"He who influences the thoughts of his time, influences all times that follow. He has left his mark on eternity." Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay - Anonymous, ThinkExist.comChoice Verses Chance: A Boethian Reading of The Knight's TaleFor centuries, Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales has entertained audiences around the world with its eclectic and eccentric gathering of medieval characters. Part of the appeal of the Canterbury Tales lies in Chaucer's ability to provide an authentic narrative of a pilgrimage, an ability that allows the Tales to traverse time and relate to audiences using realism. Larry D. Benson, general editor of The Riverside Chaucer, states that "The Canterbury Tales has the air of reality because it is based on reality" and that "the Canterbury Journey derives much of its realistic tone from the fact that it was modeled about life” (4). True to life and just like the art of storytelling, Chaucer employs authentic elements in his stories by borrowing ideas and tales from previous philosophers and poets an adaptation of Giovanni Boccacio's Teseida combined with elements of Euripides' Hippolytus, both of which influence the plot of "The Knight's Tale" (Benson 6). Chaucer's main influence for the underlying theme of "The Knight's Tale" comes from Boethius, a 6th century Orphic philosopher. In his Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius presents his theories on providence and destiny using the concepts of philosophy and luck as. anthropomorphism. Boethius presents God as the definitive answer to man's questioning perceptions of fortune and introduces the central concept of Christian free will. In “The Knight's Tale,” Chaucer draws heavily on Boethius' notions of chance and choice, presenting a similar explanation for the ups and downs of human existence. From the beginning, "The Knight's Tale" establishes a Boethian notion of Luck to establish the thematic struggle between man's free will and the odds of chance. Three widows turn to Theseus for help after the Theban war, and the older woman refers to the Duke, "Lord, to whom Fortune has yielded / Victory" (Line 915). The word "Fortune" as a proper name, combined with the idea that that proper name has the power to confer "victory" on Theseus, implies that Fortune is a manifestation, a commonality with Boethius' presentation of Fortune in The Consolation of Philosophy. Boethius takes the early Christian hypothesis of Fortune as a "figure of destiny" and "transforms the pagan goddess into an imaginary figure embodying man's limited hopes of temporal prosperity and his fears of adversity" (Green xvii). Throughout his work, Boethius refers to Fortune using female pronouns and, through Philosophy, establishes Fortune as an entity, and Chaucer draws on this Boethian literary technique to provide a structural basis for his thematic development of choice over chance. In "The Knight's Tale", Chaucer's physical images of Fortune can also be traced back to Boethius' concept of Fortune and her "deceitful ways". Boethius' Philosophy holds that "When Fortune turns her wheel with her proud right hand, she is as unpredictable as the flooding Eurypus: she neither feels nor cares for the tears of those in misery" (23). Boethius states that "if you possess yourself, you have something that you will never want to give up and something that Fortune cannot take away from you", implying that by affirming free will, manhe can erase the whims of Fortune and take control of his own destiny. . Chaucer uses this sentiment in "The Knight's Tale" through his imagery of Fortune. In her supplication to Theseus, the older widow states, “Thank fortune and hire a false wheel,/That midday estaat ensures you are well” (925-6). The character links his predicament to Fortune's careless judgment, and the term "false" alludes to Boethius' supposed fallacy of the idea that man has no control over his own destiny. .To further align with the Consolation of Philosophy ideology, Chaucer portrays the whimsical nature of Fortune by illustrating a juxtaposition of fate between Palamon and Arcite After being released from prison, Arcite laments his freedom because he can no longer see Emelye. He becomes envious of Palamon and complains: "Well, fortune has given you fate, / that you have the sight of wages, and I." absence" (1238-9). He continues by saying: "Since it is possible, since you have assumed presence, / And you are a knight, worthy and capable, / That for some cas, syn Fortune is changeable" (1240-2) . Here Arcite leaves his fate in the hands of Fortune, and since she has "turned the dis" in Palamon's favor, Arcite has no choice but an elegiac soliloquy. In contrast, Palamon sits "with all the troubles that prison can give me", which recalls Boethius' elegiac opening to The Consolation of Philosophy (line 1296). Palamon laments his fate of imprisonment because he imagines that Arcite "will have a salary for the lady and for the wife" and condemns the "goddesses cruel ones who rule /This world with the eternal word" (1289, 1302-4). By presenting the opposing destinies of the two knights, Chaucer conveys the ignorance of every man who leaves his fate to the Gods instead of executing free will. Chaucer applies this comparison to illustrate the true character of Fortune and to dispel the idea of ​​life as a game of chance. Chaucer also conveys Boethius' presentation of Fortune as a rapprochement of good and evil as a means of explaining the existence of God. In The Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius argues that fortune is "changeable" and "one moment strikes down mighty kings ferociously , the next moment the hypocrite exalts the humiliated prisoner" (21-3). Boethius illustrates Fortune as a harmonization of good and evil due to her "two-faced nature" and "no man can ever be secure until he has been abandoned by Fortune" (22). Both Boethius and Chaucer present Fortune as an entity not interested in judgment, but rather a force whose very nature requires a balance between good and evil. In essence, the portrait of Fortune transforms from a whimsical goddess to a balanced force who simply follows her own natural law. After this passage, Boethius states that "for the wise man, luck is a specious identification of destiny; the course of events that influence his life may seem random and capricious, and most of them in fact escape his control; but if his intelligence leads him to recognize the existence of a divine power which governs the universe," (Green xvii-xviii). From this notion, Boethius presents the concept of God's ultimate power over destiny and thus establishes man's freedom to choose God using his intelligence, and Chaucer follows not only Boethius' presentation of the plot, but the underlying allegorical messages. Theseus' speech to Palamon and Emelye in "The Knight's Tale" provides a summary of the nature of God and Boethius' free will in The Consolation of Philosophy and provides the culmination of Chaucer's thematic development throughout the tale. Boethius first asserts that all living creatures must expire and that «one thing is certain, established by eternal law: nothing of this.