Home > The Canterbury Tales Summary & Study Guide > Essays and Criticism > The Knight: The First Mover in Chaucer’s Human Comedy
The Canterbury Tales | The Knight: The First Mover in Chaucer’s Human Comedy
In the following essay, Richard Neuse explores the characters of the Knight and Theseus, and calls the “Knight’s Tale” a “testimony to the insufficiency of human wisdom at the same time that it transcends it.”
In recent years there seems to have been general agreement that the “Knight’s Tale” is a “philosophical romance” which raises the problem of an apparently unjust and disorderly universe. By this reading the “Tale” emerges as a philosophic theodicy culminating in Theseus’ speech on cosmic order. The latter implicitly denies the final reality or rule of an arbitrary Fortune, but at the same time stoically accepts the inscrutable workings “in this wrecched world adoun” of an eternal cause. The “Tale” is thus seen as the Knight’s—and Theseus’—somewhat...
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- The Canterbury Tales: Introduction
- The Canterbury Tales: Summary
- The Canterbury Tales: Overview
- The Canterbury Tales: Geoffrey Chaucer Biography
-
The Canterbury Tales: Summary and Analysis
- 1: General Prologue Summary and Analysis
- 2: The Knight's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 3: The Miller's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 4: The Reeve's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 5: The Cook's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 6: The Man of Law's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 7: The Shipman's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 8: The Prioress's Tale Summary and Analysis.
- 9: The Tale of Sir Thopas Summary and Analysis
- 10: The Monk's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 11: The Nun's Priest's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 12: The Wife of Bath's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 13: The Friar's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 14: The Summoner's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 15: The Cleric's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 16: The Merchant's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 17: The Squire's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 18: The Franklin's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 19: The Physician's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 20: The Pardoner's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 21: The Second Nun's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 22: The Canon's Yeoman's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 23: The Manciple's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 24: The Parson's Tale Summary and Analysis
- 25: Chaucer's Retraction Summary and Analysis
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The Canterbury Tales: Quizzes
- 1: General Prologue Questions and Answers
- 2: The Knight's Tale Questions and Answers
- 3: The Miller's Tale Questions and Answers
- 4: The Reeve's Tale Questions and Answers
- 6: The Man of Law's Tale Questions and Answers
- 7: The Shipman's Tale Questions and Answers
- 8: The Prioress's Tale Questions and Answers
- 9: The Tale of Sir Thopas Questions and Answers
- 10: The Monk's Tale Questions and Answers
- 11: The Nun's Priest's Tale Questions and Answers
- 12: The Wife of Bath's Tale Questions and Answers
- 13: The Friar's Tale Questions and Answers
- 14: The Summoner's Tale Questions and Answers
- 15: The Cleric's Tale Questions and Answers
- 16: The Merchant's Tale Questions and Answers
- 17: The Squire's Tale Questions and Answers
- 18: The Franklin's Tale Questions and Answers
- 19: The Physician's Tale Questions and Answers
- 20: The Pardoner's Tale Questions and Answers
- 21: The Second Nun's Tale Questions and Answers
- 22: The Canon's Yeoman's Tale Questions and Answers
- 23: The Manciple's Tale Questions and Answers
- 24: The Parson's Tale Questions and Answers
- The Canterbury Tales: Essential Passages
- The Canterbury Tales: Themes
- The Canterbury Tales: Style
- The Canterbury Tales: Historical Context
- The Canterbury Tales: Critical Overview
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The Canterbury Tales: Essays and Criticism
- The Canterbury Tales: A Critical Analysis
- Comedic Inventiveness in The Canterbury Tales
- Madame Eglentyne, Geoffrey Chaucer, and the Problem of Medieval Anti-Semitism
- Language Redeemed: “The Pardoner’s Tale”
- Language Redeemed: “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”
- Perception and Reality in the “Miller's Tale”
- Chaucerian Themes and Style in the “Franklin’s Tale”
- Sense and Sensibility in “The Prioress’s Tale”
- The Struggle between Noble Designs and Chaos: The Literary Tradition of Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale
- The Wife of Bath and the Dream of Innocence
- Chaucer’s General Prologue as History and Literature
- The Play of the “Miller's Tale”: A Game within a Game
- Criticism and the Old Man in Chaucer’s “Pardoner’s Tale”
- The Knight: The First Mover in Chaucer’s Human Comedy
- Chaucer as Satirist in the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
- Commentary: The Nun’s Priest’s Tale
- The Nun’s Priest in The Canterbury Tales
- The Canterbury Tales: Suggested Essay Topics
- The Canterbury Tales: Sample Essay Outlines
- The Canterbury Tales: Quotes and Passages
- The Canterbury Tales: Compare and Contrast
- The Canterbury Tales: Topics for Further Study
- The Canterbury Tales: Media Adaptations
- The Canterbury Tales: What Do I Read Next?
- The Canterbury Tales: Bibliography and Further Reading
- The Canterbury Tales: Pictures
- Copyright
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