He hunts and ostensibly lives the life of a young, carefree lord. When he rides, "Ginglen in a whistlinge wind as cleere / And seed as loude as dooth the chapel belle," (Chaucer 170-71)
It has sometimes been argued that Chaucer uses women in a manner that mimics the idealized social role of women in the medieval tradition (Hallett 481). Essentially, the assertion is put forward that women in medieval England could only have been conceived of by men as their opposite, their social "other," (De Beauvoir 1407)
The courtly love upheld by the Knight's honor code, and pursued by the Squire is precisely the variety of love exhibited by Palamoun and Arcite simply by seeing Emilye through a window: " 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. The lovers go without sleep because they are tormented by their love, and for many years they pine away hopelessly for an unattainable woman," (Gardner)
Ultimately, this is because the audience is separated three times over from the characters in the tales: first, there is the pilgrim telling the tale; second, there is Chaucer the narrator describing the pilgrims; and third, there is Chaucer himself, who uses all of these characters to mold his complete story and link his audience to his subject. It has sometimes been argued that Chaucer uses women in a manner that mimics the idealized social role of women in the medieval tradition (Hallett 481)
Yet, in this respect, Chaucer is exceedingly innovative -- for his time -- regarding the creation of all his characters: each character is, in a way, held up to the ideal model of what it means to be a monk, a friar, a prioress, or a knight, and shown to somehow diverge from their associated epitome. So in general, "Chaucer was very careful to make his pilgrims representative of contemporary society," (Halliday 95)
Doubtlessly, the association of both positives and negatives around certain aspects of life is exemplified best by the Knight's depiction of courtly love. Of course, this must be the first version of love that Chaucer presents because it is the form of love believed to exist in the upper classes: "Though sex and marriage belonged to everyone, 'love' in Chaucer's time belonged to the upper classes," (Howard 103)
Another feminist critic of literature, Luce Irigaray, sees western society as not only utilizing a vernacular that habitually holds up all women to an individual conception of the female, but that the way language is used, in general, incessantly degrades the value of women with respect to men. Put differently, "The law that orders our society is the exclusive valorization of men's needs/desires, of exchanges among men," (Irigaray 171)
Most readers, I am aware, treat this great masterpiece simply as a storehouse of fiction, and so do many critics. Yet everybody feels, I am sure, that Chaucer was quite as much interested in the pilgrims themselves as in their several narratives," (Kittredge 153)
The Knight also possesses a lengthy and remarkable military career; he has "ridden to battle in both Christian and heathen lands and in every instance served his king well. Despite his valorous deeds, the Knight never boated of his actions nor bored his listeners with his feats," (Nicoll 12)
However, Absolon's love for Alisoun is meant to be ironic in two ways: first it is ironic that the object of his polite and proper love is a married woman; and second, his use of princely tactics to win a carpenter's wife is completely out of place. The Miller shows how courtly love, in the context of the real world -- as he understands it -- is equivalent to awkwardness and unrealistic frivolity: "Taken together, the imbalances in [Absolon's] demeanor, as shown later in the tale -- courtly and infantile, eager and timid, sexually obsessed and over-idealistic -- create an element of psychological comedy, with probably an underlying current of homophobia," (Phillips 292)
While others felt that anti-Semitism in the tales was "incidental" and the "whole critical enterprise directed toward explaining away Chaucer's bigotry is misguided and unnecessary" (Friedman: 127, 119). Critics feel that a prioress was actually a well-respect figure in medieval social hierarchy and therefore Chaucer has presented "a full-fledged characterization of a thoroughly competent, shrewd professional woman of the late fourteenth century" (Frank: 229)
Many have commented on her anti-Semitic views: "[her] own lack of Christian virtue makes her an unworthy judge of whom she hates" (Rex 121-122). While others felt that anti-Semitism in the tales was "incidental" and the "whole critical enterprise directed toward explaining away Chaucer's bigotry is misguided and unnecessary" (Friedman: 127, 119)
In medieval times, women were mostly granted a specific position in the society. They were seen as wives, mothers, daughters and usually "portrayed in relation to a man or group of man" (Klapisch-Zuber285)
That he began his story with the tale of this knight gives some weight to what an important role they played in society. Regarding the book, critics often say, "The Knight is often called one of the 'ideal' pilgrims along with the Parson and sometimes the Clerk because unlike the other portraits, Chaucer offers no attack or satire against them" (Lambdin 2)
Chaucer's "Retraction" and Its Meaning within the Context of the Canterbury Tales The "Retraction," a fragment that follows the last of the Tales in Chaucer's masterpiece, has attracted much critical attention, as students of Chaucer attempt to divine whether it implies a renunciation on the author's part of his work, or is intended ironically. Benson comments that "the authenticity of the Retraction has been challenged" (Benson
(Wurtele, 1980) Thus, Chaucer's recounting of the Wife of Bath's Tale is the word of fallen man for the fallen act of sexual love. By repenting of it, Chaucer subtly calls our attention to the Word of God, that is, the only means of redemption of fallen man by a merciful God (Knapp, 1983) Boenig mentions that tales such as the story of Melibee showed up anonymously in various "compendia of devotional treatises "of the time (Boenig, 1995)
" The damage had been done, and "he could not revoke the act nor remedy its evil consequences." (Wurtele, 1980) Chaucer himself does put similar words in the mouth of the Manciple, who laments, "Thyng that is seyd, and forth it gooth, / Though hym repente, or be hym nevere so looth" (Chaucer, Manciple's Tale IX, lines 354-355)
Haines compares it to the Sir Gawain and the Green Knight postcript, "Hony soyt qui mal pense." (Haines, 1983) Thus the intention of the writing is a responsibility shared by both the writer and the reader
Above all, Chaucer was an acute student of human nature, both in the day-to-day actions of all classes of people in his society, and also in how they had been portrayed by the writers who preceded him. His experiences as a scholar and as a diplomat would have exposed him to a wide spectrum of the cruelties, mercies, conceits and foibles of universal man (Persall, 1992)
"The Retraction has been read as a real confession by Chaucer the poet in the face of imminent death; as a realistic confession by Chaucer the pilgrim in response to the Parson's sermon; and as an ironic parody of both confession and retraction in keeping with the Manciple's cynical counsel to silence." (Portnoy,1994) Therefore, all the foregoing experts to some extent support the sincerity of the first Chaucer, the genuinely devout Christian, praying that his book of Tales might be accepted as "writen for our doctrine