Canterbury Tales is about a man named Geoffrey Chaucer who’s going on an adventure to Canterbury with a group of people and Chaucer describes the people who they are, about them. The people are very interesting in many ways that I myself would never expect from people now or then so it’s very interesting to think of people and to think oh hey I’m sure there’s people like this now days. The way they dressed then is different it looks like they’re wearing leggings and the dresses with different pieces of material just randomly sewed onto it.…
In the journey of Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer paints a vivid image of the medieval world. He brings forth three prominent concepts in the General Prologue, Pardoner's Prologue and Tale, and The Wife of Bath’s Tale. All tales satirically drenched with persuasive ideas, most would agree that his iconoclastic stories are dangerous for introducing aloud a different view on the church, gender relations and economic divisions. Creating doubt against the morals and true intentions of the church, bringing to light the inequality between genders and proposing a division between economic classes.…
Geoffrey Chaucer's, The Canterbury Tales was written in the late fourteenth century. It is a compilation of short stories, set in the Medieval Period England, told by travelers who are going on a pilgrimage to the Cathedral at Canterbury. Among the traveling band, a Monk of likely Franciscan ties was a pilgrim of high rank and nobility.…
Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales became one of the first ever works that began to approach the standards of modern literature. It was probably one of the first books to offer the readers entertainment, and not just another set of boring morals. However, the morals, cleverly disguised, are present in almost every story. Besides, the book offers the descriptions of the most common aspects of the human nature. The books points out both the good and the bad qualities of the people, however, the most obvious descriptions are those of the sinful flaws of humans, such as greed and lust.…
In the celebrated works, "Canterbury Stories," Geoffrey Chaucer recounts twenty-nine blessed explorers that are "on the way" to Canterbury. In transit there, the band of sacred explorers engages each other with a progression of tall stories keeping in mind the end goal to abbreviate the excursion. Chaucer, (the host) presents the each of the sacred explorers with legitimate and totally depictions present them with their own particular identity. All through the (first or starting scene), he finds a surprising (nature of being not at all like whatever else on the planet) in their basic lives and qualities. Chaucer's characters speak to an extremely wide thin cut of all parts of (group of individuals/all great individuals on the planet), aside from the respectability. His stories spoke to the general population themselves and addressed the greater part of the social classes that existed.…
At first, The Canterbury Tales characters do seem odd; however, like any good story plot you have your heroes and villains, good guys and bad guys, or protagonists and antagonists. The only different with this story is the names, truthfully. The stereotypes still exist – they just don’t disappear – take for instance The Pardoner. People like the Pardoner still have a very prominent place in society, although they appear in various forms – bankers, crooks, hustlers, etc. – the reality is they still exist. People every day are scammed by unsuspecting criminals just looking for money because they’re driven by greed, I.e., Bernie Madoff, Jordan Belfort, Jeff Skilling, and many more; all of which were trusted by someone along the way – and that’s…
In the 14th century in The Canterbury Tales the General Prologue, Chaucer writes about how corrupt the medieval society is and the different social levels at this time period. Chaucer meets new people which were twenty five pilgrims including himself and on their journey they decide to tell four stories each . Chaucer writes a hundred and twenty stories on the way to and on the way back.…
In The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, many characters go on a religious pilgrimage to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket. On the way to Canterbury, each person on the journey tells a tale. Whoever tells the best story, gets rewarded a lavish free meal. The pilgrimage includes people from the nobility, clergy, and commoner class. For each class, Chaucer develops many different character types that were representative of the society of the time. With a broad spectrum of people and action, The Canterbury tales consists of many different ideas such as social satire, courtly love/ chivalry,morality, and corruption and deceit. One of the most important ideas of the story is that Chaucer puts forward a criteria that…
Geoffrey Chaucer, in his Canterbury Tales, felt that the Church's turmoil experienced during the fourteenth century contributed to the a declining trust of clergy and left the people spiritually devastated. The repeated epidemics that the European Church experienced weakened the church by highlighting the clergy's inability to face adversity. The clergy's inability to provide relief for the people during a period of suffering did not turn people away from the church, but it did cause the people to question the value of the Church's traditional practices. People looked for ways to gain greater control over their own spiritual destines and altered their perception of the clergy, who were too weak to bring the people complete salvation. (Bisson51-52) "The times are out of joint, the light of faith grows dim; the clergy are mostly ignorant, quarrelsome, idle, and unchaste, and the prelates do not correct them because they themselves are no better." (Coulton 296) In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer makes us highly aware of the clergy's obvious and hidden intensions. Chaucer shows his awareness of the shortcomings of the Church in his portrayal of those who exercise spiritual authority during the pilgrimage. (Bisson 51-52)…
Chaucers The Canterbury Tales focuses on a group of pilgrims, contesting to tell the best tale on a pilgrimage to Canterbury. Stating two requirements for a good tale, the host says that the winner will be the man whose story is best told, / That is to say who gives the fullest measure / Of good morality and general pleasure (24). By giving general pleasure the storyteller provides an entertainment that holds the audiences attention. For Chaucers pilgrims, who represent the English common folk, general pleasure comes from crudity of humor, sex, and violence; romance in courtly love and gentilesse; and some connection to their own lives. By giving good morality the storyteller provides a lasting benefit by improving the audiences understanding and wisdom. So, which story best exhibits these traits?First, is the Millers tale. A comedic tale of the always-popular love-triangle, the Millers tale depicts the life of John, a carpenter in Oxford, and his lovely, young wife Allison. The other pilgrims would immediately appreciate the modesty of Johns life and the fact that they knew where he lived. These two simple details serve to draw in the Millers audience and make them feel more comfortable. He continues to describe aspects of life that every one of the other pilgrims would have known and experienced daily. In this way he makes them feel more connected to the story, therefore enjoying it more so. However the Millers tale is not simply a depiction of medieval life. Quite the contrary, the Miller devises a witty plot that includes a number opportunities for Allison, the fair young wife, [with a] body as slender / As any weasels, and as soft and tender (90), to have lewd interactions with another man and even an occasion for Absalon to poke a red-hot poker up Nicholass butt. Because the Millers tale offers sex, violence, crude humor, sinful love, it is highly entertaining to the audience and so meets the criterion of giving good pleasure. The Millers tale also has a…
Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales offers a multilevel examination of class dynamics in Medieval Society. Chaucer’s pretense of a pilgrimage allows him to unite individuals from disparate social standings as they travel towards the Canterbury Cathedral to visit the shrine of St. Thomas Beckett. Despite their common purpose and destination, the unity of the travelling band is still segregated according to class. Both Chaucer the narrator and the Host clearly respect the social hierarchy: the narrator’s portraits and the Host’s order of the storytelling are arranged by rank. However, the socially removed setting of the pilgrimage allows divisive class lines to blur as the Miller interrupts the prescribed social order to quyte the Knight’s tale.…
Authors often have an agenda when creating their works. These authors create their work with a specific agenda in mind to serve the purpose of making their own personal views apparent to readers. The Canterbury Tales--a collection of tales told by various people throughout a pilgrimage to Canterbury--serves as Geoffrey Chaucer’s own lament about the corruption of the Catholic Church in 14th century Europe. The pilgrims taking part in this pilgrimage are not necessarily the most pious pilgrims in the world: for many of the travelers, this pilgrimage is a tourist expedition rather than a devout religious quest. Chaucer utilizes this anthology of works to develop his ideas about the imperfections of the Catholic Church and how many people viewed…
The seven deadly sins can be easily committed by anyone unknowingly. Ever since humans came on earth, they have been immoral, shiftless creatures trying to find the easiest way out. But for ages, mankind struggled to also find a solution to help our spiritual needs and guide it in the right path. Thus, the concept of the seven deadly sins arose: gluttony, lust, pride, wrath, sloth, jealousy, and greed. If one carries on with life without committing a deadly sin, while being good from the heart and not just from the mind and actions, he/she will avoid the eternal damnation of hell. The Canterbury Tales: The Prologue, by Geoffrey Chaucer, contains pilgrims going to Canterbury, in which some of these pilgrims commit deadly sins. In this prologue, the Wife of Bath is guilty of lust, Franklin is guilty of gluttony, and the Pardoner is guilty of greed.…
Geoffrey Chaucer was a learned poet remarkably ahead of his time. In breaching the fragile boundaries of society, he was able to create authentic characters whose traits and appearances portrayed more of life's aspects than ever before. From a piece of his unfinished work, The Canterbury Tales: The Prologue, he molds for the reader a figure of significant importance during an age ruled by Christianity. The religious devotion expected of a church official and temptations of a secular life meld to create the Prioress.…
Necessarily, few words must be said about the set behind the characters’ portrayal. As the spring has unfolded, twenty nine people from almost every kind of walk in England, wend to pilgrimage to Canterbury. Pilgrimage might serve as a special set for displaying characters. According to Peter Brown, pilgrimage might serve both as “therapy of the distance” and as searching of your own self[1]. The same author says that “the saint” had been accommodated in that part of the soul of the ancients, where the layer of their “ego”[2] and the immediate supernatural layer overlapped in the Classical pre-Christian period.[3] Consequently, going to a pilgrimage may serve as a way of self-discovery and consequently a display of characters. Did Chaucer choose the pilgrimage as a plot for his poem with this though in mind? We cannot be sure. The heroes, chosen for discussion are: the Monk, the Pardoner and the Parson.…