Knight's Tale A Gentil Knycht

In what ways and to what extent is Chaucer's Knight's Tale appropriate to its teller, "a verray parfit, gentil knycht?Sophie KingChaucer's Knight's Tale is a story in which the courtly ideals of the chivalric knight are questioned. The narrator of the story, a knight himself, tells us about the noble Theseus and his rule over Athens. Theseus is appropriate to the description "a verray parfit gentil knycht" as much as the narrator himself but we come to question the perfection of both as the story progresses.

Although based on classical Greek mythology Chaucer writes in medieval terms. There is still great debate today about the values of the medieval knight that so often appears in Chaucer's work. Reading courtly poetry and stories of medieval
In practise warfare remains the true test of chivalry and courtesy is largely the stuff of courtly poetryThus there is a clash of priorities and it appears impossible for the perfect knight to be loyal to his neighbour, to his lady, to God, to war and to everything else the code of chivalry entails. The nature of warfare in itself is a crime against courtesy. An example of this is within the fight between Arcite and Palamon in the forest. They courteously help each other to arm and then a fight to the death ensues. It raises the question whether it is even possible to be a perfect and noble knight when the two main aspects of the tale are love and war. Being a knight becomes a contradiction in
Rather than a means of affirming the gallantry of these two knights I would argue it works to emphasise Theseus's chivalric qualities. On finding them in this state he acknowledges loves' violent effects and takes pitee on the two knights. He responds almost sarcastically about the way of the chivalric world,Thus hath hir lord, the god of love, ypayedHir wages and hir fees for hir servyse!Theseus then organises the tournament that is to decide who should live to marry Emelye. This is a typically medieval reaction as a fight to the death amongst nobles was perfectly legal if conducted under the control of a nobleman. Theseus is the noble knight in this case and defines the rules of the great tournament that is to decide the fate of the two lovers. Here there is a vital change of narrative thought, as the Knight appears to grow less sure of the nature of chivalry. The tournament creates death and destruction despite valiant attempts to prevent bloodshed with the ban of certain weapons of war. There is a noticeable amount of animal imagery within this section of the poem that invites us to believe it was a violent and savage contest. Theseus does not quite achieve what he perhaps hoped to. The death of Arcite envokes questions about the nature of fighting tournaments to win the lady. Critics have suggested A Knight's Tale demonstrated Chaucer's distaste of this chivalric practise, viewing it as an outmoded