The queen’s alternative punishment for the knight consisted of having a year and one day to find the answer to the all important question “What is the thing women most desire?” Her persuasion of king imposed a contrasting punishment that resulted in discipline which was too light for the knight’s acts. The knight’s action of raping a maiden was an atrocious action Chaucer depicted by stating, “And of that maiden, spite of all she said, by very force he took her maidenhead.” As an acclaimed knight that took advantage of the women’s virtue, he should not have been simply punished for only a year. Not to mention, during his year of punishment, the knight was even granted freedom to roam and be social in order to possibly find the answer to the
