Publication Date
Spring 2011
School
College of Arts and Sciences; School of Communication
Major
English; History: International Studies
Primary Subject Area
Literature, English; Literature, General; Literature, Medieval
Keywords
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, A Knight's Tale, Mars, Venus, Human Passions, Reason, Theseus, Egeus, Saturne, Love and War, Order and Chaos
Disciplines
Literature in English, British Isles | Medieval History
Recommended Citation
Blessing, Olivia L., "Mars and Venus: Symbols of the Chaotic and Conflicted Human Passions and the Reestablishment of Order in “The Knight’s Tale.”" (2011). Senior Honors Theses. 238.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/honors/238
Abstract
During the Middle Ages, Europe experienced a period when philosophers attempted to separate and analyze the passionate and rational elements of the soul. Some supported strict reason as the sole moral basis for living, while others looked to the tempestuous passionate emotions. Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale” portrays this conflict between reason and the passions through the depicted relationship between Mars and Venus and the uncontrolled passions of Arcite and Palamon.
Determining that a world controlled by passions results in chaos, Chaucer offers three different solutions—negating the passions, subjugating the passions to reason, and a balance between passion and reason. He ultimately determines that only the third option will result in true order within nature and the human soul.
