Apart from Constance's two marriage alliances, the other prominent aristocratic marriage in the Canterbury Tales is that of Palamon and Emily, with which the Knight's Tale ends. If Constance was unenthusiastic about marrying the Sultan, Emily states her opposition to becoming a wife in no uncertain terms. Praying in the temple of Diana, she says:

This statement is determined and unequivocal – Emily ‘nevere’ wants to marry or be loved; she does not want to have children, or experience intimacy with men. It is the central message of Emily's only speech in the entire Tale, and, as Priscilla Martin and Ian Robinson have noted, comes as a great shock to the reader since Emily's behaviour before and after this moment in the narrative shows no sign of resistance to marriage, and since Palamon and Arcite's apparent lack of interest in Emily's own perspective may have encouraged us to forget that she has one. Moreover, Emily does not express her opposition to marriage to any of the other human actors in the story.