I’m not sure if I’m the
only person who thinks this… but constantly when reading this story I visualized
the scenery and a lot of the characters as the movie “A Knights Tale” Obviously
the title is almost exactly the same, but overall the plot is pretty similar to
throughout reading I pictured Arcite as Heath
ledger… probably just because he is one of the main knights who is one of the top
in fights and fierce battles.
The biggest difference between the two is the
movie doesn’t have the somewhat of a Greek mythology twist that I sensed a lot while
reading. I feel like most if not most of the stories we have read so far
contain religion and praying and relying on god in their journeys. But The
knights tale was a little bit different. The addition of 3 temples to the gods,
to protect him in battle showed in my opinion that their beliefs wasn’t that god
or the gods could protect them or watch out for them, but more the gods had
full power over them, which was a concept that I feel wasn’t really showed in
some of our other stories. When the story talked of the temple of the gods I couldn’t
get the image of Hercules in the temple of Zeus in the Disney movie when he was
talking to his dad, a giant, moving, marble statue
I don’t
know why but I was somewhat disappointed when Arcite died… I was kind of
rooting for him throughout the story to win the battle and marry Emelye.
I know the story pushed the thought of dying an honorable death is a great
thing…. But in my opinion I could care less how someone dies. After he died Theseus
gives his long speech of how everyone dies and dying in battle is honorable and
somewhat of a great thing, I feel like I would much rather be alive and healthy
than die a painful war related earth caused by battle wounds… even if it is considered
honorable.
One thing that I thought
was unique about The Knights Tale was how little gender related it was. Sure, a
main concept of it was to win the love of a woman, and I guess that means she
was no say over who she marries, but I feel like Emelye
had a lot more power and in a sense of freedom than most of the other women in
the other stories we have read.
A lot of people have been comparing this story to "The Knight's Tale" with Heath Ledger, but I wouldn't know, because... I've never... actually seen it... so all these similarities, or differences, in your case, are pretty much lost on me. I thought the Knight's Tale wasn't necessarily "gendered" in the way the Wife of Bath's tale was, but it still stays very much in line with gender roles considered common for a medieval romance - the primary focus is on Emily's beauty, she's pretty much a ghost in the narrative despite being the driving force behind it.
ReplyDeleteI have seen "The Knight's Tale" and I saw no real similarities between the two. The movie consists of solely jousting... this allowed for the use of maces and after the jousting elimination period, what remained of each army of 101 on each side. Furthermore, like you mentioned, the movie lacked the Greek mythology and culture background... there was no praying in temples and the like in the movie. But in my opinion, the biggest difference is that in the movie, one of the knights played as a villainous antagonist and the other played as the main protagonist who pursued gaining the love of a lady of high class and through jousting hoped to make up for his lower class background to win her love. Whereas. in the story, both knights would appear to be on equal footing and both scorned for their mutual bickering by Theseus. Neither knight, nor Theseus, plays as a major antagonist nor villain.
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