Guide to Week 3:

            Read the second two parts of "Knight's Tale" and try to figure out how you might describe the overall structure of this tale's four major "movements."  What happens to the characters in each, and how does the generic "mood" change?  Among the most notable additions Chaucer makes to Bocaccio's Il Teseide occur in Part Four when he draws upon Boethius and other philosophical writings to provide Egeus and Theseus with a philosophical rationale for what has happened to Arcite.  What do you think of the tale's "closure"?  Does it matter whether we assign authorship of the tale to Chaucer-the-poet or to his persona, the pilgrim Knight?

            If you want to some assistance interpreting the tale, click here to see a web page containing questions and discussions of issues relevant to specific passages, as well as secondary sources which might help.

Colin Fewer (Purdue U., English 240) summary of parallel passages comparing Boccaccio's Il Teseide and "Knight's Tale": Of course, as a good scholar and careful researcher you would always double-check Fewer's precis of the Boccaccio text against (at least!) the English translation of Boccaccio.