February 2nd, 2010
Who is the knight in the Knight's Tale?
Charles Muscatine is his article ''The Knight's Tale'' evaluates Chaucer's Knight Tale focusing closely on its structure. He displays some of the mistakes the tale's critics make concerning '' its poor dramatics rather than its rich symbolism, to its surface rather than its structure'' (Muscatine, p.175). Muscatine attributes the lack of characterization of Palamon and Arcita, which critics refer to, to Chaucer's intent in emphasizing the symmetrical nature of the tale's structure. Even though The Knight Tale has two heroes opposed to its source Boccaccio's Tesedie, they are still 'indistinguishable' from each other (p.176). According to Muscatine, Chaucer intends to make his heroes of 'equal worth and equal claims, so that readers cannot think of one of them as morally superior to the other nor take a tragic attitude toward either of them (p.176-185). He sheds light on Roots' interpretation of the tale and the importance of ' giving ourselves up to the spirit of romance' to be able to appreciate the magnificence of the tale. Roots responds to those considered the lack of characterization as the tale's biggest weakness by stating; "It is not in the characterization, but in the description, that the greatness of the Knight's Tale resides" (p.176). Muscatine expands on that and suggests the functionality of the tale's form and style, which contributes to its meaning.
Even though Muscatine likes the fact that Chaucer does not copy Boccaccio's story of the knight's tale but creates his own version of tale, he criticizes the deliberate slow pace of it. Although he admires the 'rhetorical descrpito' of the poem, he still thinks that its descriptions and the ' nondynamic quality of the speeches' had gone too far. In fact, he criticizes the 'nature of action' in the poem and the lack of details of 'look, attitude, and gesture' (p.178). Muscatine affirms that the lack of characterization, symmetry of scene, action and character grouping, and the ' nondynamic descriptions' is what results in the unexciting plot in the poem (p.181).
According to Muscatine's symmetrical interpretation of the tale, he sees Theseus as the central authority that maintains the balance of the ordering of the elements in the poem. He shows examples of symmetry in Chaucer's depiction of the two knights, their patron deities, their claims and their companies. In Arcite's, complain when he is released from prison, Muscatine finds symmetry in its vocabulary and themes to the ones Palamon addresses in his own complain.
In brief, Muscatine considers the Knight's Tale more as a ''poetic pageant'' which expresses the chivalric life the pattern and the pace of which is reflected through the order of the poem (p.181). The descriptions that we might find irrelevant and superficial in the poem indeed support the poem's pattern and meaning. The courtly love that Chaucer revolts against is praised in Theseus' speech but also is used as a means of expression of the noble life. The existence of the indistinguishable heroes in the poem provides 'balance' and 'variety' instead of 'conflict' (p.185-187).
Obviously, Chaucer does not want his readers to draw any' moral conclusions' from this poem (p.187). The threatening existence of chaos and disorder is what challenges the chivalry life. Chivalric values in the poem transcend any 'earthly sense' and replace it by '' faith in the ultimate order of all things'' (p.190). In this tale, Chaucer revolts against the normative chivalric values by his symmetrical feature giving both knights the same moral worth. Therefore, we cannot find the knight we look for as we read the tale since the knight is no longer the kind of knight that we knew. I think Chaucer intended to raise confusion in the reader's mind regarding the concept of a knight. Chaucer excellently leaves us with the unanswered question: who is a knight?
