So the popular topic of conversation regarding this
tale seems to be whether or not we think the knight learned his lesson in the
end. All I could think was well…he’s
married now…isn’t that punishment enough? But all jokes aside, I can’t really
say I was thinking about whether he learned his lesson or not by the time I
finished the Wife of Bath’s tale. I was
strangely satisfied with the ending, actually.
Believe me that one definitely came as a surprise.
Actually,
I kept referencing the Wife of Bath’s prologue instead. The narrator of this story is the Wife
herself, and she’s—for lack of a better term—a badass. Many people think of her as an early
feminist. (Not the man-hating type, but the real ones who take charge of their
lives and do what they want.) The Wife loves men, actually, because she’s been
married umpteen times. At the end of her
prologue her husband basically beats her up and she reciprocates with just as
much force. She’s all like “always do what I say and we won’t have a problem
again.” I can respect that…happy wife, happy life, eh?
So
with that in mind, I resolve to say that he did learn his lesson, in a
way. Now, I’m not condoning rape…but
think about this: How many men actually find a definitive answer for what women
want? And in a way this is totally true we want to have power over our men, or
at least be equal with them. And I kind
of give him credit for being able to look past his wife’s ugliness long enough
to consider that trusting her would be a good idea. He puts all his power in her hands, and to
quote the English version, he says, “You choose, for pleasing you now pleases
me” (1235). In that moment, he
sacrifices all his power to her. In the
end, she was right all along, and he realizes that by the end of this story. Rather
than just believe it because he wants to save his own life, he sees that what
she says is true. And I personally give
him props for looking past her ugliness for two seconds she could show him the
truth. Can we say the same for some of
the other men we've read about in these medieval stories? Relatively speaking,
they kind of get a happy ending.
This
story isn’t just about learning to respect women. It’s also about learning to find humility and
respect people in general. Yeah, it’s about
women gaining power (because the Wife is the ultimate symbol of power herself)
but it’s also a great story to show how people deserve redemption and
forgiveness. This knight lives because he serves as an example. He does a
complete 180 by the end of this story.
Shouldn’t he get credit for that? I think a happy ending is nice once in a while.
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I like your point of view for this story, and your title cracked me up. I agree with you, in my experiences anyway, that going along with the answer in this particular story, women want all the control and power they can get their hands on. However, you're giving him props for getting over her looks, when really he only did this to fulfill his obligations. The power thing kind of went overboard as far as he only did this BECAUSE she had power, not because she was just so alluring to him on an emotional level. But I can agree with your distribution of props for him in a sense of learning his lesson, he is no longer going to disrespect or harm women, but what if he had not been caught? No lesson learned there. This story for me was like a seesaw of emotions for me. But hey, gotta be happy when they're happy right?
ReplyDelete-Rory Conklin
I personally think that although the knight went on this quest for all the wrong reasons (AKA save himself), he still learned his lesson. Instead of being selfish about his wants and needs toward his new wife, eh let her decide to do what she wanted (and it worked out in his favor). Yes, raping the maiden was dishonorable and extremely wrong, but he now understands that women are different and require different things, and the best you can do is let them make some decisions.
ReplyDeleteI was pretty satisfied with the ending. He sure did go on the quest for the wrong reasons and did something horrible, but he respects his new wife in the end. I think in real life relationships, we need to realize that people are not always the mos attracted to their significant other. Therefore, I don't think that because he didn't get over the looks thing, he didn't necessarily learn his lesson. Respect and compromises are very important, and I feel like the Knight did learn both of them.
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ReplyDeleteI like what you said about how he learned his lesson, because I agree, and it's taken me a long time to come to that conclusion. Your point about redemption is also eye opening because it is true, and I do not think I have given him enough credit in the fact that he probably has grown as a person. However, I still don't think he deserved a happy ending, because I just don't think that simply learning a lesson justifies happiness after what he did.
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