Palamon accuses Arcite Essay Example

Palamon accuses Arcite Essay Example Palamon accuses Arcite Essay Palamon accuses Arcite Essay Saturn (the planet that rules chaos), says Arcite, must have given them this misfortune. This is a rational attitude regarding fortune, but it quickly changes when Arcite sees Emelye and falls in love with her himself. Suddenly he is willing to forego his oldest bond of knighthoodhis bond with Palamonfor the sake of a lady he has not even met. They start to quarrel, and Palamon accuses Arcite of breaking their sworn oath. Like a child, Palamon claims that Emelye is his because he saw her first.Arcite notes that theres a difference in each ones love: Palamon loves her in holinesse, not even knowing whether shes a woman; while Arcite loves her as a fellow creature (lines 300-301), that is, as a woman. It may be that Arcite is right, but he uses the argument to prove that alls fair in love, which justifies breaking his vow. Does it? Well have to see which vowlove or bloodis the more lasting. When Arcites fortune changes through the love of Perotheus and the mercy of Theseus, hes unable to see that its really Gods purveyaunce (providence) (line 394) thats setting him free.Instead, he can see only as far as the physical things of nature, and moans that not erthe, water, fyr, ne air/Ne creature (lines 388-389) can help him. (He also uses a classical image of man being drunk, meaning that his brain is muddled by seeing only lower things and not spiritual heights. But Arcite cannot see that he is doing exactly that. ) Palamons prison, he complains, is really Paradise, and fortune has thrown him good dice (line 380). Meanwhile Palamon is saying the same things about Arcite.While Arcite wonders why people cant just accept Gods will and fortune (which he himself cant), Palamon asks what governaunce (justice or reason) there is in Gods foreknowledge (line 455). Each knight refuses to accept his fate and is torn between what he wants and what he has, between passion and duty. One is in prison and can see his lady; one is exiled and cut off from his beloved. Which of them, the Knight asks us with a sly grin, is the worse off? Arcite, pale and ill from love, has a dream in which Mercury, messenger of the gods, tells him, To Attenes shaltou wende [go],Ther is thee shapen of thy wo an ende [there the end of your woe is arranged]. (lines 533-534) Believing this means he will win Emelye, he risks death by returning to Athens. What he doesnt know is that his ende means his death. (In Christian imagery, Mercury often stands for the Devil. ) Fortune takes over from the time that Arcite, al alone, returns to Athens in disguise. NOTE: The idea of aloneness versus company, the ideal of the common good, appears throughout the tale. Theseus, the good ruler, consults his parliament and travels with others.Aloneness, some readers believe, means the way to death. In a circular pattern, we are back in May, and Were it by aventure or destinee (As, when a thing is shapen, it shal be) (lines 607-608) Palamon escapes just in time to see Arcite reveal his identity in the grove. Palamon threatens to kill him for breaking their knights code and his promise to Theseus not to return. Again, we are meant to see which promises are the more important. As we see later, Palamon considers the knights honor (which is tied to Venus) to be more important than winning a battle.Arcite believes the battle the most important thing. They agree to fight to the death the next day. Destiny is so strong that it determines what happens, in this instance and also in all situationsAll is this ruled by the sight above (line 814), i. e. , Gods knowledge. According to the divine plan, Theseus, Hippolyta, and Emelye arrive in the middle of the battle. Here is where Palamon shows honor by confessing the whole mess and asking for death. Theseus is angry that they are fighting withouten judge or other officer (line 854), in other words, outside the order imposed by law and reason.He agrees to spare their lives when the women plead for mercy and he sees that the fight is over love. He is still angry in his heart, Yet in his reason he them both excused (line 908). Theseus decides to settle the problem in an ordered game of battle where no one will be killed. This battle will determine whether love or might triumphs. Part III opens with a lavish description of Theseus building of the joust arena and the altars prepared for the gods of the main characters: Venus for Palamon, Mars for Arcite, Diana for Emelye.Each god is depicted in the cruelest termsVenus as the goddess of lovers broken sleeps and cold sighs (line 1062); Mars as the war god that brings death and destruction; Diana, goddess of chastity, as a cruel huntress. Each knight prays for victory and gets a sign that he interprets as meaning that hell be victorious. At the same time, the gods argue it out in the heavens, with Saturn, the god and planet of death, promising Venus that her man Palamon will win eventually. But she and Mars must keep peace between them for awhile, since their opposition creates swich divisioun (line 1618).Even though Saturn is a mean spirit, his main purpose here is to create harmony among the gods and the mortals below. Life cant exist without harmony or without pain, Saturn is saying; the suggestion is that this is the reason behind fortunes ups and down. The final section takes us onto the battlefield where Arcites knights fight for Mars (and Emelye) and Palamons for Venus (and Emelye). The rhetorical description of the battle, which some say represents sexual struggle, embodies human conflict the way cowboy films do; knights fall off horses and the crowd cheers or boos.Finally Mars knight Arcite wins the contest. When Arcites short-lived victory is literally overturned by his pitching horse, were told that the expulsive, animal, or natural virtues couldnt help him. NOTE: Three virtues, the vital, natural, and animal, were believed to control the body. In Arcite, the animal virtue, connected with the brain, cant expel the poison from the natural virtue, connected with the liver. Nature loses her hold on his life. He dies Allone, withouten any company, without having gained the desire of his dreams.The only consolation for Arcites death comes from Theseus old father Egeus, who knows the worlds transmutation and has seen it change both up and down (lines 1981-1982). This reminds us of love as well as life, for weve been told before that lovers go now up, now down, like a bucket in a well (line 675). The world always changes according to fortune, Egeus says, and he reminds us of the wider context of the tale when he says This world is just a thoroughfare of woe, And we are pilgrims, passing to and fro.(lines 1989-1990) There is even some humor in the orderly telling of Arcites funeral, which the Knight describes by saying what he wont describe. But after this ritual of death and honor, life begins again with Theseus explaining the point of the tale, that lifes order is a natural one, of fortune, love, life, and death. Everything is part of a perfect whole established by the First Mover (God), but lives its allotted time before the next generation succeeds. Then it is wisdom, as it seems to me,To make a virtue of necessity. (lines 2183-2184) In other words, Theseus makes the best of the nature we are given. Pain and death are inevitable, but lets enjoy it all to get the most out of life. What Palamon and Arcite couldnt settle between themthe problems of passion, duty, and fortuneare resolved by Theseus in this wise speech. The marriage of Palamon and Emelye is the outcome of this philosophy, and also shows how, within the wheel of fortune, happiness can exist along with, even because of, sadness and suffering.