Through a tale of valor and forbidden love, Chaucer creates a dual prison system for Arcite and Palamon to overcome. On the surface is the physical imprisonment of the two knights following an unsuccessful battle with Creon, the responsibility for which Arcita deflects, “But I must lie in gaol, because Saturn, and Juno too, both envious and mad, Have spilled out well-nigh all the blood we had…” (47) While the Knight continues to tell of the chains and exile that the two will endure, a glimpse into the mental prison of the two warriors is established by a question of worse fate. By weaving an element of love into a sibling rivalry, Chaucer posits that the physical building and exile the two knights is the lesser of two evils in comparison to their inescapable mental torment. Chaucer drives the point home by directly asking readers which of the two is left in deeper anguish, a free man unable to see his heart fulfilled or an imprisoned man able to briefly see his heart content daily. Plato touches on the subject briefly in The Republic, in explaining the relation between the soul and the sun, one the center of human existence, the other the center of the universe. “…When it focuses on something that truth and being illuminates, it intelligizes, knows, and apparently possesses intelligence.” (Medieval Philosophy, 25). In the Knight’s Tale, through immediate affection, Emily becomes intricately linked to the souls of Arcite and Palamon, influencing their every move in a quest to realize love. While the two knights are keenly aware of the punishment that pursuing Emily could cause – given the closing sequence in which Arcite relinquishes his interest with his dying breath – both are willing to fight to the death if the situation arises. The sense of mental imprisonment leads Arcite and Palamon to submit to a destitute life rather than live free.
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