At the beginning of Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales,” he opens with a description of twenty-nine characters who are going on a pilgrimage to Canterbury. Each character in the story represent a stereotype of a kind of person that would be seen in England during the Fourteenth Century. Every single character is unique, but also embodies physical and behavioral traits that would be common for someone in their profession. He writes each character so they have realistic qualities. However, when viewed more closely, a reader can determine which of these characters have a convincing or questionable personality. Chaucer first sets the mood by providing an overall idea of each character before they tell their stories. The physical and …show more content…
Chaucer states that he is an expert in stealing grain and charging three times the amount, but yet he still has a golden thumb. “An honest miller hath a golden thumb” is a pun used to ironically state that this Miller’s golden thumb comes from the increase in his own profit (Chaucer). The portrait that the Miller draws is based upon the negative stereotypes on the lower-class people during the medieval times. The idea was that these people had more brawn than brains, which he clearly demonstrates in his prologue. Another character that is criticized in the Prologue is the Wife of Bath. Her character is larger than life. She is described as having wide hips, a hat as bigs as a boat, and, just in general, taking up a lot of space in the pilgrimage and in the story as a whole. The Wife dresses in expensive clothes such, Her kerchiefs were finely wove…/ I dare to swear those weighed a good ten pounds, /That on a Sunday she wore on her head” (Chaucer). Her physical appearance matches a medieval stereotype of a lustful person. This stereotype was seen in a person who could not control their passions. The Wife falls perfectly in line with this stereotype by telling the other characters how she has had five husbands. Having so many husbands has made her skilled in “the oldest dance” (Chaucer). With the Wife of Bath, Chaucer is laying out the stereotypical medieval state
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
Perhaps one of the most controversial pieces of writing during the Medieval Era was Geoffrey Chaucer’s revolutionary epic, The Canterbury Tales. This revolutionary work was not only groundbreaking for the topics discussed, but also the language that it was written in. Chaucer forever changed the landscape of literature by deliberately writing his work in English, which was the common vernacular of the time. This meant that reading literature was no longer just for the aristocrats and scholars. Chaucer, as the narrator, introduces the common man into the world of literature using the basic premise that a group of pilgrims is telling tales to pass the time during their journey from London to Canterbury. The third story, “The Reeve’s Tale,” offers
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 Prologue” of Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses both direct and indirect characterization to introduce the characters. Direct characterization presents a character’s personalities directly. For example Chaucer’s statement that “the knight followed chivalry, truth/honor…” Indirect characterization uses actions, thoughts, and dialogue to reveal a character’s personality.
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer can be understood as a text that criticizes glossing and those who gloss. In this case, glossing a text is the comments, explanations, and interpretations one infers from reading the piece of literature and the understanding that can be taken away from it; this is different for every individual who reads the written word. I believe Chaucer wrote some of these tales as a critique of certain figures in his society. The question one should ask when reading, or being read to, is what is the meaning behind the text and where does the meaning lie. When, directly, reading a text one can determine the meaning of the author through one’s own interpretation. When one is being read to, they are being given the information in a biased form; this prevents one from being able to interpret the text for oneself and leads to the audience being glossed, as well as the text, and Chaucer criticizes the crowd’s contentedness to be glossed at and to.
In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer introduces a variety of characters with a multitude of personalities. From the despicable Summoner to the abrasive Miller, these characters are created with their own personalities and their own human failings. One common fault that characters share is hypocrisy. From pretending to be wealthy to cheating the poor out of money, hypocritical tendencies are abundant in the Canterbury Tales. Throughout the story, Chaucer ridicules the human criticizes the human failing of hypocrisy through the examples of the Pardoner, the Merchant, and the Friar.
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.
It is said that money is the root of all evil. Geoffrey Chaucer confirms this belief in his narrative The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer addresses a number of issues with human nature as his characters tell their stories on the way to Canterbury. As the host intends to judge the pilgrims’ stories that they write on the way to canterbury. Chaucer's “The Pardoner’s Tale” is a witty and satiric tale containing life, Death, and the influence of greed. It will be pitched against “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, a story containing the experiences of one ‘highly experienced’ woman and her fable describing what women really want out of men. The stories will be evaluated and judged by their moral, entertainment, and effectiveness. While it is
Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” is a collection of over twenty stories told from the perspective of different members of a group of travelers as part of a story telling competition. Each member devises their own tale, ranging anywhere from a tale about chivalry and valor, fittingly told by a knight, to a comedic tale of a cheating wife and all the consequences that her actions bring, told by the miller. Through the act of introducing and telling their tales, each traveler puts themselves on display for the rest of the group and in doing so, reveals much about their true character. One storyteller’s tale in particular stands out in the way it does this: the Wife of Bath. Throughout her lengthy prologue, the Wife of Bath freely portrays herself as an imperfect person. Of herself she gives a complicated account, defending and explaining her many marriages and describing her actions towards her husbands, which were often very shaky morally speaking. She follows up her prologue by telling the story of a young man who, after committing a heinous crime and being sent on a quest to redeem himself, succeeds in this mission and ends up marrying a beautiful woman, living happily ever after. The narrator, who may at first seem to be incongruously paired with her tale, is actually working towards a greater purpose in this juxtaposition. The wife of bath, by following up her
“The Miller’s Tale,” part of Geoffrey Chaucer’s larger work, “The Canterbury Tales,” is a bawdy and irreverent story about lust, deception, and consequences. Chaucer’s work centers around four main characters: John is a dimwitted carpenter, Alison is John’s young and wife, Nicholas is a scholar who resides in John’s household, and Absolon is a priest’s assistant with a romantic fixation on Alison. Throughout the tale, deceptive plots and questionable decisions abound, and no one is completely innocent of wrongdoing. Of course, like with most any other story involving lies and selfish pursuits, every character gets an informal education on natural consequences. It is worth noting that Nicholas is the only character in the story with any
Throughout his The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer makes it his goal to expose the true nature of each of his characters through the descriptions given by the narrator and reflected in the tale told by each character. At the end of the Miller’s Tale, almost all of the characters are guilty of some wrongdoing and physically harmed in some manner. The unfortunate chain of events at the story’s conclusion and the Miller’s extreme amusement in response to the story enable the reader to become privy to the Miller’s unique agenda. A superficial possibility, and easily the most reflective of the Miller’s personality, is a simple desire to find and provide amusement in a vulgar tale with graphic imagery and inappropriate actions by the characters. Another
worked these positions, he was able to write multiple works. In this time, he wrote the Book of
In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer comments on moral corruption within the Roman Catholic Church. He criticizes many high-ranking members of the Church and describes a lack of morality in medieval society; yet in the “Retraction,” Chaucer recants much of his work and pledges to be true to Christianity. Seemingly opposite views exist within the “Retraction” and The Canterbury Tales. However, this contradiction does not weaken Chaucer’s social commentary. Rather, the “Retraction” emphasizes Chaucer’s criticism of the Church and society in The Canterbury Tales by reinforcing the risk inherent in doing so.
He describes the Wife as a self-confident person who thinks highly of herself and had “been respectable throughout her life” due to her incredible skills as a cloth maker (Chaucer 461). She wore ten pounds of clothing that she wove herself. She loves showing off her cloth making expertise and is not shy at presenting herself in front of other people. Chaucer describes her physical appearance in ways that express a lustful and almost seductive person during this time period. The description of her clothing, legs, feet, hips, and her gap-tooth is an accurate representation of what seemed to attract a man to a lady during this time. She was a very open minded woman who adored the idea of love and marriage which can be proved by her “...five churched husbands bringing joy and strife” (Chaucer 462). She goes on pilgrimages to several different places which gives the impression that she is a devout Christian and portrays her as a religious woman. Chaucer’s description of the Wife of Bath makes the readers think about the other characters in the general prologue and how she is much different than the
It is unknown when Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, but it is assumed that he wrote it in 1387. There are many different aspects and themes throughout this paper that are very prominent. One theme that is very important is the importance of company. This entire tale is about twenty-nine pilgrims who all tell tales while on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury. The importance of company is that this is a pilgrimage that requires companions and friendship. Though they are not a tightly knit group of friends, they all keep one another company on this long and treacherous journey. The most important theme that will begin the discussion throughout this paper is the corruption of the church. Chaucer shows many different aspects of the church in this tale. He displays different characters that show different sides of the church.