Fate In The Knight's Tale Essay

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Wheel of Fortune: Comparing the Role of Fate in Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale” and its Video Adaptation On the way to Canterbury, the host of the pilgrimage plays the role of fate to ensure the Knight would tell his tale first (Chaucer 23). The irony of this act is unmistakable after reading the Knight’s tale, and understanding the profound role of the gods, the wheel of fortune, and fate to dictate the outcome of the story. In the tale, Venus, goddess of love; Mars, god of war; Jupiter, the prime cause and mover; and Saturn, the grandfather of all of the gods, play more than a main role in the tale of Arcite and Palamon and their love for the Queen’s sister, Emelya. In both the original tale, and the more recent cartoon film adaptation, the roles of the gods are made clear and their presence is made known.…show more content…
Fate is a main theme that runs throughout the Knight’s tale, and much of the descriptions of the surroundings belongs to the descriptions of the god’s temples before the tournament; however, the gods themselves are not seen often throughout Chaucer’s original text, and their presence isn’t made explicitly known until Palamon sees Emelya from up in the tower. The creators of the film adaptation have condensed the story line immensely, but have maintained the presence of the gods, if not made them more pronounced. When thinking back on this, it is relevant to understand that the film is a cartoon version, probably made with a younger audience in mind; a child in their adolescence may have a difficult time visualizing a “god” or “diety” and therefore their presence had to be made explicitly known, and their bodies seen, in order for the intended audience to understand the
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