A Comparison Of The Stereotypes In The Knight's Tale

The Knight’s Tale is another story where the lady is seen as the “troublemaker.” When

Palamon and Arcite, two cousins/sworn brothers are tossed in jail, they end up looking out the window one day and happen to spot Emily. Palamon spots her first and his cries of longing wake

Arcite up who then sets his eyes upon Emily as well. A fight ensues between them, but of course they can’t go anywhere or do anything about it, so they cease their bickering: with Emily not having a clue about the two fighting over her. One thing leads to another and a fight is to be held between Palamon and Arcite to determine who will marry Emily. Of course Emily gets no say in this, and although she tries to change her fate, even the goddess Diana can’t help her.

Sure she’s in charge every marriage she’s been in, and she’s proud of the fact that she always gets her way, but the way she boasts about it is flawed.

She states that since her first marriage at age twelve she’s had five husbands, to which she misquotes some passages from scripture, and even compares herself to King Solomon. She’s trying to validate her actions by comparing them to biblical events but since she’s not educated in that area she just makes herself look like a fool. Adding more to the belief that women don’t know what they’re talking about. Then according to her, she’s had two bad marriages and three good ones. The good ones were only good because the men were old, docile, and rich, and they let her torment them into doing her bidding. “They gladly brought me fine things from the fair,/

Happy whenever I spoke with a mild air,/ For God knows I could chide outrageously” (213). She also goes on and on about how she uses sex to control her husbands, and how she would berate them if they ever got out of line. Even when she’s with her fourth husband she already has a

So in all reality she doesn’t help improve how women are perceived in society, she just adds to the problem by exploiting her “conquests” and failing to appear educated. Her tale is even about a knight that rapes a woman and is let off because he answers a question right, which is the complete opposite of what her whole prologue was supposed to be about. Further proving that women can’t decide on what they want and that even when put in the man’s position, they’re still in the wrong. All of the tales are meant to be satirical, even profane at some times, and especially over the top. So even though the roles of the characters are definitely exaggerated, there are still some underlying truths to them. Excluding The Wife of Bath’s Prologue, the women in the other two tales had no choice in deciding their future (who they were going to marry). Their roles in society were minimal/homely, which was probably very normal during that time: even in The

Wife of Bath’s Prologue the woman is still seen as the person that’s in the wrong, which probably happened most of the time as well. So yes, the characters problems, the solutions