Medieval Love

The Canterbury Tales is a mixture of radically different personalities combined to give us an idea of sundry philosophies of life at the Medieval Times. The concept of love is one of the main themes of this book, despite the fact that every character sees it differently. There are four tales that contradict themselves completely, as a result of each of their author’s persona.
The Knights tale shows distinctly the authors purest value which is honor among brothers. At simple sight there appears to be a love triangle in this story, however the only love shown is fraternal and the woman doesn’t participate in any decision making. Knights always fight for honor in first place and this tale is not an exception. Brotherhood seems to be the only pure love that should exist.
The Women of Baths personality is exposed when pleasure appears to be the main value in a relationship in which women have complete control. Men are powerless and are seen as boy-toys through this lady’s eyes, as a result women are materialistic and possessive. The concept of seeing your husband as an equal is completely banished and forbidden from this story, because the author is the epicenter of strength herself. Its posible to say that love is very present in this tale, not as tender or caring, but as sexual pleasure and lust.
The Clerks conservative philosophy of life leads to a tyrannical point of view in which love is just proven by agreeing to everything men say. It’s basically the abolishment of every right a woman might posses and turning them into a lifeless object. His mind is a place in which equality is totally off the table and “The end justify the means” is applied in everything. It might be possible that love may not be involved in any way in this tale, on the contrary is the pleasure that control gives that keeps the show going.
As a businessman, the Franklin shows his trustworthy point of view by telling a story about promises and equality. This is the only tale in which there’s actually a balance between both sexes, and were everyone treats the people surrounding them with respect. Maturity and self responsibility play a gigantic role in this tale, considering the fact that is the only place were in can be seen in the four different stories. Love as we see it, reliable and comforting, can be observed all throughout the tale and it is seen as a reward for truth.
It is impossible to generalize the concept of love at the Medieval Times. The relativity that this word involves makes every definition posible too vague. Sadly, love can have infinite meanings and they all depend on the connotation that each person gives it. Even if relativity is the key of making an interesting experience in this world, and the motor that impulses society it would be extremely interesting as well to be able lo give love a universal meaning. Although, at the end we end up creating a personal definition based on experience and ideals.