Similarities Between The Knight's Tale And The Canterbury Tales

The movie “A Knight’s Tale” is loosely based on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Both of these art works give good insight on the social classes of the medieval era. The two artworks highlight the Knight’s social class as well as the peasant social class. The Knight is the highest rank in his respected social class, while the peasant is average in their social class. The society was set up in such a manner that people were unable to change their social standards. During both “The Knight’s Tale” and the “The Canterbury Tales” give a great representation of the peasant social class. The peasant class is also the working class, this class is the lowest class in the medieval era. The working class was responsible for the majority of the revenue and supplies that the society relied on in this time. The working class was the most religious group in the society because they did not have many belongings and prayed for good fortune. Although they were the most religious they would disrespectful things to others to better themselves. The Knight was given a great representation in both “A Knight’s …show more content…
In the film William was able to change his social standings from being a low class peasant to be a noble knight. Throughout the entirety of the Canterbury Tales there was not a single character who was able to change their social class. This leads me to believe that during the medieval era people were unable to change their social class. Although during this time it was known that peasants would give their children to knights, but they were only able to become squires, that is still a position of servitude. In the medieval era William would not have been able to become a knight even if he did joust against Prince Edward. Although Prince Edward would be pleased to have jousted William, he could not grant him knighthood because Prince Edward would be violating social