Summary and Analysis of The Shipman's Tale (The Canterbury Tales)
Introduction to the Shipman's Tale:
The Host asks the priest to tell a tale, but the Shipman interrupts, insisting that he will tell the next tale. He says that he will not tell a tale of physics or law or philosophy, but rather a more modest story.
The Shipman's Tale:
A merchant at St. Denis foolishly took a desirable woman for a wife who drained his income by demanding clothes and other fine array to make her appear even more beautiful. Since his wife demanded so many costs, the merchant was forced to take in guests; one of these was a monk. John, a young monk no older than thirty, claimed to be the cousin of this merchant, and when he did stay with them he was quite generous with tips to the servants. Before he was going to make a journey to Bruges, the merchant invited John to visit him and his wife. On the day that the merchant was ready to leave St. Denis, he awoke early and went to his counting-house to balance his books. John was also awake early and went into the garden to pray. The wife went into the garden, worried that something was bothering the monk. He in turn worries about her; he thinks that she did not sleep well, for the merchant kept her up all night in sport. She admits that she has no lust for her husband. John realizes that she is keeping something from him and promises to keep whatever she could tell secret. He admits that he is not a cousin to the merchant. She complains that her husband is stingy and tells that wives want six things: their husbands to be hardy, wise, rich, giving, obedient and good in bed. She tells him that she must pay a debt of one hundred francs to her husband. He agrees to get that sum for her, and the t...
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...ead from incompatibility. The wife also deviates from the norms of the unfaithful spouse established throughout the other Canterbury Tales. She is not a devious manipulator; her turn to infidelity comes out of what she perceives to be necessity. Her situation generates genuine pathos, for she is trapped in a loveless marriage. Furthermore, she suffers a private humiliation. Her husband does not know that she was unfaithful, but she nevertheless realizes that she has been deceived.
The extraordinary sympathy that the Shipman gives to the merchant and his wife softens the satiric remoteness that marks many of the comedic Canterbury Tales. The Shipman's Tale therefore removes the pleasure that most of the tales offer in mocking the characters' fate and replaces it with a more abstract and palatable pleasure in the themes of the tale and the symmetry of the action.
On the other hand, it was not only war that helped the communists to take power in East-Central Europe after 1944. Stalin and the communist parties took advantage of political, economic, and social factors to spread their influence across. Stalin believed that he must impose his own social system in each territory he would occupy, and this required a full-scale Soviet military presence throughout East-Central Europe. He did not succeed in his objective overnight, but set out to make certain that he, alone, would determine the political agenda in the region. Stalin also knew that it was the size of the Soviet Union that aided in the defeat of Germany and was the same factor that would protect the region from further attacks.
The battle of Stalingrad is argued to be one of the most significant strategizing battle for the Germans. If Germany had won Stalingrad there would have been no fight left for the Russians to have. Instead, Germany made a hasty decision to attack in order to prevent Russia from coming up with a strategy which put Germany at a disadvantage. By the end of Stalingrad the Russians had managed to push back the Germans and put them on the defensive. If Russia had lost in their battle against Nazi Germany the United States and Great Britain would have faced a much harsher fight against Nazi Germany. Some would even argue that it would have been next to impossible for America to win against Nazi
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.
World War II was seen around the globe as a war to end all wars. Combat like this had never been experienced before and it was the largest scale battle in recent history. The death tolls for all sides skyrocketed to heights that had never been reached in any battle ever before. There was one man at the center of it all, one man who came to personify the root of living, breathing evil. That man was Adolf Hitler and to the rest of the world, he was a superhuman military machine who had no other goal but to achieve world domination through destruction. But the roots of the Battle of Stalingrad all began in 1941 when Hitler launched operation Barbarossa. Hitler’s powerful army marched across the east, seemingly unstoppable to any force. Stalin’s Red Army was caught completely off guard and their lines were completely broken apart. A majority of the country’s air force was destroyed when airfields were raided and many of the planes never even got the chance to leave the ground. Hitler’s army finally came to Leningrad where the city was besieged. The city held for 900 days and never gave way to the relentless Germans. At the cost of 1.5 million civilians and soldiers, the Red Army stopped Hitler from advancing further and postponed his plan to sweep over the south. Another cause for the retreat of Hitler was the brutal Russian winter, which Hitler and his army were completely unprepared for and the icy cold deaths would continue to haunt the Germans.
One cannot always accurately reproduce information due to the stages of memory processing that occur after witnessing an event. With each stage, the accuracy of the memory decreases. According to Aronson, Wilson, and Akert (2013), the first stage is acquisition. Acquisition is the process by which people notice only certain information in a particular setting because they cannot perceive everything around them. Also, witnessing a crime often occurs quickly, unexpectedly, under poor viewing conditions, or while focus is on another object, such as a gun. These circumstances significantly decrease the amount of accurate information that the observer will acquire, and the likelihood for accurate reproduction of the event in testimony is lessened (Aronson et al., 2013). According to Fradella (2006), acquisition is dependent upon the same individualized factors that are present in perception and expectations. Expectations impact what information an observer seeks out or avoids, ultimately impacting their overall memory (Fradella, 2006).
Since the Germans were low in numbers, starves due to lack of rations and moral. From the magazine and web page, an article from “The Independent Reader” stated that the Russians...
Relationships portrayed by Chaucer’s and Malory's stories show how corrupt women are because they always destroy their relationship due to their self-obsession of getting things they want. Women kept secrets from their husbands because they knew what they were doing was wrong. In the Wife of Bath, the Merchant was oblivious to the fact that
“The Miller’s Tale” perfectly incorporates all of the necessary components that make up a winning tale. In Chaucer’s, The Canterbury Tales, “The Miller’s Tale” fully satisfies every rule required by the Host, in a humorous and intriguing way. He uses the misfortune of the characters to grasp the reader’s attention, and keep him or her interested throughout the story. In the tale, Chaucer includes the idea of religious corruption happening in England during the fourteenth-century. He takes this negative idea and manipulates it into comedic relief by making both Nicholas and Absalom clerks. The actions of those characters, who were supposed to be revered due to their religious position, proves Chaucer’s negative view of the Catholic Church in England at that time. Through Chaucer’s incorporation of fourteenth-century religious corruption,
...man POWs. Stalin personally took credit for the victory and military defeats prior to Stalingrad were depicted as part of his pre-arranged plan.
This investigation will evaluate the following question. To what extent did the Battle of Stalingrad contributed to Germany’s defeat on the eastern front in World War II? To analyze the extent to which this battle contributed to the overall defeat for the Germans on this front, this investigation will analyze the German and Russian military strength before, during, and after the battle. The number of troops, supplies, the position of the armies, and the condition of the armies as a whole will be assessed in this investigation to evaluate each sides’ strength. This investigation will also discuss potential outcomes had other military decisions been made to reinforce the evaluation of the battle’s effect on the German defeat on the eastern front.
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.
...rounded in Europe with the British and the U.S. pressing in from the west, and the Russians coming in from the east killing about half the German army in the war. Since Hitler committed suicide on April 30th, 1945 Germany was falling apart and didn’t have a powerful leader to guide them. So, Germany decided to invade Russia, and they were horribly equipped for winter warfare, and had summer equipment when they invaded. This was because Hitler anticipated they would have beaten Russia before winter. Russia kept the German army occupies while the other allies liberated France. On January 12th, 1945 the Soviet Union invaded Berlin, Germany at the Battle of Berlin and succeeded. In late April and early May of 1945 Germany surrendered to the Allies and World War Two came to an end. As General Eisenhower said in 1945, “The world must know what happened, and never forget”.
If one has ever read the General Prologue of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, they will find the attitude of Chaucer to be very opinionated and complex toward the members of the clergy. Some of the clergy consists of the Monk, the Prioress (also known as the nun), and the Friar. Chaucer has gone into depth of each one of these members in each section of the Prologue. From reading each section and analyzes his attitude towards each member, it is portrayed that Chaucer has a complex attitude of appreciation and dishonesty towards the members of the clergy.
...ime period in a positive scientific light. The distinction between modern and medieval science was described as medieval science being more theoretical in nature and modern being of the more applied variety. Through the further presentation of the plethora of Islamic scientists, covering fields as diverse as astronomy, medicine, chemistry, and physics it has been shown, without a doubt, that significant scientific contributions were made in this period. Finally, the source of this misconception was exposed through the common accidental perception of the past as a European narrative. History can easily be focused around Europe, and to do so produces a view of the medieval era being stagnant. However, when one looks at the greater global picture, it is clear that the Islamic world more than makes up for this lull in innovation, successfully brightening the “Dark Age”.
he does not put people in the order of their social rank, "My wit is