Chaucer and Empowerment of the Female Figure as Expressed within The Knights Tale
Geoffrey Chaucers classic Canterbury Tales reflects the authors exploration of society at the time of his writing. In The Knights Tale, the figure of the Knight relates a story in which the values of chivalry are recounted in the form of a myth. The Knight defines the standards of love, compassion, and norms common within a period in which honor and duty tended to supersede all other qualities. Yet as the Knight is in control of deciding which story to recount to his fellow travelers, the themes found within his tale do not reflect so much upon the values as were manifested in ancient Greece, but rather reflects upon what the Knight himself wished to perceive within a tale of heroism and valor. In this paper, the Knight presets the female figure as one of power only under the condition where she is removed from the setting.