pushed aside in exchange for jealousy, anger and hatred. Finally, there is the love both Arcite and Palamon feel toward Emily, which is what most of this story revolves around. Although the story centers
All three of these relationships are essential to the story. “The Knight’s Tale” begins with examples of the love between husbands and wives, starting with Theseus and Hypolita. The love between these two is the entire reason Emily was brought to Athens. Theseus and Hypolita were married and Hypolita left her position as Queen of the Amazons because she “loved strong Theseus far too well ever to think of turning back to dreary Scythia to reign over [the amazons] (40).” Hypolita’s decision to leave Scythia and go to Athens is a crucial part to the later story, because when Hypolita leaves, her little sister Emily follows, thus bringing Emily to Athens. A second instance of how the love between Theseus and Hypolita is crucial to the story is closer to the middle of the story, when Theseus is about to kill Palamon and Arcite. However, instead of killing them, he “[forgave them] both, at the asking of [his] queen
Although they are cousins, they act as if they were brothers, and are likened to brothers often within the tale. Palamon and Arcite are locked up Athens for a few years together. They “loved each other more than if they had been brothers” and “often swore that they would help each other till they died (44).” Nevertheless, as the plot begins to move forward, we see how easily those feelings are pushed aside. Both young men fall in love with Emily, and though they insisted often that there was no use to quarrel about it, they did any way. Instead of feeling love towards one another, they are filled with jealousy, anger, and hate. When Arcite was set free, instead of Palamon being happy for his cousin, he was spiteful, and “burnt up with jealousy…now [that Arcite was] a great Lord and free (50-51).” When they met again years later, they were so overcome with these negative feelings, they were ready to kill each other, and claimed that they were mortal enemies. If not for Theseus interfering, it is likely either Palamon or Arcite would have died. But despite all of this, they become brothers again if only for a short time. Arcite had managed to win Emily to be his wife, but was mortally wounded during the combat. As he lay dying, Arcite sent for Palamon, “whom he still loved in his heart (82).” Some of his final words to Emily were about