...Within English literature there may be no better descriptions of people than in the general prologue of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Every character so perfectly profiled. Much was told about appearance, dress, habits, backgrounds and stories. He distinguishes each character by his/her profession. This makes us curious as to how he would describe many of the modern professions in his same unique manner. In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales it will be interesting to include three modern characters, an astronaut, an elected politician, and a computer geek. The astronaut would be a magnificent sight to all who see him. Dressed in glimmering silvery attire the knight had the latest and greatest of everything. His dagger had many sharps edges in a new metallic case. The astronaut’s eyes were bright, full of life, and showed nothing close to a lack of intelligence. He was quiet, never spoke out of turn. Many a mile he had traveled, over land, air, and space. His eyes had gazed at what few others had, the earth….from outer space. He possessed a certain calm about him. He was wise, strong,...
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...fourteenth century Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales. The Canterbury Tales included several fictitious pilgrims, each having a prologue to describe them and a story to tell. The Pardoner, Chaucer's final pilgrim, acts and looks in a way deplorable to the rest of the travelers. The Pardoner is "man" most notable for his greed, physical abnormalities, and denial of the fictitious. His tale condemns his own nature, and shows the effects of alcohol on the human superego. Chaucer's description of the Pardoner is crucial to an understanding of his tale. The Pardoner's prologue although short, introduces the pardoner as a greedy man, who is willing to take advantage of others to get his fortune. His primary role as a pardoner is to...
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...The Knight: Pilgrim Analysis In the general prologue of the Canterbury Tales, the Knight is the first of the pilgrims to be described because he is of the highest rank. Therefore, it is only fitting that he goes first. In Chaucer’s work, he “. . . creates his knight in such a historical detail that we can easily explore the specific kind of knight he might have been . . .” (Calabrese 3). Chaucer describes his knight as “. . . a most distinguished man . . .” (Coghill 4). The narrator illustrates the Knight to be a man who “followed chivalry, truth, honor, generousness and courtesy” (4). Furthermore, the Knight presents himself in a polite fashion, never speaking insensitive words about anyone. Through Chaucer’s words and descriptions, it...
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...Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale reflect the anti-feministic ideologies of women’s sexuality, marriage and female sovereignty of Medieval time. In her prologue, Alison shamelessly gloats about her sexual exploits. She is also proud of the way she uses sexual power to get what she wants. By doing this she is confirming the negative stereotypes about women and proving that women are manipulative and deceitful. Although at first it many seem like she is rebelling against the male-dominated society, in reality she does little to empower the women of her time. Alison is one of the most memorable characters of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, her voice is different from the other pilgrims— loud, self-promoting and arrogant. Alison’s character...
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...Top Ethical Pilgrims Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales depicts a wide range of characters of different class, ages, background, and financial background, and each of these components have an effect the pilgrim’s morality. Chaucer portrays four characters in particular as more principled than the rest: The Knight, the Parson, the Clerk, and the Yeman. These four virtuous characters share common ethical traits, the most important being the motivation to help others, the next rejecting luxury, and the last showing skill in their jobs. Chaucer bases morality on the motivation to help others before yourself, a trait that these four principled characters have in common. Helping others ranks first as the most important virtuous trait because improving the...
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...Divine Hypocrisy (A literary analysis of Chaucer’s use of satire to reach his audience) As you go through life you learn that many times most people do not agree with what you do. They all have their own interests as we have our own. People of all denominations perform many different jobs some even the same jobs, but others out do the others in their field. Chaucer is considered to be one of the greatest English poets of all time. Many refer to him as the father of the English language. Chaucer wrote one of the best known books titled Canterbury Tales. Chaucer’s literary work is one of the most famous books to ever be written. Within his book there are many smaller stories told by different characters told within it. All of the smaller...
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...century, wrote a framed story called The Canterbury Tales. This work is made up of a General Prologue, which is a description of all the individual pilgrims going on the pilgrimage, followed by several tales told by these pilgrims. He describes several knight’s in this work through a chivalric code of honor. Through his description of the Knight in the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, as well as the “Knight’s Tale” and the “Wife of Bath’s Tale,” Chaucer suggests that although chivalry...
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...Meanwhile Chaucer uses satire to criticize the people of the church, rather than any media because as we all know back then, there was no media to criticize, instead there was a big old church. For example The Prioress, “She spoke her French… for French of Paris was not hers to know…She would weep if she but saw a mouse caught in trap, though it was dead or bled. She had little dogs, too, that she fed on roasted flesh…hung a brooch of golden sheen.” Chaucer is using satire to make fun at a nun who is overweight, and pretends to be part of a royal court. He points out that her French is not French and while she cries when she sees animals hurt, she stills feeds her dogs meat and milk. She also wears a golden brooch with a saying on it, “Love...
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...The Requirement of a Mutually Contented Relationship The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, was written in a time where women were often compelled to servitude for men. This was even prevalent in relationships in which men exerted forceful control over women. Despite societal norms, women still strived for some sort of sovereignty in their relationships, which often went ungranted. This imbalance of power caused unhappiness and serious discontent. Chaucer lived in a world where critics were considered heretical and were at risk of capital punishment, i.e. burning at the stake. This caused many faultfinders to resort towards hiding behind fictional characters in order to safely express their beliefs. Chaucer denounces his society’s common...
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...Before the pilgrims set off on their quest, The Host, Harry Bailey, said he would find a way to entertain all of the pilgrims, on one condition: they have to do what he says, sort of making him the leader of the group. The pilgrims, seeing nothing wrong with this agreed, Harry then proposed an offer that was hard to put down: Each pilgrim, including himself would have to tell four stories; two on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back, and whomever told the most entertaining and meaningful story would earn a meal at his tavern out of the other pilgrims wallets. The Pardoner speaks of how greed is the root of all evil whilst he Wife of Bath tells a story that men should submit to their wives, alongside some other themes include that true...
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...The Wife of Bath’s Tale in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is about a knight in King Arthur’s court that sexually assaults a young maiden. He is saved by the Queen, but she sends him on a quest to find out what women desire most. Most readers see this as either a tale about growth and understanding of women and human emotion in a time where they were not equal, or about a knight that could care less about women’s emotions and cares more about their physical forms. (add more about thesis about which one is right) This story is usually interpreted in two ways; as a story about self growth and understanding, or as a story about a selfish, bratty knight that acts like most high school students in January. For many reasons, it’s seen as a...
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...In school, Medieval Times is taught as an era with big castles and fortresses, kingdoms, and a feudal system with rigid three estates. By the late medieval times, these rigid estates began to have a breakdown. Between 1348 and 1350 the Black Death struck England and killed about thirty to forty percent of England’s population. This means that about half of the working class people died, therefore, the remaining ones were in great demand. By the fourteenth century England was more urbanized; in two centuries the population in London arose from 18,000 people to 45,000 people. This means that merchants and craftsmen had more possible clients in a more reduced space. Also, common people like the yeoman were able to get small pieces of land to farm. As a result to urbanization and factors like the Black Death; merchants, craftsmen, and peasants were benefited. Little by little, the division among the estates began to become blurry. It was inevitable to notice the rising of the middle class; first, second, and third estate people were well aware as were the writers and thinkers of the time such as William Langland and Geoffrey Chaucer who reflect these changes on their writings and even show how they support these changes. In early medieval times, the idea that the world was to be run under a system that separated people according to their roles on society led to the feudal system. Important people in the church supported this idea therefore there no one would question it. In the...
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...Geoffrey Chaucer was one of the worlds most famous english written. The Canterbury Tales is by far Chauncer's best known and most acclaimed work..The Canterbury Tales was written by different characters .The Wife of Bath was one of his stories that was told by Alisoun.The Wife of Bath is the most fully developed and discussed women in medieval literature. Although she is the most expierienced woman at her time knowing about marriage and relationships her prologue was viewed as anti-feminist rhetoric. The Wife of Baths is known for her attitude towards marriage and relationships that prohaps make her the best known character in The Canterbury Tales.Some critics love the Wife of Bath and her controversial prologue, proclaiming that she is a...
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...As a stark contrast, this concept of celebrating powerful women in “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale” is almost invisible in the BBC cartoon. Throughout the cartoon, women are continually painted in a negative light—starting off with the Wife of Bath flirting with the Friar (BBC 0:25), as previously mentioned. The aggression and drama surrounding the tale only pertain to the female characters, making them seem as if they are crazy; it severely delegitimizes their actions and attitudes. The old woman who eventually marries the knight is relentlessly made fun of—one scene in particular shows her face up close licking her lips, telling the knight “I want to be your wife and your love!” (BBC 4:43) while his face is utterly disgusted. This depicts...
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...such a way that they seem personally experienced. Imagination is always associated with the created power and is a poetic principle. It is a transforming power as it has the ability to change the usual and ordinary in an unusual and uncommon way. Poetry is a modified "image of man and nature”. The poet is able to impart "the glory and freshness of a dream" to ordinary things of nature. He can present in his poetry the light that never was on land and sea. He is able to do so to the creative faculty of imagination. It is thus an active power. Poet is not a passive reflector of images formed from nature. He is a man who not only feels strongly but also thinks long and deeply. He is able to treat absent things as if they are present. Here Canterbury tales present an example of this imaginative power to visualize objects which are not present before poet’s eyes in their concrete forms but he presents them before us that they seem real. 29 pilgrims of Chaucer are his imaginative characters, all their qualities, merits and demerits are his own creations and here his creation is supported by his imagination. Imagination enables the poet to look deep into the heart and soul of things. It is through the imaginative faculty that he arrives at...
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