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From: Becky Mosel
Date: 10/19/2009
Time: 10:53:51 AM
Remote Name: 139.135.83.74
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight seems to be less extreme than Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale. In Sir Gawain, there isn’t too much adventure; in fact the narrator skips over the action scenes so that he can give more description about seemingly pointless things (which we eventually do find out have some importance to the story). Chaucer’s story of Palamon and Arcite has romance and action. Both stories have some romance, but completely different aspects. Sir Gawain denies the King’s wife from any relationship whatsoever, which in other words is denying love. He doesn’t want to be involved. However in the Knight’s Tale, it is almost the complete opposite. We find Palamon and Arcite fighting over who loves Emily more and they both fight to win her. What’s interesting though is that also in this story, Emily at first doesn’t want either of these men, just like Sir Gawain. The other difference between these two stories is the role of women too. The king’s wife is provoking Sir Gawain and is trying to be dominant and mischievous about it. However, Emily really doesn’t have a say in anything that is going on with her. The other thing that I find kind of amusing actually is the fact there is an elaborate plan or even a conspiracy behind the King’s wife throwing herself on Sir Gawain. In the Knight’s Tale, it’s just a couple of teenage boys fighting over a hot girl that they stalk while they are hanging in prison. There’s really nothing noble about either Palamon or Arcite. I think the nobility comes from the King when decides to spare their lives instead of killing them for breaking out of prison (or completely deceiving him, in Arcite’s case). This also shows that power that women have over men too, the power that we see the King’s wife in Sir Gawain trying to use to convince the knight to sin. The queen and Emily both plead to the king in the Knight’s tale to spare the two idiot’s lives. The king seems to be a sucker for a woman, so he spares them.