Juxtaposing Courtly and Carnal Love in The

Canterbury Tales:
A Comparison of Emily and Alison in “Knight’s Tale” and
“Miller’s Tale”

From the birth of Tristan and Isolt’s monumental romance, the

concept of courtly love has pervaded Western literature. The reality of

carnal love, however, is much older. Chaucer juxtaposes these two

drastically different types of romantic relationships in the first two

stories of The Canterbury Tales. Through his gentle, poetic description

of Emily in “The Knight’s Tale” and his frankly sensual description of

Alison in “The Miller’s Tale,” Chaucer establishes the woman as the

object of desire for two opposing kinds of conquests. The first type of

conquest—that of courtly love—is nobler in its spiritual goal of uniting

two souls destined to be together. The second type of conquest—that

of carnal love—is much baser and more animalistic, seeking only to

unite two lusty bodies. Chaucer seems to champion the latter as more
applicable to the real world, however, even if it employs lewd methods.

Chaucer likens Emily to all of the beautiful, natural elements

that have become standard bases of comparison for women in

European literature. He compares her to flowers (lines 1035-38),

symbols of innocence and fragility. Her hair is golden, which alludes to

innocence, as well. The saying “pure as gold” exists, after all. In

another sense of the word, golden hair is most common among

children, perhaps the most common symbols of innocence. Many

brunette adults, for instance, had light hair as children before it

darkened with age (and thus accumulated sins). Chaucer elaborates

upon Emily’s hair, explaining that her braid measured “a yerde long”

[a yard long] (line 1050); during that age, long hair represented a

woman’s chastity and femininity. If these factors alone do not convince

the reader of Emily’s virtue, Chaucer even explicitly calls her an

“aungel” [angel] (line 1055) as he mentions her melodious singing

voice. He continues to say that she appears fresh and bright (line

1066), as if she glows with a heavenly aura. Chaucer does not

describe Emily’s body in a risqué, or even especially specific, manner.

In his article, "The Knight's Tale: The Dialogue of Romance, Epic, and

Philosophy,” John Finlayson writes the following:

"The details--rose, lilies, yellow hair,
sunlight--and the adjectives--fair,
fresh, new--are as stereotyped here
as they are in an Elizabethan
sonnet… we have instead an image
of light, flower garlands, yellow hair,
and the freshness and vigor of early
morning...This impressionism
evokes the emotional response of
the viewers, Arcite and Palamon,
while at the same time locating
Emily firmly as Youth and Beauty,
rather than Ms. Emily of Athens.
Specificity and greater individuality
are reserved for Alison in the next
tale, because her role has less to do
with eternal and elevating Love than
with the stirrings of another, less
exalted eternal, Lust." (Finlayson
132-133).
 Emily is a somewhat vague, rather typically beautiful woman of

her historical period. Isolt or Guinevere could have easily assumed the

same physical description, for instance. Finlayson’s statement

underscores what he previously points out in his essay: "A principal

characteristic of romance is its formalism of language, gesture, and

story--what might be considered its deliberate exclusion of naturalism"

(Finlayson 130). In contrast, Chaucer’s description of Alison is much

more natural—natural to the point of caveman barbarism.

Whereas Chaucer is subtle and polite in describing Emily, he

points out Alison’s sheer sexiness much more bluntly, viewing her

through the lens of a man solely focused on sex. The first feature he

mentions is her body “gent and delicate” (line 3233) as opposed to her

virtue or sweet face. He then details her girdle, apron, and hips—

concentrating on the very section of the body most interesting to men

in terms of lovemaking. To continue with the steamy portrayal,

Chaucer discusses her undergarment and calls her eye “likerous”

[flirtatious] (line 3244). Alison’s plucked eyebrows indicate that she

makes a conscious effort to appeal to men. Plucking one’s eyebrows

must have been an especially painful process in the Middle Ages, when

women did not dampen torn-up hair follicles with disinfectant or

properly clean tweezers after using them. After observing her

plucked brows, Chaucer likens Alison to a pear tree. In medieval times,

the ideal figure for a woman was pear-shaped, meaning a small bosom

and a little waist that flared out into ample hips that signaled fertility.
Because human females do not undergo an estrous cycle (i.e.,

experience an “in heat” period) like most other mammals, men must

subconsciously seek other signs in potential mates. Wide hips increase

a woman’s ability to safely give birth, especially during a historical

period known for its primitive medicine. Numerous women, namely

frail, small-hipped ones, died in childbirth during the Middle Ages. A

‘healthy’ woman is one eager men like Nicholas consider fit to produce

babies; a woman ready for babies is, also, one essentially ready for

sex. Chaucer also says Alison is “softer than wolle”[wool] (line 3249).

Wool is a crass slang term for a woman’s vulvic pubic hair, evidencing

Chaucer’s vulgar, sexist view of Alison.

It

is only after Chaucer has so heavily alluded to Alison’s vaginal area

and her desire to please men that he starts to discuss her other

features. She has a “shynyng…hewe” [shining complexion] (line 3255)

and a lovely singing voice (line 3257), but even those descriptions

contain sexual undertones. The image of a shining complexion

references the sweat formed during lovemaking. Additionally, many

men consider a woman’s voice a very erotic feature because it differs

noticeably from their own. Next, Chaucer talks about Alison’s penchant

for dancing and playing (line 3258), but, given the overt sensuality of

previous descriptions, that could easily mean that Alison is ready to

play the game of love (and thus lovemaking.) Alison’s mouth, low

neckline, and legs then take on the center of attention. Obviously,

kissing and other sexual acts involve the mouth, while the breasts and

legs also form focal points in bedroom activities. Finally, Chaucer

explicitly says what he has been hinting at all along: “She was a

prymerole, a piggesnye/For any lord to leggen in his bedde/Or yet for

any good yeman to wedde” (lines 3268-3270). In other words, Alison is

perfect for bedding. So when Nicholas first spies her, he cannot help

but resist such an inherently tantalizing

beauty.

It is equally important to note not only

Chaucer’s descriptions of Emily and Alison’s physical appearances, but

also their actions. Their behavior firmly distinguishes courtly and carnal

love, and Chaucer’s criticism of the former as too lofty. Consider how

Emily is pure, while Alison only feigns purity. Alison does, after all, very

quickly succumb to Nicholas' advances. He simply sheds crocodile

tears before she agrees to sleep with him, indicating that she merely

played coy in initially declining him. In contrast, Emily sincerely has no

desire to marry, preferring hunting and gathering flowers as her

maidenly pastimes. Neither knight so much as piques her interest,

even though Chaucer describes both as attractive men.

By feigning

purity akin to Emily’s, Alison mocks such a chaste lifestyle and

therefore mocks the whole idea of courtly love—something “The

Miller’s Tale” accomplishes as a whole. Alison’s raunchy behavior as an

enthusiastic adulteress is well-suited to the comedic genre of fabliau

tales. Henry Seidel Canby claims the following about fabliaux in his

article, “The English Fabliau”: “One’s only justification for approaching

these contes à rire with anything but laughter must be a desire to

search into the qualities which make ‘lewed peple loven tales olde,’

and especially the nature of the humor which preserves those called

fabliaux from age to age” (Canby 200). If the reader does not laugh

about Alison and Nicholas’ libidinous affair, then he obviously does not

see how much fun Chaucer pokes at traditional courtly love stories.

Alison finds happiness by committing sin, not shrouding herself in

innocence like Emily. Despite all her goodness and

purity, angelic Emily does not win in her struggle to avoid marriage,

while devilish Alison earns exactly what she wants. While Emily suffers

a destiny she has always feared, Alison enjoys zero societal ostracism

for committing adultery, and Nicholas as her bedfellow. James H.

Morey states the following his article, “The ‘Cultour’ in the ‘Miller’s

Tale’: Alison as Iseult”: “Of the four main characters in the Miller’s Tale,

only Alison’s actions and intentions are not thwarted, and she is much

more at home in the world of fabliau than Emily is in the world of

romance…the woman wins” (Morey 378).

According

to Chaucer’s tales, then, it seems that men will more likely meet

success if they chase after the objects of carnal love. In “The Knight’s

Tale,” Palamon—not Arcite, who serves at Emily’s chamber page for

three years without ever once trying to seduce her—ends up marrying

Emily. In “The Miller’s Tale,” Nicholas, not the faithful, supportive John,

or the kind, charming Absalom, wins Alison’s heart. Courtly love—with

all its romantic ideals about loving from afar and paying homage to a

lady as you would a goddess—proves ineffectual. You may never join

souls with the woman of your dreams, but getting her in bed seems

infinitely more likely.

In contrasting Emily and Alison, Chaucer distinguishes courtly

from carnal love and how the latter leads to happiness and satisfaction

in a way courtly love cannot. In fact, Chaucer shows just how pointless

and unrealistic courtly love is, especially by underlying the fates of

each woman at the end of her respective tale. Chaucer, applauding the

efficiency of men displaying romantic candor and holding realistic

expectations in love, makes it clear that the value of sex (and

sexiness) should not be underestimated.

Sources

Canby, Henry Seidel. “The English Fabliau.” PMLA, Vol. 21. New York:
Modern Language Assocation, 1906.

Finlayson, John. "The Knight's Tale: The Dialogue of Romance, Epic,

and Philosophy." The Chaucer Review, Vol. 27, No. 2. University Park,
PA: Penn State University Press, 1992

Morey, James, H. “The ‘Cultour’ in the ‘Miller’s Tale’: Alison as Iseult.”

The Chaucer Review. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press,
1995.