Similarities Between The Knight's Tale And The Pardoners Tale

Contrasting “The Knight’s Tale” vs. “The Pardoner’s Tale”
The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is an older book containing a entertaining storytelling contest between a group of pilgrims on a pilgrimage. The pilgrims, on their pilgrimage, venture from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas á Becket. During their pilgrimage, the Host introduces the idea of a storytelling contest. He claims the trip to the shrine of Saint Thomas á Becket will be boring to travel in silence. The Host lays out the plan of each pilgrim telling two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back from their adventure. Upon their return, the winner, decided by the Host for the most entertaining and meaningful tale, will receive a meal paid by the rest of the pilgrims. At his own cost, the Host guides the group of pilgrims, while the pilgrims pay for their adventure. To decide who starts the contest off, the members draw straws. The admired Knight is up first.
The Knight tells a tale that takes place in Ancient Greece. In Athens, a powerful duke name

theseus rules the city. Four women visited the Duke, weeping. The women’s husbands were killed in the attack on the city of Thebes. After a refusal of the burial of the men’s bones, Thebes is enraged and returns the bones. Returning from the funeral sites, Theseus discovers two wounded soldiers lying in the battlefield. The two men Theseus discover end up being the two main characters. Theseus spares the life of the two men, but he punishes the men a life of prison in a tower. The two prisoners, Palamon and Arcite, both live in the towers for several years upon Arcite’s release by a friend. Palamon later drugs the guards and escapes the tower to freedom as well. Before their release and escape, the two men both fell in love with a women from the tower. They both laid eyes upon a beautiful maiden, Emily.
The men both claim love for Emily, and they decide to dual after confronting each other. Theseus stumbled upon the dual, and the two men reveal their identities to the duke. Palamon request death for the both of them, and Theseus agrees. Theseus’s queen and Emily both argue his decision to kill the fugitives, and Theseus spares the two men’s life. To stop the men from feuding again in the field, the duke creates a tournament fifty weeks in the future to decide who receives the love of Emily. The two men will battle each other alongside one hundred of each of the men’s finest men.
Theseus, eager for the tournament, constructs an enormous stadium for the event. He also creates three temples for three meaningful gods to the tournament. The three gods are Venus, the goddess of love; Mars, the god of war; and Diana, the goddess of chastity. Before the tournament, Emily, Palamon, and Arcita all visit a temple and pray. Palamon prays to Venus for the love of Emily. Palamon does not wish to win the battle, but indeed prays for Emily’s love. Arcita prays to Mars, the goddess of war. Arcita prays for victory over Palamon in the tournament. Emily, even though she is not involved in the battling in the tournament, also prays. She prays to Diana that sh does not marry either of the men, and remains a virgin maiden. Palamon, Arcita, and Emily all received supernatural signs from the temple where they prayed.
Before the tournament begins, Theseus states precise rules the men must follow. Theseus claims that killing each other is considered ungentlemanly, so he claims the knights should not kill each other. Theseus also claims what weapons the knights can use. The tournament ends once a leader is captured. The battle comes to an end once the courageous King Emetreus captures Palamon and is the tournament is declared a victory for Arcita. Arcita is excited about his victory, and decides to take a victory lap on his horse. Arcita is thrown off his horse. While the celebration continues, a hurt Arcita is placed in Theseus’s palace. After a few days, Arcita knows death is approaching. He calls for his love Emily and his opponent Palamon to come see him before he is dead. Arcita claims his great love for Emily, but puts his feud with Palamon behind him and request for Emily to be with Palamon once his passing. The two, after many years of mourning the death of Arcita, get married.
The Knight chose a tale that fits his lifestyle. The Knight tells a story about knights, love, and also adventure. Due to the Knight having knowledge and interest in his tale, he is the winner of the storytelling contest. The pardoner’s tale finish second. The pardoner’s tale included a tale with a moral lesson about greed. Before his tale, he says he preaches solely to get money. The pardoner denounces three action: drunkenness, gambling, and swearing. His tale starts with him describing a group of young people who spend their time drinking. He returns to his story by exclaiming how three drunk rioters hear word that their old friend was killed by a figure named Death. While drunk, they venture out to avenge their friend’s death and kill the man Death.
The rioters bump into a sad man.

The man claims he is waiting for Death to take him for some time, and the angered men are enraged by the name Death. The rioters ask where to find Death, and the old man says they can find death under a certain oak tree. The rioters rush to the tree and find gold coins. The men do not want to be taken as thieves, as discover a plan to transport the gold at night. The men direct the youngest to retreat back to town and grab wine. While the youngest is away, the two remaining men design a plan to kill the third to increase their profits. The man in town is also consumed by greed, and he decides to poison the wine. Retreating with the poison wine, the youngest man is killed by the other two rioters. To celebrate, the two men drink the wine. Within minutes, all three of the greedy rioters are dead. After his tale, the Pardoner asked the group for

contributions.
The Pardoner’s tale was a follow up to the Knight’s tale because of the lack of background to the tale. The Knight provided background to his tale, including the information of Palamon and Arcita being prisoners, injured soldiers, and also cousins. The Pardoner included no background of the men seeking to find Death. All we know about the men is that they are rioters. The Knight's tale is also very entertaining with action due to the battles and love conflicts. The Knight is also very descriptive in explaining the temples that were created for the gods and also his massive stadium. The Pardoner lacked any descriptive details in his tale.
Although the Pardoner lost in the entertaining section of his tale, his tale’s moral lesson was more powerful than the Knight’s tale. The Pardoner’s tale described a lesson over greed. The rioter’s greed led them to death. Without greed, the rioters could have live a wealthy life, but due to greed, the men were killed. The moral lesson of the Knight’s Tale is to not follow the rule of courtly love, and to not allow love to disturb friendships, alliances, or family relations. Due to courtly love and both knights claiming love for Emily, the two knights were persuaded into battle against each other. The two men were cousins, and the battle resulted in years of mourning for the surviving man. The Pardoner’s lesson is very hypicrital to himself. He exclaims how he does not preach for free, and after his speech he asked for contributions. The Pardoner is indeed, geedy himself. The Pardoner may have had a more powerful lesson, but does not abide by it.
Due to the Pardoner not living by his moral lesson, the Knight’s tale being more entertaining, and the Knight’s tale being more descriptive, the Knight’s tale is the winner of the storytelling contest on the pilgrims’ pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas á Becket.