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Chivalry And Knighthood In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

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A common and important topic that takes place in many of Chaucer’s works, is the topic of chivalry and knighthood. According to Ramon Lull, knights must be “better than the woman” (Lull,182) and must “defend the women” (Lull,185). But in many of Chaucer's works, knights are seen talking badly about women, in particular the goddess Fortune. This can be explained though, by maybe being the ultimate challenge for a knight, meaning that they must defend the woman from evil, or in Fortune’s case, herself. We can see this in The Book of the Duchess where the Black Knight speaks ill of Fortune and it is clear that it troubles him immensely, as well as in “The Knights Tale” where Arcite is blaming Fortune for his misery while Palamon is not suggesting

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