The Shipman's Tale Essay

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

By analyzing “The Canterbury Tales”, one can conclude that Chaucer did see the merits of the church, but by no means regarded it in a wholly positive light. Whereas some of the clergy are viewed as devout and God-fearing, others are viewed as con- men and charlatans. One can even venture to say that Chaucer was using this story as somewhat of a criticism of the church, showing the flaws of its leaders and the greed that permeated it at the time.

“But you didn’t give me as much as you gave him. isn’t my money as good as his? Don’t you know they always give men more?”(Page 168)

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

Mr. Sheldrake has a mistress, Ms. Fran Kubelik. After some time of distance, due to a chaotic time in Mr. Sheldrake’s life, the couple come together at a bar. Mr. Sheldrake pleads with Fran that he is going to leave his wife. Fran believes him and continues the relationship. On Christmas Eve, the pair meets up at Mr. Baxter’s apartment to exchange gifts. Fran had obviously put much thought into her gift, which was a record of a musician Mr. Sheldrake enjoyed and had the pianist play at the bar. The returning gift is a one-hundred-dollar bill, not very much though. This moment, as pointed out by Flannery O’Connor in Mystery and Manners is a “violence that is strangely capable of returning… characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace” (112).

The aristocrat, Monsieur the Marquis, ran over a child and didn’t even bat an eye. When the carriage stopped and Monsieur the Marquis is informed of what had happened all he said was “Why does he make that abominable noise? Is it his child?” he was speaking about the man shrieking “Killed!”. After that he tossed a gold coin to the crowd and told them to give that to the father of the dead child.

"You've just now been repaid with interest, for all your loving-kindness to our guest. He's proved his warm and grateful feelings toward you; It's with a pair of horns he would reward you. Yes, I surprised him with your wife, and heard his whole adulterous offer, every word" (Tartuffe 3.5.3-8).

John Finlayson points out that since “licit and illicit sex are paralleled with honest and dishonest trade… [The Shipman’s Tale] only recognizes the non-ideal world of suspended moral laws, lustful hedonism and deceit”, thus establishing the immoral series of events between the Monk, the Merchant, and his wife as an “acceptable reality” (349). This common ground between the three characters creates a community where the interchangeability of

When he was getting ready to leave her home the old woman says, “Now, here, take this ten dollars and buy yourself some blue suede shoes.” The readers do not expect this to happen after

In "The Personality of Chaucer the Pilgrim," John M. Major explores the qualities of Chaucer's character in The Canterbury Tales. In the piece, Chaucer inserts himself into the story as one of the pilgrims who make the trip to Canterbury, but the uses and characteristics of the character can often appear conflicting and confusing. In his piece, Major closely examines the characteristics of Chaucer's character and succeeds in making sense of exactly which approach Chaucer took in creating his character and why he would do so. Major begins by examining the relationship between the Chaucer who authored the piece and the Chaucer who exists as a character in the piece and participates in the journey.

Everyone has a story. Certainly Chaucer believes so as he weaves together tales of twenty nine different people on their common journey to Canterbury. Through their time on the road, these characters explore the diverse lives of those traveling together, narrated by the host of the group. Each character in the ensemble is entitled to a prologue, explaining his or her life and the reasons for the tale, as well as the actual story, meant to have moral implications or simply to entertain. One narrative in particular, that of the Wife of Bath, serves both purposes: to teach and to amuse. She renounces the submissive roles of a woman and reveals the moral to her story while portraying women as sex seeking, powerful creatures, an amusing thought

In the prologue to The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer introduces the Miller as a crude, rude, loud character who cheats his customers. The tale, which the Miller later narrates, is appropriate because the Miller’s tale clearly reflects this individual’s unrefined personality by telling a typical, filthy tavern story. The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is a story that details thirty pilgrims, including Chaucer, traveling on a religious journey to visit the grave of Sir Thomas á Beckett, a slain Archbishop of Canterbury. For entertainment, each pilgrim told two of their own stories on the way to the Cathedral and two as they returned back to the tavern. In his prologue of The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer describes each pilgrim by appearance, personality, and religion. Each pilgrim’s tale relates to his or her own description in Chaucer’s prologue. Chaucer’s descriptions and tales in The Canterbury Tales provide a clear insight of daily life in the Middle Ages.

worked these positions, he was able to write multiple works. In this time, he wrote the Book of

Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales demonstrate many different attitudes toward and perceptions of marriage. Some of these ideas are more liberal thought such as the marriages portrayed in the Wife of Bath, the Clerk’s and Merchant’s Tales. Then there are those tales that are very traditional, such as that discussed in the Franklin's and the Squire’s tales. And lastly there is a tales of that of the Friar and the Summoner which aren’t really involved with marriage but are in the middle of the marriage group to show the fighting between two men and to prove the Wife of bath right. While several of these tales are rather comical, they do indeed give us a representation of the attitudes toward marriage at that time in history. Marriage in

Perceval rode the whole day and slept in the forest that night. The next morning he woke up and began to ride until he came across and tent with splendid colors, which caught his attention. Inside the tent he found a maiden who was unattended at that time. He remembered what his mother had told about ladies, to always receive a kiss and a ring. Perceval misunderstood this to mean that he was supposed to take it whether or not the maiden wanted to give it to him or not. This particular maiden was very upset after he forced himself onto her and took her ring.