Stereotypes In Chaucer's Tales

Throughout the Canterbury Tales, various characters are introduced and tell a tale, each of which tells a different story. All of the tales are unique and address different issues. “The Miller’s Tale” is the second of the many stories and varies from all of the rest. As seen from the “General Prologue,” Chaucer clearly depicts the Miller as a crude, slobbish man who will say anything. This reputation is held true as the Miller drunkenly tells a story full of adultery and bickering. Despite the scandalous nature of “The Miller’s Tale,” the story also displays some of Chaucer’s prominent beliefs. As “The Miller’s Prologue” and “The Miller’s Tale” are told, it becomes evident that Chaucer is challenging the common roles and behaviors of women, and he is also questioning the effectiveness of social class.

Do men understand women? Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales,” talks about how the Wife of Bath was ahead of her times in regards to marriage and gender roles. In the prologue, Chaucer portrays the Wife of Bath as an old woman with a deaf ear, large hips, and her gap-teeth, which symbolizes seductiveness and lust during her times. Before she tells her tale, she shares her experiences on marriage and explains how she knows that marriage is a suffering because she has been married many times. What women desire most is discussed as it is the main purpose of her tale.

All through Canterbury Tales, women are dealt with as objects in everyday life. In the “Miller’s Tale,” an old man marries a younger, attractive women for her looks. In the “Wife of Bath’s Tale,” a virgin woman has her virginity and innocence taken from her by what is suppose to be a noble and honorable knight and when his punishment is later to marry an older, less attractive women, all respect for his newly wife vanishes. A woman’s level of recognition in Canterbury Tales are through her class in society, whether she is young and beautiful, or old and disgusting, and her degree of experience in life. Women are not desired for their intelligence, wisdom and capabilities which might of kept a relationship deceitful-free. The “Wife of

Often, the most memorable female characters are those who break out of the stereotypical “good wife” mold. When an author uses this technique effectively, the woman often carries the story. In Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, he portrays the Wife of Bath, Alison, as a woman who bucks the tradition of her times with her brashness and desire for control. Chaucer effectively presents a woman's point of view and evokes some sympathy for her.

“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself” is a quote, by Joseph Campbell that describes an epic hero. One story about an epic hero that everyone can learn from is the story of Beowulf. Beowulf is an old English poem which was translated by Burton Raffel. The story plot is about a man named Beowulf, whom with his men fight against evil and never lose. There are many lessons that are learned though out this story. Every high school student should read Beowulf because it teaches students about the stereotype of an epic hero, shows how language has changed and will teach them to think of others first.

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.

In The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, the stereotypes and roles in society are reexamined and made new through the characters in the book. Chaucer discusses different stereotypes and separates his characters from the social norm by giving them highly ironic and/or unusual characteristics. Specifically, in the stories of The Wife of Bath and The Miller’s Tale, Chaucer examines stereotypes of women and men and attempts to define their basic wants and needs.

To deepen this, it can be said using the tales as example, that the sexual insecurities of man is a product of a youthful presence. Both subtle interjections in the tale and dialogue between the Miller and the Reeve are crucial in understanding this

Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon epic that was written around 1000 AD and passed down through scops orally, eventually being written down. There is a stereotypical notion that Beowulf is a male dominated story, one that is written and told in a society where women are subservient to men. It’s clear to see why many believe this stereotype to be true, as throughout the poem male characters commonly demonstrate their dominant role in society. Beowulf provides us with a vivid picture of the Anglo-Saxon culture; one that is warrior based and male centered. Conversely, women tend to the more subtle roles, and their sole purpose is to serve the men during that time.

Men were expected to be brave and buff, not necessarily weak like the Oxford Cleric in the Prologue. Men were praised if they were knights, and they were expected to be trustworthy and chivalrous. In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” Chaucer breaks this stereotype. The knight, who everyone assumes would be good, attacks a young girl. Chaucer breaks the stereotype again by marrying this same knight to an old woman who is not the prettiest looking. The point of the story is about equality within marriage, and this may not have been completely acceptable at this time that women were trying to make this

In the Miller’s tale women are considered easily to be fool by men they tell lies so that women can sleep with them. Chaucer wanted his readers to know how women were treated in the 1300s. Chaucer story the Miller’s tale was about a carpenter who had a really young wife every one in the village considered her a tart. Both tales explain that every women don’t think straight and their husbands don’t let their wives go out they have to stay in the house. The Wife of Bath’s prologue is slightly different from the Miller’s tale because the knight didn’t respect women until his journey and he met the old lady.

There is many similarities through the tales in the Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer. All of the tales can easily be related to another tale through characters, symbolism, the plot, or morals. Some examples of these relations can be found in The Millers Relating to the Knights tales with almost Identical Characters. And The Franklin's Tale is similar to the Pardoner's Tale with Greed. And, The Knights Tale, The Miller’s Tale, and The Pardoners tale are similar in many different aspects. The tales in The Canterbury Tales can all be related to one another, find a unique match, making each tale be a pair or even a triple with another story.

Throughout centuries human beings have evolved, but various traits of human nature remain the same. An epic poem named “The Canterbury Tales” written by Geoffrey Chaucer provides examples that demonstrate traits of human nature that are still relevant in our world today even if this piece of literature was written hundreds of years ago.The Canterbury Tales is framed by having multiple people from different social lives and statuses share stories which demonstrates how these pilgrims think and act, in other words their human nature, on their way to the martyr St. Thomas in a pilgrimage. These characters portray different traits of human nature such as having religious aspirations, falling in love, and thinking in an evil way in their stories which are all still lively relevant in today's society.

Child sexual abuse is a common occurrence. We recently talked about the Jerry Sandusky case, Discuss the ways in which Chaucer examines class and social status in The Canterbury Tales.

Misogyny is not only visible in the Miller’s tale, but also in the Wife of Bath’s tale through the very superficial standards set for women by men. The old woman asks that the knight marries her in return for giving him the answer to the riddle and he reacts in disgust and horror, “‘...to take me as your wife…‘Alas and woe is me!...I am ugly and poor…my damnation! Alas, that any of my birth should ever be so foully disgraced!” (Chaucer, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” 199-213). The knight is visibly distraught, using words such as “damnation” and “disgraced” when the old woman expresses her wish to marry him. He displays these emotions not because she wants to get married, but because she is ugly and poor. He is worried because an ugly wife will mar his reputation and is a poor reflection of him. This translates to the misogynistic society during the time period where women were seen as property to be shown off, rather than people who deserved respect. The recurring theme of misogyny in these two tales shows that Chaucer does not feel sympathy for the opposite gender, but instead belittles their plight.