NathanPatel 1 02/02/2009 GTX2302 Dr.Hawthorne FreeWillinTheKnightsTaleandTheWivesTale The pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales provide different perspectives on a number of topics.

pics. Often one tale will raise a question that another will answer, or present an ideal that another will oppose. In telling her tale, The Wife of Bath answers questions raised by The Knights Tale in regards to free will and the role it plays in romance. The ideas of chivalric romance emphasized in The Knights Tale present a type of romance where free will plays little to no role. Instead, it is shown that from the beginning, Arcite and Palamon fall madly in love with Emily at first sight, as if after simply seeing her it was out of their control. From this beginning until the end of the tale, the events that play out and affect the knights are rarely attributed to the knights themselves, but rather attributed to the gods by both The Knight, the tales narrator, and Arcite and Palamon, the tales characters. The most prominent instance of the characters attributing these circumstances to the gods is Palamons lament after Arcite is freed. Although the real reason behind Arcites freedom was a connection he had with a friend of Thesuss, Palamon is sure that it is a punishment from the gods: Cruel gods ordained this for my ill; For all things happen by their will (lines 170-171). The Knight, in telling the tale, also attributes events to the gods, the most important being the circumstances behind Arcites death, saying Lo, from the ground a fury burst; That Pluto sent at Saturns wish (lines 743-744). It is very clear that both the knights in the tale and The Knight narrating the tale share a strong idea of fate without free will, ultimately leading the tale to Arcites victory and subsequent death, and Palamons marriage to Emily. The Knight approves of this ending because it conforms to his chivalric ideas of fate and

 divine power over the free will of man. However, ideals aside, the ending is not very heartwarming or romantic. One of the lovers in the tale dies alone, even though he was victorious in his fight for Emilys hand in marriage, raising questions about the actual virtue of chivalry in regards to romance. The Wife of Baths Tale takes a much different approach at love, absent of divine intervention and fate. The knight in The Wifes tale finds love for his wife and

lives happily with her, based on reason and free will alone. At first he finds her repulsive, giving several reasons he should not take her as his wife, yet she dismantles them one by one and eventually convinces him to go to bed with her. Her first argument immediately takes the role of fate out of romance and replaces it with free will, when she a defines a true gentleman. She tells him that gentleness is achieved through work, virtue, and gentle deeds (line 1115) as opposed to his previous ideas (shared by Arcite and Palamon from The Knights Tale) that gentleness was a matter of fate or being born to a certain family or social class. This immediately sets a stage for a different type of romance based on free will to oppose The Knights tale of chivalric romance. She continues to counter his claims, using only reason to do so. In the end, the knight accepts the hag as his wife at his own will, and not at the hands of a chivalric code, fate, or divine intervention. This different type of romance proves to be more ideal, as the hag is able to gain the love of her husband without staging an epic battle, and no one is left as a victim of misfortune, as Arcite was in The Knights Tale. The Wife of Baths Tale contradicts many standards about society and romance set by the times in which it takes place. After reading The Wife of Baths Tale, it is easy to conclude that there exist more virtuous alternatives to chivalric romance, which

 are easier to follow, yield better results, and prove to be a more practical way to live. While The Knight is noble in his ideals of chivalry, his tale shows them to be less than ideal in respect to romance, while The Wives tale presents romance that seems to be much more ideal.