Social Upheaval in A Knights Tale
One has to ponder why the Knight chooses to end his tale with such an odd and contradictory sermon as the one made by Theseus in lines 2987-3074. ... Why would the Knight end his tale with a false explanation? ... Throughout the entire tale, Theseus has enlisted himself as a sort of human-Zeus, constantly attempting to stabilize that which has strayed from the natural order of things. The tale begins with Theseus conquering the Amazons in lines 865-869, “He conquered all the regne of Femenye, That whilom was ycleped Scithia, And weddede the queen Ypolita, And broghte hire hoom with him in his contree. ... However, one must ask why the Knight would choose to end his tale with a false speech? ... Is he admitting to a new social order emerging? Is this entire tale, in which order and reason are refuted, a sort of white flag to the peasants? ... Now we know that Theseus loves order, that the Knight does not, and perhaps a bit about the Knight’s background and his views on social order. ... In particular, the sly insertion of the Saturn controlling the peasant’s revolt seems intended, for if one looks to the next story, the Miller’s tale, one notice’s is a bit of threatening tone towards the nobility. Whatever the case may be, this passage is particularly rich in interpretive possibilities and sheds new light on the Knight’s tale.