The Knight’s Tale, Parts 3–4
Theseus’s construction
of the stadium through the end of the tale Fragment 1, lines 1881–3108
Summary: Part 3
Theseus prepares for the tournament by
constructing an enormous stadium. By its gate, he erects three temples to the
gods—one for Venus, the goddess of love; one for Mars, the god of war; and one
for Diana, the goddess of chastity. The Knight provides a lengthy description
of each temple. The tournament nears, spectators assemble, and both Palamon and
Arcite arrive with impressive armies. The Sunday before the tournament, Palamon
visits the temple of Venus and supplicates her in the night. He tells her of
his desire for Emelye and requests that she bring him victory in the name of
love. The statue of Venus makes an enigmatic “sign” (the reader isn’t told what
the sign is), which Palamon interprets as a positive answer, and he departs
confident. That dawn, Emelye also rises and goes to the temple of Diana.
Desirous to remain a virgin—“a mayden al my lyf” (2305)—she begs Diana to
prevent the impending marriage. But an image of Diana appears and informs her
that she must marry one of the Thebans. Obedient, Emelye retires to her
chamber.
Arcite walks to the temple of Mars and begs
the god of war for victory in the battle. He, too, receives a positive sign:
the doors of the temple clang, and he hears the statue of Mars whisper,
“Victorie!” (2433). Like Palamon, Arcite departs the temple in high hopes for
the coming day. The scene then shifts to the gods themselves. Saturn, Venus’s
father, assures her cryptically that despite Mars’s aid to Arcite, Palamon will
have his lady in the end.
Summary: Part 4
The Firste Moevere of the
cause above,
Whan he first made the faire cheyne of love,
Greet was th’effect, and heigh was his entente.
Whan he first made the faire cheyne of love,
Greet was th’effect, and heigh was his entente.
After much feasting, the spectators assemble
in the stadium. The magnificent armies enter, appearing evenly matched. After
Theseus has sternly delivered the rules, the bloody battle of flashing swords
and maces begins. Though Palamon fights valiantly, Arcite sees his chance and
brings Palamon “to the stake”—he claims him with a sword at his throat. Emelye
rejoices as Theseus proclaims Arcite victorious. Venus, on the other hand,
weeps with shame that her knight lost, until Saturn calms her and signals that
all is not over. At Saturn’s request, the earth shakes beneath Arcite as he
rides toward Theseus. The knight’s horse throws him, crushing his chest.
Gravely wounded, the company transports Arcite to bed, where physicians attempt
in vain to heal him. Arcite expresses his love to Emelye, and then tells her
that if she decides to marry another, she should remember Palamon, who
possesses the qualities of a worthy knight—“trouthe, honour, knyghthede, /
Wysdom, humblesse” (2789–2790).
All of Athens mourns Arcite’s death. Emelye,
Theseus, and Palamon are inconsolable. Theseus’s father, Egeus, takes Theseus
aside and tells him that every man must live and die—life is a journey through
woe that must, at some point, come to an end. After some years pass, the
mourners heal, with the exception of Emelye and Palamon, who continue to go
about sorrowfully, dressed in black. During one parliament at Athens, Theseus
berates the two for grieving too much. He reminds them that God ordains that
all must die, and refusal to accept death is therefore folly. He requests that
they cease mourning, and that his wife’s sister take Palamon for her husband
and lord. They obey, and as they realize the wisdom of Theseus’s advice over
many years, Emelye and Palamon enjoy a long, loving, and happy marriage.
Analysis
Because Egeus has lived long enough to witness
Fortune’s rising and falling pattern, he is the only human character in the
Knight’s Tale who understands that Fortune’s wheel is the plot’s driving force.
Egeus is therefore the only man capable of comforting Theseus amid the general
lament over Arcite’s accidental death. In his final speech to Palamon and
Emelye, Theseus shows that he has learned his lesson from Egeus. Echoing the
old man’s words, the duke argues that excessive mourning over disaster is
inappropriate. His speech conveys a message of humility, instead of an attempt
to explain the meaning of Arcite’s death. A benevolent order may exist in the
universe, Theseus asserts, but human beings should not seek to pry into it, or
set themselves against it by prolonging mourning too long.
The gods, whose role is to develop instability
in the lives of the characters, are the instruments of Fortune. The Knight’s
extensive descriptions of the symbolic decorations of the temples of Venus,
Mars, and Diana help shed light on the gods’ roles. The walls in Venus’s temple
depict the traditional sufferings of the courtly lover—sleeplessness, sighing,
and burning desire. But they also portray the sinfulness that love can
cause—lust, jealousy, idleness, and adultery—a more Christian, moralistic
message. Moreover, these walls also present love’s invincibility and
irresistibility, in scenes taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The
relationship among these three ideas of love is left unresolved.
Mars’s temple is also remarkable. Instead of
representing the glories of war or battle with which the Knight is well
acquainted, the walls display hypocrites, traitors, and murderers, together
with disasters that have nothing to do with war, such as the cook who is
scalded despite his use of a long ladle. Diana’s portrayal is the most
ambivalent of the three. Traditionally, she is the goddess of chastity and
protector of virgins, but everything depicted on her temple’s walls suggests
that she causes change. Many of the images are of friends or enemies that she
transformed, as told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Diana herself is symbolically
represented by a moon that is waxing but that will soon begin to wane. The
imagery in her temple, and her refusal to grant Emelye her prayer that she
remain a virgin, indicate that there is no refuge, even in chastity, from the
transformations human beings must undergo in life.
The decoration of each of the three temples,
then, shows the wills of the gods as opposite to human desires. Venus and Mars
are both represented as forces that cause catastrophe and suffering, rather
than glory and happiness, in human life. Whereas Venus represents emotional and
spiritual sources of suffering, Mars represents all of the violent and brutal
physical perils that await humans, whether through accident or malice. And
Diana is represented as a force who will not allow things to stay the same.
Saturn is not depicted, but his decision about
how to reconcile the conflict between Mars and Venus reveals his understanding
of his role, as does his description of himself, which strongly echoes the
description of Mars’s temple. Saturn associates himself with drowning,
strangling, imprisonment, secret poisoning, and other forms of vengeance. The
major difference between Mars and Saturn is that Saturn claims that his journey
through the zodiac is much longer than that of the others, and that his actions
are part of an overall plan that emerges over a long period of time. Saturn’s
disasters represent a kind of correction, or balancing of the scales, ensuring
that everything is overturned and transformed by the passage of time.
Yet, there is some suggestion in the Knight’s
Tale that humans can affect their own destinies. Several major shifts in the
plot come about when one character intercedes on another’s behalf. The weeping
women in the opening intercede on behalf of their dead husbands, and Theseus
conquers Thebes. Perotheus intercedes on Arcite’s behalf, and Arcite is let out
of prison. The court women interrupt to plead that Theseus spare the two
soldiers’ lives.
Some critics have suggested that in this
pattern of intercession Chaucer presents us with an ideal form of government:
no man can govern entirely on his own. Truly good government is accomplished
with the help of an outside party that stops the ruler from behaving
tyrannically. Twice, women prevent Theseus from acting entirely on his own, a
good friend is able to intervene to rescue Arcite, and Arcite himself
influences Theseus’s desire to see Emelye and Palamon married. Some critics
further interpret this need for counsel along gender lines. It is no accident,
they suggest, that women stop Theseus from ignoring the burial
rites of their husbands, and from killing Palamon and Arcite. These critics
believe that this female intercession means that every good male governor needs
and depends upon wifely counsel to keep him from becoming ruthless.
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