Mimetic Desire and the Misappropriation of the Ideal in 'The Knight's Tale'
- Author / Editor
- Amtower, Laurel.
Mimetic Desire and the Misappropriation of the Ideal in 'The Knight's Tale'
- Published
- Exemplaria 8 (1996): 125-44.
- Description
- In KnT, Chaucer presents three conceptions of knighthood, each arising from individual desires that displace social responsibility. Arcite and Palamon's rivalry is based in mimetic desire for ontological being. Theseus arbitrates their rivalry by ritualizing the violence such desire engenders. He thus defines Arcite's death as a necessary sacrifice that restores communal order.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Knight and His Tale.