No Satisfaction.

Satisfaction. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of that word is pleasure. Am I happy with what I have? Do I feel full field or do I want more? It all starts with wanting something, first you choose it, then you do whatever you have to do in order to get it, once you have it you should feel satisfied. That’s how it works but then again is doesn’t. The satisfaction of that thing be it whatever each person wants, last so little that we start wanting something else almost immediately. This has nothing to do being ungrateful because we don’t depreciate what we just got we just want more than what we have. It can also be seen as the pursuit of happiness. All the things that we want, all the decision we make represent something that will lead up to our final answer. This only questions the nature of happiness and Arcite, a soldier being held prisoner in The Knight’s Tale has to question his. He is imprisoned and has the chance to be free but if he does leave then he will not be able to see the woman he loves. It comes back to satisfaction. There are two possibilities: he leaves and he is free or he stays, only seeing the woman he loves but imprisoned. He will not be satisfied because winning something implies loosing something else.
He must decide what to do and which decision will satisfy him more because “we seek eagerly after felicity but we go wrong very often, truly.” (1266-1267) It is all part of the chase and what we think we want may be the worst decision we ever made. Again, like Arcite who leaves Athens and then returns full of regret and miserable of not being able to see his lady. But then we must ask the question again, is he satisfied? That we don’t know because neither pleasure nor satisfaction is happiness.