The Dehumanizing Metamorphoses of The Knight's Tale

Author / Editor
Helterman, Jeffrey.

Title
The Dehumanizing Metamorphoses of The Knight's Tale

Published
ELH 38 (1971): 493-511.

Description
Identifies in KnT a "series of metamorphoses that expose the dehumanizing force of Venerian love," arguing that Chaucer converted Boccaccio's "random collection" of animal images into a "formal pattern" and obliquely affirmed the Boethian notion that worldly love is anti-transcendent. Similarly, the Knight's chivalric ideals are misdirected, subtly undercut by the rhetoric of "occupatio" throughout the tale.

Chaucer Subjects
Knight and His Tale
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Style and Versification