Courtly Love in "The Knight's Tale" and "The Miller's Tale" by Chaucer

The first tale is told by a Knight recently returned from the Crusades. Because the Knight is presented as a traditional, old-fashioned sort of fellow, it should come as no surprise that he tells a tale of courtly love. What is courtly love? This term refers to a phenomenon of the late middle ages when women were accorded an almost religious status, and the act of seeking a woman’s favor took on the flavor of a religious quest. Ironically, however, while women seem to be central to the story, in fact they do absolutely nothing. The point of these stories was to show how women for men represented a metaphor for the man’s relationship with the divine, and consequently in these works women function as completely static works of art. The man is expected to see the woman from afar and be smitten by her beauty. He makes some type of approach and is initially rebuffed. Generally after the battle, she accepts his love and a sexual relationship ensues.
The “Knight’s Tale” reflects th...