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The general prologue to the Canterbury tales analysis
The general prologue to the Canterbury tales analysis
The general prologue to the Canterbury tales analysis
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The Canterbury Tales: Shipman VS. Franklin
It’s nearing the end of the pilgrimage. The Host has narrowed the contest down to two stories, The Shipman’s Tale and The Franklin’s Tale. Suspense is in the air, who will win? The Canterbury Tales is about a diverse group of people who embarked on an adventure to visit the shrine of Thomas a’Beckett. Along the way, The Host came up with the brilliant idea of commencing a storytelling contest. The contest consisted of the following regulations: each contestant must tell a total of four stories, two on the way to the destination and two on the way back; it must be entertaining, it must be morally sound, and The Host is the one and only judge. The winner is awarded with a free meal at the Tabard Inn and the loser gets the privilege to pay for everyone else’s meals. The Shipman’s tale will undoubtedly win the storytelling contest because it kept the audience’s attention due to a twist and The Host praised the The Shipman for an excellent story. And although The Shipman’s Tale is not very morally sound, it still taught a lesson that every man should know.
The Shipman’s Tale is about a rich merchant, his wife, and a young monk named Sir John. The merchant is about to leave town for a few days and invited Sir John to come and party before he left. Sir John comes to the merchants castle and has a good time with him drinking and eating all they can. As the merchant prepares to leave, his wife approaches Sir John in secret and begs for one hundred francs to repay a debt. She agreed that she would repay Sir John by having sex with him because she is unhappy with her marriage. Sir John agrees to lend her the one hundred francs because he pities the merchants wife. There is a twist to the story ...
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...pe of women will rob men blind without even realizing it until it’s too late. The Host also went so far as to beware the men of the pilgrimage to watch out for this type of trickery by saying, “Hey, fellows, watch your step for such a jape!” (Chaucer, page 169). The Host loved that this point is made through the tale. He agrees that all women want is to possess power over men.
It is a very long and hard decision for The Host to make, but he decides that The Shipman is the winner because his tale possessed all the necessary qualities. There are many factors that go into creating the perfect story, but The Shipman succeeded and told a story that the audience and Host loved. The Shipman’s Tale, although not very morally sound, was still very entertaining and it kept the audience curious; it also taught a very good lesson that everyone should know.
When Chaucer’s knight stands judgment for the rape of an innocent girl, it is the queen’s authority that decides his fate: “And yaf him to the queene, al at hir wille, / To chese wheither she wolde him save or spille” (903-904). Using her power to humiliate the knight even further, she metes out the most ironic of punishments: “I graunte thee lif if thou canst tellen me / What thing is it that wommen most desiren” (910-911). With the queen’s decree, a great importance is placed upon the understanding of a woman’s needs—for this knowledge is the only hope in saving a man’s
The Merchant's Prologue and Tale presents the darkest side of Chaucer's discussion on marriage. Playing off both the satire of the moral philosopher, the Clerk, and the marital stage set by the Wyf of Bathe, the Merchant comes forth with his angry disgust about his own marital fate. Disillusioned and depraved, the Merchant crafts a tale with a main character who parallels his own prevarication and blind reductionism while he simultaneously tries to validate his own wanton life by selling his belief to the other pilgrims. As both pervert reality through pecuniary evaluations on different levels, however, both are exposed to be blind fools, subject to the very forces that they exert on others. As this reversal happens and the Merchant satirizes Januarie blindness, Chaucer reveals the Merchant's blindness, giving him the very significance that he had spent his whole tale trying to deny.
There was a ship-owner that was about to send out an emigrant-ship to sea. He knew that the ship was old and often needed to be repaired. He had doubts that the ship could make the voyage safely, and that he should look into the integrity of the ship. By the time it was to embark on its journey, the man had convinced himself that the ship would not have any troubles because it had safely gone through voyages before. The boat ended up sinking on that voyage and the man collected his insurance money and told no tales.
Some say women can get the worst out of a man, but in The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1485, proves it. The tales were originally written as a collection of twenty four tales, but has been narrowed down to three short tales for high school readers. The three tales consist of “The Miller”, “The Knight”, and “The Wife of Bath” along with their respective prologues. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer shows the weak but strong role of women throughout the “The Knight’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” to contrast different human characteristics and stereotypes on the spectrum of people.
The Virtue of Men and Women in The Canterbury Tales People never change. In every town you will always be able to find the "rich guy," the "smart guy," the "thief," and the "chief." It has been that way since the first man was swindled out of his lunch. Throughout his life, Geoffrey Chaucer encountered every kind of person and brought them to life for us in "The Canterbury Tales," a collection of short stories written in the 1300's. There are tales of saints, tales of promiscuity, tales of fraud, and tales of love.
In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales a storytelling competition is proposed by the Host. In his mind, it was only proper for the Knight to tell his story first. The sneaky Host rigged the drawing of straws and the Knight won the honor of going first. He told a Roman Epic of loyalty and love, set in classical antiquity that portrayed his gallant manner and elevated social class. The Miller's Tale, a parody of the Knight's Tale, came next. The Miller's Tale was more contemporary and left out many of the ideals that were displayed by the characters in the Knight's Tale. This fabliau told by the Miller seemed to debase the Knight's Tale and also to debase the Knight himself.
During the medieval ages, women were described as evil creatures that would destroy anyone standing in their way to get what they want. People claimed that women's malicious intentions clouded their judgment from doing the right thing forcing them to be selfish. In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and Malory’s The Death of King Arthur, both focus on women’s behavioral impulses through their dishonesty, manipulation, and their promiscuity.
“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a story about a widow who took a pilgrimage to the town of Canterbury with an array of dynamic characters whose diverse backgrounds allowed them to share their stories with one another to make the long journey more interesting. The widow named Alisoun in the “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” told the tale of her experiences with her five past husbands and a story about a knight and a witch. She truly believed that for a woman to have a happy life she would need to gain dominion over a man; however one could assume this was programmed into her by her influential mother and her own religious doctrines. Accordingly, Alisoun argued that the woman must control everything in order to have a happy marriage; however, her life experience and the story she shared should tell her otherwise.
In his Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer assembles a band of pilgrims who, at the behest of their host, engage in a story-telling contest along their route. The stories told along the way serve a number of purposes, among them to entertain, to instruct, and to enlighten. In addition to the intrinsic value of the tales taken individually, the tales in their telling reveal much about the tellers. The pitting of tales one against another provides a third level of complexity, revealing the interpersonal dynamics of the societal microcosm comprising the diverse group of pilgrims.
... allows the present day reader to gain insight into commonly held beliefs regarding women during the 14th century. By allowing Alison to have a sense of humor and joke about aspects of her marriage, Chaucer was able to make numerous points regarding women that would not have been acknowledged had a female author created them. By making Alison a laughable character, Chaucer was able to make points about women such as the unfairness of double standards, the acknowledgement of female desire, and the reality of women marrying well to improve their economic situations. Chaucer also provides us with detailed examples of commonly held stereotypes regarding women that are still relevant approximately seven centuries later.
Chaucer, in his female pilgrimage thought of women as having an evil-like quality that they always tempt and take from men. They were depicted as untrustworthy, selfish and vain and often like caricatures not like real people at all. Through the faults of both men and women, Chaucer showed what is right and wrong and how one should live. Under the surface, however, lies a jaded look of women in the form that in his writings he seems to crate them as caricatures and show how they cause the downfall of men by sometimes appealing to their desires and other times their fears. Chaucer obviously had very opinionated views of the manners and behaviours of women and expressed it strongly in The Canterbury Tales. In his collection of tales, he portrayed two extremes in his prospect of women. The Wife of Bath represented the extravagant and lusty woman where as the Prioress represented the admirable and devoted followers of church. Chaucer delineated the two characters contrastingly in their appearances, general manners, education and most evidently in their behaviour towards men. Yet, in the midst of disparities, both tales left its readers with an unsolved enigma.
The book “In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex” by Nathaniel Philbrick is tragic, eyes widening and heart wrenching where all the morals and ethics are gravely subjected to situation and questioned when it comes to survival. What they must do for survival? How man love their lives and no matter what strikes upon them, holler from behind, ambush their morale, yet they want to keep going just for the sake of living. The book is epitome of such a situation that encounters survival over morality. However, in the thrust of knowledge and oceans of secrets locked inside the chambers of this world, there is a heavy price men have to pay in the ordeal of yearning for knowledge.
Chaucer introduces us to several types of women in the General Prologue of his famous work the Canterbury Tales. Among these women are women of rank and social status: the Prioress, the Nun, and the Wife of Bath. Although they are surrounded by various types of men, these women told tales that made men think twice about crossing their paths. As we read about these women in the prologue, we also get a sense of whom they are: they have money, authority, and an air about them that suggests that they are not just on the pilgrimage just to save their own souls (the Wife of Bath definitely shows this trait better than her religious counterparts.) However, it is not just the women who stand for their sisters; the Clerk jumps on the female bandwagon with a tale of his own.
The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, was written in the 14th Century during the Hundred Years War. Each of the characters was made to represent one of the 7 sins. In Paradise Lost, written by John Milton, every character has a direct connection to an earthly comfort. Both stories are written with the intent to teach its readers; however, Paradise Lost was written in in the 17th century, which means the writing style and the social standard on what the difference is between right and wrong, and how salvation is received is very different.
...eveals insecurities of him in the process while that itself tells us more about the popular culture in this time. Chaucer, along with many of the other pilgrims attempts to place themselves in a socially desirable or even superior position. With the Narrator having the responsibility of articulating the tales to us in a coherent fashion, he might feel pressure to present himself as all-knowing or superior to his companions rather than show us an honest and unbiased point of view. After all, he is telling the story; the Narrator can ultimately choose to tell us whatever he pleases. The Narrator plays the role of telling tales and providing the groundwork for this pilgrimage story, but since his ideas and opinions are designed in such a particular way; he indirectly tells us so much more about not only about the pilgrimage but of this time period’s culture as a whole.