The Importance Of Balance In The Knight's Tale

The third of Newton’s three laws of motion states, “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” It describes each action as having an equally important reaction, which creates a sense of balance. This law, although meant to be about the physical world, applies to The Knight’s Tale. The author, Chaucer, decided to create a symmetrical story with each important action in the first half, having a corresponding action in the second half. This balance creates a perfect storyline because the plot is evenly distributed from the beginning to the end. The reader has a better experience reading the story since every important action is emphasized. The balance of the events in The Knight’s Tale positively affect the reader’s understanding of the story.
Chaucer uses the technique of symmetry to give the story a complete feeling. The events in the first, second, and partially the third parts of The Knight’s Tale are balanced out with events in the rest of the third and fourth parts. This balance is achieved by each major event having a parallel. Some of the events in the story that start out as negative are balanced out with a positive action. When the narrator says, “Hippolyta, / Their …show more content…
It helps with making the storyline simpler and easier to determine, and it gives the reader a fuller sense of the plot. Balance is demonstrated in Newton’s third law of motion, which can be applied to the kind of balance Chaucer uses. Each significant event in the first part of the story has an equal and opposite reaction that comes later. The laws of motion in the physical world keep physical order, just as the balance found in The Knight’s Tale keeps organization and structure throughout the story. The reader is positively affected by this order because all conflicts are resolved and clearly defined. Balance is an important quality to have because of the advantages it brings