Cortez 1

Maria Cortez

Figeroua

Senior English 1

14 December 2018

Love is Deeper than Beauty on the Outside

Most folklore love stories were written or take place in medieval time periods. The

stories have a deep meaning in them. Chaucer was a medieval author who showed the world a

meaning about love and taught us a new type of English. The Unknown Bride is a story in

another story. It defines honor, gender-roles, but most importantly love. He helps the character in

his story find the true meaning of love and beauty. Chaucer defines love as something that lies

beneath the surface that people use to show the world, he defines love as not something that is on

the coating we use every day but what is inside is what truly matters.

The old crone in the story changes the way the knight; which is the main character,

thinks. When the old crone asks if he would rather have her old, ugly, and faithful or young,

beautiful and unfaithful. “I believe that you are wise and good and I take you for my true and

faithful wife.”(Chaucer 4). The old crone made a good point in the view of the knight. She put

him in a position where he has to choose whether he would want to be happy or have everything

a man would want. Love is not having everything a person wants. Looks are not what make

people fall in love it is the purity and faithfulness or loyalty a person has in their heart. The

knight realized the true meaning of love. Which is the reason he took the old crone as his wife

and she transformed into the same beauty she had in her heart. “He caught her in his arms and

kissed her not once, but a thousand time and then a thousand times more and onto the last day of

their lives they lived in peace and happiness.” (Chaucer 4). Beauty comes from the heart.
 A personality is the righteousness a person needs to fall in love. The way a person acts

and thinks says a lot about the character they are. When someone has morality and are devoted is

what catches the heart of another person. Chaucer wanted to teach us that loving someone for

who they are is having clarity in what love really is. He defined love as important and beautiful.
 Works Cited

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. 1392.