The Knight's Tale..... A Greek Mythology and Medieval Twist

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. 

Medieval Hercules at His Finest

 I really don’t mid this story that much, I actually sort of like it. Its got a lot of action a great adventure for a good cause, but the only part that was getting on my nerves was all the complaining from her and how much she’s all over the place with her relationships. One page she’s deeply in love with Lancelot, she sees him like and angel that fell from haven…. Then when he crossed that ultimate hard sword bridge he like thought about leaving and going back for like 2 seconds and bang right turn she hates him, doesn’t even want to be around him for awhile.

Of course later she falls for him again like he’s a modern Brad Pitt and he’s the man again.

This story kind of reminds me of Hercules. A strong man solder type person on a mission that everyone hates but secretly sort of resents, then he goes off and proves his worth and gains respect of all the people, becomes a hero and lastly has to go on a big mission that will save his lover, nut also put his life in danger. Hercules was always my favorite Disney movie growing up…. So maybe that’s why this one of my favorite stories we’ve read so far because they both have such similar story lines…. Almost to similar.

I don’t think it’s just Hercules that is similar to this story and Lancelot; to me I see a relationship with a lot of hero type books or movies. They are special, rejected at first, then people start to love them, then they find the love of their life, then they are put in a situation where they have to choose between their safety and the safety of others, you think they are going to fail then all of a sudden they save everyone and live happily ever after.