Within Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, “The Knight’s Tale,” and “The Miller’s Tale” each give a different account of a specific view of love and marriage. Each tale in The Canterbury Tales is a narrative on a specific human personality type. In “The Knight’s Tale,” and “The Miller’s Tale” particularly, each narrative concerns a specific level of virtue and morality that corresponds with a view of love. In “The Knight’s Tale” and “The Miller’s Tale,” two accounts of courtly love are given: a pure account and a flawed, comical account. In the Middle Ages, courtly love was most widely considered to be “love for its own sake...unassociated with property or family...focused on another man’s wife,” (Barbara Tuchman), in which a nobleman completely occupied by lovesickness would pursue a noblewoman, often despite her wishes, displaying his affections by means of valiant deeds. It was concerned with nobility, secrecy, adultery, and paradoxically chastity as the desires of the man could never be fulfilled due to the pressure of society and morals. It was for this reason that courtly love was considered to be an elevated form of love.
“The Knight's Tale” illustrates the pure form of courtly and thus the highest level of morality and virtue. In this story, two cousins, Palamon and Arcite, who are both noblemen, become wildly in love with Emily, the daughter of the Duke of Athens, while in jail. They confess their love for her to each other, sparking a fight for the right to court her affection, “It’s you instead who would be false to me, / and false you are, I tell you utterly. / For par amour, I loved her first, not you,” (TKT, 1153-1155). Later on, Arcite was freed from prison on behalf of his friend, Duke Perotheus, though he quickly grew sad at the prospect of being away from his sight of Emily. However, he soon realizes that he had undergone a full physical and mental transformation, so much so that he was barely recognizable as himself anymore, “all were overturned in position / in both habit and the disposition / of this despairing lover,” (TKT, 1377-1379). This transformation allowed him to attain a job under Theseus, and eventually gain entry into Theseus’ court, enabling him to have access to Emily, though limited, “that since his face had been disfigured so / by all that he had suffered, he could go, / and live in Athens, by some lowly guise.../ then he could see his lady every day,” (TKT, 1403-1406). Years later, Palamon escaped from prison in a desperate attempt to try to woo his love, Emily. Soon after, Palamon and Arcite meet again in a grove on the way to Athens. At first, neither man recognized the other, but as soon as they realized who the other was, the two men resumed their fighting, “Arcite, you false and wicked traitor! / now you are caught who loves my lady so. / she for whom I have had such pain and woe,” (TKT, 1580-1582). Their fight turned into a duel, and upon Theseus’ entrance, the duel became an organized tournament for Emily’s love and affection, “Whichever of the two / with his hundred.../ shall slay or from the lists the other drive-- / to him I shall give Emily to wive,” (TKT, 1857-1860). The men engaged in a courtly love affair are most generally depicted as extremely lovesick. Both Palamon and Arcite immediately became lovesick upon their first sight of Emily. This is evident in the heated argument that took place between them. Neither man wanted to give in to the other, so as a result, they alienated each other out of resentment. Lovesick people are more prone to act foolishly as their judgment is impaired by their desire to attain the affection of their beloved. Arcite’s decision to take advantage of his transformation is a prime example of being overcome by lovesickness. Arcite was so occupied by his love for Emily that he ignored the risks of working for Theseusand potentially getting caught. He risked his life to be closer to Emily. Palamon also displayed lovesickness when he escaped from jail. As previously stated, duels and other valiant deeds are other fundamental aspects of courtly love. The tournament that Palamon and Arcite participated in as well as their previous unorganized duels are examples of valiant deeds. The valiant deeds were meant to impress the woman being courted so that she would accept the advances made toward her. The deed whether reckless or truly valiant were meant to be physical displays of courage and manly virtue. Out of the three views of love, pure courtly love is considered to hold the highest level of morality and virtue because the woman and her suitor never engage with each other physically, hence why chastity is a standard value within courtly relationships. Courtly love serves purely to fulfill the emotional desires of the two parties involved since at least one party was typically in an unhappy relationship or marriage. Courtly love was also considered to ennoble both the man and woman involved. The valiant deeds acted out by the mn fostered his courage and physical strength while also making him more in tune with his emotions. The desire to impress a woman also motivated the man to concern himself more with bettering his physical appearance. The woman benefits by gaining recognition that she is more than just a sexual object meant to be bred for children. She is made to feel as if she is worth attention and admiration rather than solely practical uses. Marriages between two people of noble status in the middle ages were most typically for political gain and only the poor married for love. Courtly love abandoned that prospect, allowing people of nobility to satisfy their romantic and emotional desires.
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The example of love shown in “The Miller’s Tale” is a distorted and corrupt form of courtly love. In the story, John, a carpenter, is married to Alison who is stunningly beautiful and quite a bit younger than he is. John is extremely of his bride as he fears that because she is so young and beautiful she will leave him for someone more suited to her, “ he jealously / kept her as if inside a cage, for she / was one both young and wild, and he had fears / of being a cuckold, so advanced in years,” (TMT, 3223-3226). Alison was much more suited to be married to a younger man rather than John, “ she really was a primrose, quite a peach, / one fit for any lord to lay in bed / or any worthy man to wed,” (TMT, 3268-3270), and Nicholas, a young scholar of similar age to Alison, noticing this took it upon himself to entice Alison into falling in love with him, “surely if I don't have my will, / for secret love, dear, I’ll have quite a spill,” (TMT, 3277-3278). At first, Alison defiantly refused his advances but quickly gave into him, “ she agreed at last to grant him her love,” (TMT, 3290-3291). Their affair became heated quite quickly; however, unbeknownst to Nicholas, the parish clerk at the church which Alison attended was also quite smitten with her and decided to also pursue Alison, “by go-betweens and proxies he would woo / and swore he’d be her servant ever true,” (TMT, 3375-3376). He would stand outside her house and sing to her, though his sons were never met with anything and all of his efforts were only met with rejection. After a brief period of Absalon’s attempts, he seemed to give up. Alison and Nicholas were eager to spend time together without risking getting caught by John. to resolve this issue, Nicholas devised and executed a plan to trick John into preparing for a second great flood. Nicholas instructed john to collect three large bathtubs to secure to the rafters of the ceiling so that they could each stay in one separate from each other throughout the duration of the flood. While the flood was happening, none of them could speak or interact with each other in any way, “ we must not speak one word, we cannot afford / one call or cry but only silent prayer / ...you wife and you, therefore, hang far apart,” (TMT, 3586-3589). During the flood, john obeyed his orders and eventually fell asleep. Alison and Nicholas took advantage of this and snuck away to finally sleep with each other. Later in the night, Absalon, weary from lack of sleep, visited the carpenter’s house once again. He resumed his pleas and begged Alison to kiss him through the window. She agreed. Nicholas overheard their conversation but did not make himself known to Absalon. In a last-ditch attempt to relieve herself of foolish Absalon, Alison stuck her butt out the window, and Absalon, expecting her lips, unknowingly kissed it, “ and from the window, she stuck out her hole; / and Absalon… / then kissed her naked ass with his eager mouth / before he was aware of all this,” ( TMT, 3732-3735). Once Absalon realized what had just happened, he flew into a rage and promptly ran straight to his friend, the blacksmith. He asked for a burning hot iron and once he returned to the house with it, asked for yet another kiss. Alison once again obliged and planned to pull the same prank but this time it was Nicholas who stuck his butt out of the window. Unfortunately, instead of kissing with his lips, Absalon kissed Nicholas with the scorching iron. This caused Nicholas to jump away into the wall knocking John down from his tub in the rafters. The description of john’s treatment of Alison and his protectiveness of her are an indication of an unhappy marriage which is often an aspect of courtly love. Alison and John’s unhappy marriage was most likely what caused Alison to have an affair with Nicholas. She was bored and probably felt trapped in her marriage so she needed to escape. “The Miller’s Tale” has many traits of courtly love, however, they are mostly all distorted in some way. Miller makes a complete parody of courtly love and what it stands for, he makes it seem very vulgar by the way he talks about the characters in a very sexual manner and the deeds that the characters do throughout the story. Nicholas’s pleas to Alison and her brief rejection embody the trait of secrecy and obviously courtship. however, Alison hardly rejected Nicholas.
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