Compare and contrast of the knight and wife of baths tale from the canterbury tales - Essay Example

The family institution is grounded by marriage; the institution of two individuals or partners with an aim of procreating and nurturing the wellbeing of their children while observing the set standards by the society. Romance on the other hand strengthens the marriage institution as a subset of love; a virtue necessary for the coexistence of family members and society at large. Majority of the society members will always look forward to love from family members and society at large and romance from their partners with which not only serves as the basic course of occupations but basis of identification and a sense of belonging.

Romance and love comes with responsibilities for each of the stakeholders which vary with gender and the aspirations of the specific unit that is the family or the society (Heng, 2). The Wife of Bath and the Knight’s tales revolve around romance, love, relationships and the responsibilities that come with each set of relationships; appreciative and punitive and this paper will seek to compare and contrast the two tales with reference to thematic presentation, morals and responsibilities, love and romance.

Socially, the two tales bring out the importance of love and romance to the survival of the society in that lack of romance and love can lead to social vices which have long term repercussions to the errant and the society. For instance, in the Wife of Bath’s tale a knight who had raped a fair young maiden is faced with death penalty according to the society’s set standards and which sets path for the repercussions he faces in the tale. In the Knight’s tale the importance of love and romance in for social identity and sense of belonging is brought out whereby cousins Arcite and Palamon; who were imprisoned by Theseu, the Duke of Athens after inventions against Creon, falls in love with the same girl, Emelye.

The power and value relationships, romance, love and the quest for identity and sense of belonging are brought out in the hate that these two cousins develop for each other over the girl and the “mass judicial tournament” that they engage in all for the winner to give the girl a hand in marriage. Though the scenarios in the two tales differ in the perspective of the responsibilities, they converge to one point of romance and love and the need for identity. For instance, in the Wife of Bath’s tale responsibilities assigned to the knight are punitive compared to the Knight’s tale which though punitive in the sense of mass tournament, they are appreciative in that the end results are explicitly defined.

Thematically the two tales differ in that the Wife of Bathcritically evaluates the value of romance and details aspects of society’s aspirations such as antifeminism, behavior in marriage, economics of love and female dominance unlike the Knight’s tale which focuses much on romance. For instance, in the Wife of Bath, when the Knight was about to be prosecuted, Queen Guinevere intercedes and passes the judgment instead of the king; a move that introduced the aspects of female dominance, sought out to bring out the role of women in the society and their influence in matters of love and marriage, and sexuality themes.

For example, when the knight was asked to discover for the queen what women desire most, for exchange of death penalty he was to receive; it is