The Topic of the "Knight's Tale."

Description: Argues that KnT is a heightened, courtly "particularization" of a fundamental aspect of the human condition: "the disorderly promptings of carnal love and their disastrous effects." Considers the imagery of the poem (Christian, Boethian, fire, and animal), various structural parallels of plot and character, and recurrent representations of the continuities of love and death, suggesting that the inseparability of the two underlies human affairs. Comments on Chaucer's adaptations of Boccaccio, the temple scenes, and the Knight as narrator.

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