Retha Knoetze’s article “Social flux in the Knight’s Tale: Chaucer’s fourteenth-century reworking of a romance” explores how Chaucer utilizes his society’s unrest/unhappiness with the precedents set by following a feudal ideology. In turn, he uses that unrest to fuel the changes he makes to the rules of the romance genre throughout the Knight’s Tale. Knoetze argues that the change of ideals ricocheting through society during Chaucer’s time fuels his more extreme take on the deviation of the romance genre, which began in the poem Teseida by Baccicco - Chaucer’s inspiration for the Knight’s Tale. Knoetze further explains that even with the deviations, Chaucer’s first tale is most definitely a part of the romance genre, albeit slightly reworked to fit the new societal norms coming into play in fourteenth-century England. However, while Chaucer does choose to change political ideologies in the Knight’s Tale (although, this tale’s narrator does ultimately decide the aristocracy is necessary to keep order - as long as the aristocracy rules with benevolence and is willing to make a few concessions to change with the times), one thing that Chaucer does not change is the desire to keep men and women in separate spheres. In this tale, even with all of the revolutionary ideas brought forth by the rising middle class, women (Emelye) are still treated as an object to be given away to the highest bidder. Basically, a prize to be won - a revolutionary movement in fourteenth-century England can only do so much in the way of changing the way men think.
-Megan Griep
Knoetze, Retha. “Social Flux In Theknight’s Tale: Chaucer’s FOURTEENTH-CENTURY
Reworking of a Romance.” English Academy Review, vol. 34, no. 1, 2017, pp. 85–98., doi:10.1080/10131752.2017.1333228.