Chaucer's The Franklin's Tale from the Canterbury Tales

In the late 1300s Geoffrey Chaucer began wrote The Canterbury Tales, a story which follows the religious journey of twenty-nine people, who represent many aspects of Medieval society, to the Canterbury Cathedral in southeast England. While on the pilgrimage the host of the tavern, where all the pilgrims meet, suggests that the pilgrims each tell a story for the group’s entertainment. Chaucer intended for all the voyagers to tell two stories, but he unfortunately died before he could finish the book and only got to write one story apiece. However, the goal of the storytelling contest is to tell the most moral story possible, and the one who wins receives a free meal, which the rest of the pilgrims will pay for. Although some of the other stories have good moral messages, “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” are on different ends of the moral spectrum. “The Pardoner’s Tale” focuses on a pardoner who preaches against greed. While “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” exemplifies what all women want in their relationships: power. Although both “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” demonstrate the value of the opinion of elders, the stories differ in their moral values and their storyteller’s values.

Are there many ways that themes and symbols can be shown in stories? Geoffrey Chaucer uses many different themes, symbols and styles in writing all of tales in The Canterbury Tales. By using these things, Geoffrey utilizes several specific symbols to illustrate various central themes. The characters in the tales make the same mistakes that ordinary people would make, and they receive the same or even worse consequences. One message that is portrayed is greed can make people to evil actions. An example of this is in "The Pardoner's Tale," when the three friends wind up killing each other because of their greed for the money. The second message that is displayed is that one should be careful when

In the Canterbury Tales, “The Wife of Bath and The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”, have a really ridiculous message and highly focus on a stereotypical woman and praise it. It’s strange and surprising how the characters within the marriage debate portray viewpoints that align with today’s differing thoughts on marriage. True love was often separate from marriage during the Middle Ages. Chaucer used this idea to satirize what the people of his time had allowed marriage to become. He also encouraged people to defy the commonly accepted arranged marriage and sought true love, instead of what his character he made to mock and make fun of. The Wife of Bath’s ideas and principles about marriage are no better than a gold digger’s intention, at the time opposing the medieval Catholic church, and search for sovereignty in a relationship.

All of three of the children’s versions of “The Franklin’s Tale” follow the plot points of Chaucer’s tale, merely translated into Modern English prose to make it easier for young readers to understand. To further aide in comphrension, all three of the children’s version leave out Chaucer’s allusions to other works that medieval readers would have read, such as the Roman goddess Lucina (Norton ln1045) and Ovid’s poem “Echo and Narcissus” (Norton ln 951-952), but young modern readers may not have even heard of. The children’s version also all maintain the inherent didactic nature of the tale relaying the concept of not making a promise lightly and always keeping the promises you make.

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a story of a contest who can tell the best tale. The rules of the contest were as follows: Each pilgrim would tell four tales for the trip to Canterbury, two on the journey there and two on the way back.. The tales will be judged by the Host for it’s entertainment and moral lessons. The winner of the contest will enjoy a meal paid for by the remaining pilgrims at the Host's Inn. “The Miller’s Tale” had fulfilled the criteria to win the contest. It was a shorter story, but it was entertaining and had a few lessons that can be learned from hearing or reading it. This story is significant because it does a great job of pointing out of some of the problems in the church during that time as well as how the morals of some people were not strong as well.

Early British writing like The Canterbury’s Tale section of “The Merchant’s Tale” written by Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English poetry, reflect on social values. Much of the tale speaks about a marriage that over flows of vices. Societies vision of how marriages should work, display the vices of holy matrimony. The corruptness of societies views on marriage lead to a loveless marriage. Chaucer reflects on how much societies views influenced marriages in the 1300’s; he shows this by using conflicts in marriage of man verses himself, women versus herself, and man versus women.

Canterbury Tales is an exquisite literary work for numerous reasons among them being the satirical way that Chaucer is able to get his agenda across. However, as the times change, the areas where we need to provide more discretion change as well. There are a lot of characters in Canterbury Tales that while they were great for their time period are either nonexistent or not relevant anymore. The occupations alone have changed dramatically simply based on the demands that we now have socially or in the work force. In addition, while it is still a mainstay in millions of households, the church and religion don’t hold as big a sway over the current factions you would find in the world. While Chaucer, the father of the English language, does a masterful job when he intricately describes his characters in the general prologue, if the tales were adapted for modern times he would need to add a celebrity, an athlete, and a news anchor.

This essay compares the conception honor in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Prologue" and "The Franklin's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales. The problem of honor seems to be timeless in its difficulties. There are many ideas and opinions concerning this delicate subject, which always is popular, along with its ability to frustrate and perplex the human. During the time of Chaucer, females such as the Wife of Bath were asserting their rights against the forces of male chauvinism. Apparently, the battle of the sexes for supremacy is everlasting in its intensity and has always been fought. Consequently, we have both male and female chauvinists, and they appear in Chaucer's works. They make for interesting reading.

Tristan finally represents the change of social norms in the twelfth century. One major change of the social norm would be the quest of real love rather than arranged marriages. Isolde and Marke’s marriage was a literal arranged marriage, and as it was shown in the romance, neither one of them were truly happy. With “true” love of Isolde and Marke, they were much happier. While it only affected the nobility and people of upperclass, it encouraged the desire of finding true love, and not just

In Chaucer’s “Franklin Tale” the plot revolves around a married couple: the knight, Arviragus, his young wife, Dorigen, and a young squire, Aurelius who importunes and attempts to Dorigen. The characters can be said to oscillate between desire and their ego honor which affects what they say and do. Lacan’s definition of desire tells us that we desire for recognition from this “Other.” Our desire is to become what the other person lacks. Duby’s model of courtly love is a concept that focuses on chivalry, nobility and women being at the center. In this paper, I will examine what the story reveals about the relation each character has to his or her desire, how they act in accordance to their desire and the role magic or illusion plays in the plot and how it affect characters’ relation to desire.

Opposites Attract Do you remember the stories your parents used to read you at bedtime? Well, now think of the same story but completely different about love, betrayal and what it means to think about the choices you make in your lifetime. In “The Canterbury Tales”by Geoffrey Chaucer riders are traveling to Canterbury to visit the shrine of St. Thomas. “The Canterbury Tales” are made up of the “Wife Of Bath” and “The Pardoner's Tale” in addition to numerous other tales that are similar to those bedtime stories with a medieval twist.

‘The Franklin’s Tale’ narrates the romantic conflict between Dorigene, a distressed maiden, Arveragus, a “meke” knight (739), and Aurelius, a besotted squire. Although Dorigene and Arveragus are contently married, Aurelius continues to court Dorigene and attempts to win her over by removing “alle the rokkes, stoon by stoon” (993) from the coast of Brittany. When Aurelius informs Dorigene that he has successfully vanished the rocks, she realizes she is bound “to been [his] love” (990) by a promise made in “pley”, and bemoans her situation for “a day or tweye”: “ ‘Allas!’ quod she, ‘that ever was I born!/ Thus have I seyd,’ quod she, ‘thus have I sworn’ ”. (Franklin’s Tale. 1463-64). The first part of this couplet is extraordinary passive and demonstrates Dorigene’s belief that human lives are fated from birth. On the other hand, the active syntax of the second line suggests that Dorigene has agency over her words and her promise and assumes partial responsibility for her situation. The tonal gap between the two halves captures a contradiction in Dorigene’s lament that is replicated and magnified in ‘The Franklin’s Tale’. Although the Franklin attempts to “quit” with ‘The Knight’s Tale’ and presents his characters as equally dependent on fate and the gods, he ‘overgoes’ his social superior by emphasizing ideas that the Knight ignores or otherwise undermines

Love, arguably the most mercurial of emotions, has long been the topic of writings and discussions. Whether it be defining or explaining how to obtain affection, authors such as Ovid and Andreas offer distinct views on the finer points of relations between a man and woman. Ovid’s The Art of Love, published in 2 AD, focuses largely on defining how a man should win the heart of a woman. The writing of this in a pre-Christian Roman Empire creates a stark contrast to that of Andreas’

In literature, there are many works that investigate conversations that tackle questions about love and marriage. Marriage is a bond that should last forever and display two sincere paramours; however, a forced marriage will not display a real connection because love must be from one’s choice and not from the opinions of others. William Shakespeare was an English poet who wrote an influential play that allows readers to engage in these conversations; furthermore, Romeo and Juliet are characters who reflect the perfect bond that most people dream of. Thus, William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet showcases the power of love in two major characters and their potent dialogue; more specifically, Romeo’s acknowledgement of their barrier-free

Throughout history, love has been portrayed in numerous perspectives ranging from physical to emotional love. Literary works from various backgrounds provide distinctive interpretations of love. Marie de France along with medieval lyric poets touch upon topics revolving around love and spiritual affection. The pieces provide different treatments on courtly and secular love, illustrating the comparison between the physical and emotional aspect as well. Courtly love draws from the characteristics of passionate affections between nobles with someone other than their spouse (Doan, courtly source). The treatment of love reveals the different cultural backgrounds and personal perception of love through their uses of figurative language and