Forsworn and Fordone: Arcite as Oath-Breaker in the Knight's Tale

Author / Editor
Rock, Catherine A.

Title
Forsworn and Fordone: Arcite as Oath-Breaker in the Knight's Tale

Published
Chaucer Review 40 (2006): 416-32.

Description
Arcite breaks his oath of brotherhood with Palamon, the promise he made to Theseus never to return to Athens, and the code of knighthood by doing menial labor disguised as a "povre laborer." The "ignoble, freakish manner of [his] death" thus suits the manner of his living.

Chaucer Subjects
Knight and His Tale.