Beowulf is a heroic tale; "The Nun's Priest's Tale" is mock-heroic. In what ways does Chaucer use "The Nun's Priest's Tale" to ridicule the heroic style? Increased length is a clear result; name other story elements or writing techniques Chaucer uses. Consider such things as humor, elevated language, stories-within-stories, character development, moral lessons, and other elements. Do not just list these things; explain them and give direct examples (quotes—with line numbers) from the tale as evidence. Be sure to document your citations according to MLA style. Click here for a handout of the MLA style guidelines. Organize your findings into an essay of at least 400 words. In the nun's priest's tale the whole story line is mockery. It's kinda ironic in the sense they call it heroic when the characters …show more content…
They are animals as characters and I found it kind of unamusing actually that the characters aren't very realistic. The author clearly uses personification as a story line by using the animals. They use kennings in this written piece, and they use regular metaphors. Kennings are a double metaphor.They use several different literary devices to make this piece of writing come alive to the readers. The author has a very imaginative mind and you can tell this by the imagery used in "The nun's priest's tale". At first I thought that this story was going to have a more meaningful theme or message. I have found that in early writings, a lot of entertain wasn't what we'd call entertainment today. If someone wrote this in today's generation it would probably never get published or to take it a step further be discussed in an English class by senior students.
In Beowulf, the protagonist Beowulf is shown as a hero with extrodinary strength. This is not what makes him a hero. By definition, a hero is a man of exceptional quality. However this term does not do Beowulf justice. His self-imposed purpose in life is to help others, and eventually sacrifices his own life in doing so. Beowulf’s battle with the dragon serves as a critique of the notion that Beowulf is a hero. The Dragon section displays many of Beowulf’s heoric characteristics. Beowulf establishes himself as a hero by fighting the dragon, exemplifing strength and courage when fighting the dragon, and sacrificing himself so that others can live.
It is very rare that a book is written without the opinions of the author being clearly expressed somewhere within that book. Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is one such book. In the General Prologue alone, by viewing Chaucer’s description of the Knight, the Prioress, and the Friar, the reader is able to pick up on Chaucer’s satirical humor toward the church of the 14th century.
To begin, in the general prologue there are many examples, of satire that are displayed. He begins this prologue with the discussion of spring, and how everything comes back to life during the spring time. Spring is supposed to be the time of rebirth, when all the leaves are growing back, and the flowers are sprouting, the grass turns green, and baby animals are being born. These is ironic, because all of the people that are gathered in this square are about to be jacked. Even though there are some characters that beg to differ on the whole getting jacked thing. “To ride abroad had followed chivalry, Truth, honor, generousness, and courtesy, He had done nobly in his sovereigns war.” (pg;.98) This quote expands on the kind of person that the Knight was. You could tell all of these things about him...
The relationship between these animals portray the ideas of the Holocaust very well. Mice are small and scrawny creatures which are usually hunted by Cats. Cats chase mice and attempt to devour them, much like the Germans hunted down the Jews during the mass genocide. Pigs are very greedy and self centered. During the story, the Polish(Pigs) sold out the Jewish people on many occasions (Maus I p. 143). An example is when Vladek and his family were staying at Kawka’s farm. “They may come search here any minute! You’ve got to leave!” In this situation, Kawka was not telling the truth, but only trying to protect herself. Dogs chase cats, which in the book was symbolic because the Americans sympathized with the Jewish people. These are very rudimentary overviews of the animals, but they will serve for the purposes of this essay.
The Nun is the best example of hypocrisy in these tales. In the “General Prologue,” the Nun states, “Her greatest oath was only ‘By St. Loy!’ / And she was known as Madame Eglantine” (“General Prologue” 124-125). Chaucer states that the Nun is a hypocrite, as she doesn’t not concern over helping others. She...
Chaucer's "The Nun's Priest's Tale" is at once a fable, a tale of courtly love, and a satire mocking fables and courtly love traditions. To this end, Chaucer makes use of several stylistic techniques involving both framing and content. The tale begins and ends with "a poor widwe somdeel stape in age" (line 1), but the majority of the content involves not the widow but the animals on her farm, in particular an arrogant rooster name Chauntecleer. The first mention of the main character does not come until the twenty-ninth line, after twenty-eight lines of minute description of the widow and the farm. The donation of large amounts of time to detail slows down the plot of the story; this plot is even further drawn out by the Nun's Priest's constant interjections, which are mostly delivered in very formal language. Chaucer's use of abundant narrative intrusion and profuse attention to detail create a story in which the plot is marginalized and traditional structures broken, the result of which is an ambience where the absurdity of fable and courtly love can easily come to light.
When comparing the style and theme of The Knight’s Tale to The Miller’s Tale it is crucial to start by examining the different genres of both tales. The Knights Tale is a Romance which tends to focus on love, adventure, disguise, and flight. Also, the Romance genre was popular within aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe; so they were meant to be read seriously. The Miller’s Tale, on the other hand, is a Fabliau which is a comic characterized by an excessiveness of sexual innuendos. Chaucer gets the style of the Fabliau from the French Tradition. By examining the differences in genre alone, it is already clear that there will be a present shift in meaning from one tale to the other. By examining the style and theme between the two stories, it is evident that genre influences the shift in meaning between the two stories. That is, a shift from a tragic idealized courtly love among nobility in The Knight’s Tale, to The Miller’s Tale which is a comic affair among the middle class.
The Canterbury Tales is a great contemplation of stories, that display humorous and ironic examples of medieval life, which imitate moral and ethical problems in history and even those presented today. Chaucer owed a great deal to the authors who produced these works before his time. Chaucer tweaked their materials, gave them new meanings and revealed unscathed truths, thus providing fresh ideas to his readers. Chaucer's main goal for these tales was to create settings in which people can relate, to portray lessons and the irony of human existence.
To start off, here is a general way Chaucer used satire in his work. Chaucer say’s one thing when he means the complete opposite. The reason why Chaucer made this story was because he had an agenda he wanted to make a point to his given audience. What was his point? Chaucer has difficulties dealing with the corruption among the Roman Catholic Church. For example, the Pardoner has a big dealing in the corruption. The pardoner loves to play the game. He preaches o...
Now it is very obvious that Chaucer used an abundance of sarcasm to describe his characters in “The Canterbury Tales” and, for the most part, this sarcasm was thrown out to condemn the Catholic Church for all of the wrong that they were doing at this time in his eyes. But, either way you look at it, Chaucers sarcasm and way of putting things was brilliant, in its own unique way, and surpassed its time.
The Nun’s Priest Tale is a mock-heroic because the tale tells a conventional topics in the style of an epic. One example of this occurs at the beginning at the first introduces the scenery of the tale. The tale takes place in a small cottage where a widowed woman lives with her daughters and with a few possessions. The grandiloquent style of writing used by the priest in this tale disagrees with the simple setting where the tale occurs. The tale takes place in a yard, instead of a fancier place where an epic would usually be set in. The priest uses a trivial animal such as a chicken instead of an expected character such a s courageous knight. The chicken, possesses characteristics that a hero of an epic would have. The priest also ridicules
The irony of this tale is blatant. The highly philosophical intellect of the roosters and hens represents the ideals of the court world that is derided by having the setting as a barnyard. The Nun’s Priest is using this beast fable as a moral story of warning. The court world is insulted by the pointing out of its flaw: treachery through flattery. Chaucer himself could be criticizing the court of its fault.
The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is a masterpiece of satire due to the frequent use of verbal irony and insults towards the characters and their roles in society. A major source of Irony is Chaucer’s representation of the Church. He uses the Prioress, the Monk and the Friar, who are all supposed to be holy virtuous people to represent the Church. In his writing he suggests that they are actually corrupt, break their vows and in no way model the “holiness” of Christianity.
Geoffrey Chaucer was a on a mission when he wrote The Canterbury Tales. That mission was to create a satire that attacked three major institutions. Raphel displays, “Medieval society was divided into three estates: the Church (those who prayed), the Nobility (those who fought), and the Patriarchy. The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is an estates satire.” Chaucer wanted to shed light on the institutions that were taking advantage of the everyday man. Chaucer does this by making up tales about certain people that she light to the undercover world of the institutions. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses satire to attack the Church, the Patriarchy, and the Nobility.
Chaucer utilized many literary forms when composing his Canterbury Tales. Among these forms he utilized were the beast fable and romance. We find elements of both of these forms in the Nun's Priest's Tale. Yet Chaucer was a decidingly original poet. When he took these forms he made them his. He often diverged from the accepted norms to come up with stories that were familiar to the fourteenth century reader yet also original.