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Examples Of Fear Of Death In The Canterbury Tales

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The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, helps teach how people thought and lived during the fourteenth century through the tales told. Some tales are just happy stories, while others are intense and have a moral. One can tell a lot about the person telling the tale and their personal views. Three things that one could learn about the middle ages from The Canterbury Tales could be the constant fear of death, lack of respect for elders, and the patriarchal society. There seems to be a pattern of the fear of death in The Canterbury Tales. “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” is an example where Chanticleer, the rooster, has a dream in which an animal is trying to seize him. This really startles and discomforts him. He states:
 I dreamt that roaming up and down a while Within our yard I saw a kind of beast, A sort of hound tried or seemed at least To try and seize me… would have killed me dead! …show more content…

Another example is shown in “ The Pardoners Tale”. The rioters hear a funeral bell and find out that Death has killed their old friend. They are upset that Death has come upon their friend and they want to avenge it. Death is brought up constantly in this tale and the plot is based off of Death. In many of the tales there is a lack of respect for elders. For example, in “The Pardoner’s Tale” the drunken men come upon a poor old man and question why the old man is still alive. They think it is time for him to die and wonder why he has lived so long. The old man then stands up for himself and

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