How has Chaucer used poetic form, structure and language to express his thoughts and feelings in ‘The Knight’s Tale”saucer’s use of language, form, and structure works to convey the details of different characters and the emotions surrounding them In a multi-faceted manor. For instance, Saucer’s heavy use of nature-oriented, romantic imagery when describing Emily imbues her character with a youth and vibrancy, aided by the setting of ‘a morn in May’, already causing the reader’s mind to contemplate Springs themes of new life, of blooming botany.
The description of how ‘rose’s color strove her hue’ both relates her to the Rose flower (perhaps suggesting a natural purity and delicateness) and the color red. It could be argued that this association of the color red with Emily was Implemented by Chaucer as a way infusing her character with romance and passion, given Recite and Palomino’s revealed affection for her.
Furthermore, it could be said that there is also a subtle undertone to Email’s associations with red (eventually coming to fruition with Recite and Palomino’s lenience towards each other later in the story), though if this is true then it is somewhat underplayed given the maiden-Like Image of Emily we are more thoroughly presented with as she ‘sauntered back and forth through each close’. In contrast to this chaste but romantic and verbose description of Emily, Recite and Pullman are presented with no real defining differences between them mentioned in this extract.
Both choose to speak using similarly dour and formal laments (and exclamations of “Alas! ” and “Ah! “) that blanket the latter half of the extract, and in doing so make it official for the reader to distinguish between the characters’ morals, hopes, and general personalities. It could perhaps be that by striping the two men of their identities In such a way, Chaucer Is commenting on the weariness of ‘courtly love’, and how this refined, aristocratic form of courting does nothing to truly distinguish one suitor from another.
Chaucer also makes use of form to give the extract an immediacy, along with structural dynamics that keep the reader’s attention. Saucer’s dedication to the use of rhyming couplets throughout the extract (and throughout Canterbury Tales In unreal) gives his words a liveliness, due to how each rhyme comes very quickly, bracketing each two lines and causing them to call attention to themselves.
By doing this Chaucer keeps the mood somewhat bouncy, yet whimsical and care-free, and from straying too far into heavily emotional territory. We see this in how even Arcata’s questioning of-My cousin, why what ails you now / That you’ve so deathly pallor on your brow? “l’s rendered less concern-ridden and, arguably, more racked with curiously thematic Jumps throughout the extract, that confound the emotional reaction of the deader: ‘And like a heavenly angel’s was her song. The tower tall, which was so thick and strong’. These alternations between happy, sad, morbid and beautiful themes from line to line push forward the idea that Joy and sorrow are never far apart form one another. Each of these factors combines to make an emotionally confusing piece of writing, especially for a modern reader, and is perhaps intentional with Chaucer attempting to reflect themes of courtly love, and the supposed strong emotions that surround it, with a serendipitous writing style.
