The Canterbury Tales is a story that incorporates a multitude of stories told by a multitude of characters. Written by Geoffrey Chaucer, he devises a novel in which each character has to narrate a total of four stories as part of a competition; on their way to visit Saint Thomas Becket, the characters would tell two stories going and two stories returning from the journey. The perspective changes through each story, and each story is introduced by a general, opening, third person prologue. Though many of the characters got to share some ideas, Chaucer unfortunately passed away before his story’s entirety. As a result, a winner was never officially clarified. Needless to say, it is evident that the clear winner would be the Miller’s Tale. …show more content…
One night of the “flood”, as usual, Absalom returns to Allison’s residency and begs for her to bestow a kiss to him. To his surprise, she finally accepts the request, hoping this will allow for the young clerk to leave her alone for good. On the contrary, instead of sticking her lips out the window, she throws her butt out for her and Absalom's amusement. Enraged, Absalom borrows a hot poker and returns to get revenge on Alison. This time however, it is Nicholas who places his butt outside the window and also allows a fart to escape in Absalom's face. The branded Nicholas begins to scream “‘Help, water! Water, help, for God’s sake!” and startles Josh, who is convinced the flood is coming (Chaucer, 79) . In response, Josh comes crashing down on from the roof and goes unconscious. The whole town thinks the carpenter is delusional because of his oblivion to the fact there there is actually no godly storm. It is clear to note the use of trickery and adultery in this fable. Noted earlier, the Miller’s tale is enjoyable due to its qualities of both entertainment and the idea of learning a lesson. In the prologue, the miller is defined as a filterless, rowdy drunk who speaks whatever comes to his mind. Because of this, he is portrayed as very vulgar and a nuisance since he easily offends others. The Reeve introduces the Miller at the beginning of the story as a drunk, impulsive, bully as he
To begin his tale, the Miller interjects after the Knight, interrupting the Monk. The Miller then apologizes in advance for what he is about to say; he is very drunk and may say some inappropriate things. After his short prologue, the Miller tells the story of a wild love affair between a woman named Alisoun and three men pining after her. The three men, Alisoun’s carpenter husband named John, a scholar name Nicholas, and a parish clerk called Absolon all take an almost obsessive interest in this eighteen-year-old woman. Although Alisoun is married to the carpenter, she quickly becomes secretly devoted to Nicholas after a short
After reading explications of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, a student is likely to come away with the impression that the Franklin is the critics favorite punching bag. To the average reader in the modern English-speaking world, the Franklin comes across as surprisingly fair-minded and level-headed, noteworthy as the man kind and inventive enough to resolve the marriage cycle with a tale of decency and openness. The critics, however, often depict the Franklin as a man primarily concerned with upward mobility, finding in his tale a number of remarks intended to win over the nobility and subtly assert his own claim to a kind of nobility. The contrast between the fawning Franklin of certain critical approaches and
B.) I mused over whether I wanted macaroni and cheese or pizza for dinner, which was a tough decision.
In Geoffrey Chaucer 's The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses the climax of The Wife of Bath 's Prologue to illustrate how through the influence of the church, the figure of the wife, was seen either as week or evil. Chaucer makes this point by using religious terms and imagery, like sister and smite, and the symbol of the lion. After establishing this point, he then shows how damaging this idea can be, by showing how hollow and disturbing the relationship between the wife and her husband becomes, when the husband is in the submissive role, through the use of homonyms and objective language.
The Canterbury Tales serves as a moral manual in the Middle Ages. In the tales, Geoffrey Chaucer portrays the problems of the society. For instance, Chaucer uses the monk and the friar in comparison to the parson to show what the ecclesiastical class are doing versus what they are supposed to be doing. In other words, it is to make people be aware of these problems. It can be inferred that the author’s main goal is for this literary work to serve as a message to the people along with changing the society in relation to these problems. The author mentions several issues of the society including how women are treated. Pertaining to women’s role in the society, the Middle Ages was also considered a patriarchal society which is why in the
Literature, along with other forms of art, has always been a great reflection of history. Much of what we know about ancient societies, we know from both fictional and non-fictional works. Barbara Tuchman once said, “Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. They are engines of change, windows on the world, lighthouses erected in the sea of time.” A person can summarize the themes and priorities of a given era through the literary works of the time. During the Middle Ages, Roman gods were still fresh in memories while the beginning of the Roman Catholic church was at the center of life. Secondary themes of the period were love, honor, and valor. Moral tales of the Middle Ages sought to teach a valuable lesson of ethics through literature. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a collection of reflections of life in the middle ages and a reflection of the concerns and priorities of the time. One author writes of Chaucer saying, ““….yet Chaucer is also 'the noble philosophical poet of love, preoccupied with questions about love, true nobility, and the Boethian
The Reeve’s tale is told after the Miller’s tale, in which the Miller ridiculed a fictional carpenter. The Reeve was extremely offended by the Miller’s tale, because of his former occupation as a carpenter, so he believed the tale was directed towards him. The Reeve’s vexation towards the Miller can be seen when he states,
The Canterbury Tales introduces a group of very interesting characters from different walks of life. These characters can fall into different groups, and these groups show society was divided up in the 14th century. The descriptions of these characters give an idea on how these groups worked. How were people ranked in social status? Were certain people more corrupt than others? Which characteristics caused the people to be sorted into the group they are in? These questions are answered by the different groups of characters.
When the Knight finishes his tale, everybody is pleased with its honorable qualities, but the drunken Miller insists that he shall tell the next tale. The Miller's Tale is a comic table in which Nicholas, a student who lives with John the carpenter and his much younger wife, Alison, begins an affair with Alison. Another man, the courtly romantic Absolon, also falls in love with Alison. Nicholas contrives to spend a day with Alison by telling John that a flood equal to Noah's flood will come soon, and the only way that he, Nicholas and Alison will survive is by staying in separate kneading tubs placed on the roof of houses, out of sight of all. While John remained in this kneading tub, Nicholas and Alison left to have sex, but were interrupted by Absolon, who demanded a kiss from Alison. She told him to close his eyes and he would receive a kiss. He did so, and she pulled down her pants so that he could kiss her nether region. The humiliated Absolon got a hot iron from a blacksmith and returned to Alison. This time, Nicholas tried the same trick, and Absolon burned him on the ass. Nicholas shouted for water, awakening John, who was asleep on the
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a collection of 24 stories written during the Middle Ages. The tales were written with the intent of criticizing the functions of societal standards as well as the beliefs of the Church. “The Miller’s Tale,” one the most popular stories, offers unique insights into the customs and practices of the English middle class during the Middle Ages. The story follows the lives of John, Absolon, and Nicholas, three men who are involved with a beautiful woman named Alisoun. The male characters attempt to win over the heart of the beautiful Alisoun, leading to misfortune and despair. However, this misfortune is not distributed evenly, and the characters, with the purest of intents, end the story far worse off than their immoral counterparts. In “The Miller’s Tale,” Chaucer shows that life favors the characters with an inverted moral compass while ultimately destroying those who are more honorable.
Through The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer is able to ironically portray the life friars lived throughout the 14th century. Geoffrey Chaucer was born around 1345 and lived in London. (Strohm par 1). He grew up being trained as a civil servant and diplomat. Around 1366 Chaucer married Queen Philippa of Spain (Encyclopedia of World Biography 483). Through being appointed to Parliament, he traveled to many different countries on diplomatic missions and was influenced by the contrasting types of writing (Strohm par 3). These experiences helped Chaucer to gain knowledge about diverse types of people and English writing, which influenced the way he wrote The Canterbury Tales (par 1). When Chaucer wrote, he often mocked and satirized people
Additionally, Morrison claims that the Wife’s vernacular demonstrates the trilingual society existing in fifteenth century England. The Wife references her sexual organs in the three prominent languages of her time; she uses the English term “queynte,” the French term “bele chose” and the Latin term “quoniam” (Morrison). The three languages represent the structure of the patriarchal society existing in England; Latin is the language of the church and government, French is the language of the nobility, law, and commerce, and English is the language of the common people (Morrison). The Wife’s knowledge of the three languages grants her access to the forms of power that patriarchy denies to women, establishing her character as an
Immorality is a powerful subject. It can do great harm, but as shown in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, it can also benefit its user. This story takes place on a pilgrimage during the late 14th century. The travelers have the idea of sharing stories to pass the time on their voyage. Fictional or not, the stories feature many sins, that aren’t extremely unrealistic from today’s behaviors. Chaucer’s writing features many immoral doings between the characters. In both tales, several of the character’s goals are attained through unethical processes.
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales had the sole purpose of addressing three of the main problems in society of that day. Chaucer didn’t agree with the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church, the Patriarchy, and class ranking.In today’s society, there are a plethora of issues to choose from. In today’s society the problem of rank still exists, it has just changed forms. Aspects of our government are also corrupt today along with many other industries. Some of these other industries may have been more focused on if Canterbury Tales were written today. Many of the faults Chaucer found in the world still exist today. The three characters I think should be added were Canterbury Tales written today would be, a congressman, a suicidal teenager and a parent.
And finally she said yes when an opportunity who’d happen so Nicholas begin making a plan so they could spend a night together. Once Nicholas and Carpenter were together and Nicholas begin to tell him, “That Monday next, a fourth of the night, A rain shall fall, as wild, as mad, as could That half so great was never Noah’s flood. This world,’ said he, ‘in less than an hour shall be drowned, so hideous the shower. Thus shall all mortals drown and lose their life’.”. Therefore, once the Carpenter left Nicholas room, he begins to build three boats without anybody finding out to be able to stay alive and trying to save his precious Alison. In the next day Alison, Nicholas, and the Carpenter begin to prepare themselves for the big flood once they were in the boats Nicholas and Alison would go down to the room and spend a night together as said. Absolon notice that he hasn't seen the Carpenter and assume that Alison was home alone so he went at her window and begin to sing to her, but Alison said to him if he could leave, but Absolon said that