Palamon And Arcite's Conflict

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The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer begins with a noble knight sharing a story. The Knight's Tale starts off with an unfortunate war between Athens and Thebes. Theseus, the leader, and ruler of the Athenian people showed no mercy and demolished all of Thebes. Towards the end of the war, Theseus took Palamon and Arcite, two high ranking men in Thebes, as captives of war. He brought them back to Athens to imprison them for life. While in jail Palamon and Arcite noticed a beautiful lady in a garden outside their cell. In order to avoid conflict, they decided whoever saw her first gets the rights to her; however, conflict still arose over who noticed her first. Coincidentally, Arcite’s friend knew Theseus very well and he convinced Theseus

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