What Drives Us All

Everything we do has a purpose and whether we want to or not, we are driven by our passions. Passions come in many ways, be it love, hate, anger, etc. In The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer we can see the incredible power of passions in The Knight's Tale. Both Palamon and Arcite are madly in love with Emelye. Arcite, thanks to Perotheus, has been freed from jail but is banned from the land. On the other hand, Palamon is still able to see Emelye from his jail cell, but is incarcerated and therefore will never be able to be with her. The passion that they feel leads both Arcite and Palamon to do a series of unusual and even ludicruous things such as desguising oneself and risk death, escape from jail, and even go without sleep because of the insurmountable love that they feel towards Emelye.


Thinking about these things that both Arcite and Palamon did for love I couldn't help but see parallels in many of the movies and shows we see nowadays. For example one that came to mind was the whole story of King Kong and his immense love for the beautiful girl. This wild and uncontrollable beast is led by his passions and ultimately dies in their sake.


Another plot that came to mind was that of the whole "Mario" video game saga. The whole plot develops around the love that Mario feels towards Princess Peach. In the video game, an ordinary plumber decides to face life threatening obstacles in order to save the beautiful damsel in distress.