Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to determine to what extent the contemporaneous state of chivalry has influenced Chaucer's Knight in his literary endeavor. First I analyze the Knight's personality, which evinces his militant and nonconformist nature: as opposed to the majority of knights, Chaucer's Knight, in an attempt to uphold the ideal of chivalry, is engaged in religious campaigns, while he refrains from taking part in the Hundred Years War. To his eyes this is an immoral war among Christians which is mainly motivated by the lucrative desires of the so-called nobles.
Highlights
Despite the pessimistic visión of the second estáte suggested by this paper, the Knight's attitude must be framed in what Maurice Keen has called "chivalry's war against its own distortedhnage"
In The Canterbury Tales, the relation established between the pilgrims and their tales is usually complex; besides, as Elizabeth Salter (1962: 7) points out, "Chaucer's narrative techniques are very rarely concerned with fidelity to the nature and capabilities of the Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses character who tells the tale"
I share the views expressed by Maurice Keen (1983: 47), who argües that Chaucer, in the case of both the Knight and the Parson has chosen figures "drawn very definitely from the contemporary scene whose lives indicate patterns ofpious living that are not outmoded, but which too few, in Chaucer's opinión, made a sufficiently serious effort to follow"
Summary
Despite the pessimistic visión of the second estáte suggested by this paper, the Knight's attitude must be framed in what Maurice Keen has called "chivalry's war against its own distortedhnage". I will focus on the Knight's treatment of the chivalric actions contained in the tale. The election of a story of chivalric character proves the Knight's sensitivity and consciousness towardthe circumstances of his estáte, and stands as the case of greater connection between the narrator and the contents of his tale.
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