Love in Knights Tale and Wife of Baths Tale Essay

Love in Knights Tale and Wife of Baths Tale The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer around 1386, is a collection of tale told by pilgrims on a religious pilgrimage. Two of these tales, The Knights Tale and The Wife of Baths Tale, involve different kinds of love and different love relationships. Some of the loves are based on nobility, some are forced, and some are based on mutual respect for each partner. My idea of love is one that combines aspects from each of the tales told in The Canterbury Tales. In The Knights Tale, the love between the two knights and Emelye is intensely powerful. The love that Palomon and Arcite feel towards Emelye is so strong that the two knights feel that it is worth more than†¦show more content†¦While they are both incarcerated, Palomon speaks very highly of Emelyes beauty. All of what he has to say of her is about her physical attractiveness. This is not something that I would want to base my ideal love on. Looks will age, but the heart will not. In The Wife of Baths Tale, a knight is forced to marry a wretched old woman. The knight and the old woman do not get along well, and when the old woman suggests that she make things better, the knight responds saying that the woman is old and that nothing good could come out of this situation. A love relationship such as this could never last because there is no attraction-physical or mental. A major factor in love is physical attraction between the two partners. Here there is no attraction. Two people cannot love each other if they cannot stand to be in one anothers presence. The knight can hardly bare to look at his wife, let alone sleep with her. Despite the fact that the knight despises her, the old woman persists on getting the knight to love her. While the knight is complaining about how terrible his marriage is, the old woman says he will give him the choice of she either being old and unattractive, or young and more attractive, making males more attracted to her. She tried to give him the choice of which way he wanted her, when in all reality, she was gaining more control over him by allowing him to think he had control over her. After this, the old womanShow MoreRelatedCourtly Love in The Knights Tale and The Wife of Baths Tale1353 Words   |  6 Pagesseemingly clichà © finale encompasses all the ideals of courtly love, which began in the Medieval Period and still exists today. While these ideals were prevalent in medieval society, they still existed with much controversy. Geoffrey Chaucer, a poet of the period, comments on courtly love in his work The Canterbury Tales. 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