Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales from the view of a pilgrim journeying with many other travelers who all had tales to tell. I believe that the stories told by the characters in Chaucer's book gives us insight into the individual spinning the tale as well as Chaucer as the inventor of these characters and author of their stories. There are three main characters whose stories I will be using as examples: The Knight's Tale, The Miller's Tale, and The Wife of Bath's Tale.
The knight told a tale of love, bravery, chivalry, justice, romance, and adventure. His story included two cousins and sworn brothers, Palamon and Arcite, who were both enraptured by the love of one woman, Emily. Emily was related to king Theseus who had the two friends imprisoned in a tower. It was from this tower that the two knights spotted the female embodiment of beauty and goodness. Palamon and Arcite each decided he could not live without her love and would die to have it. After a long while, the two meet up and are about to fight to the death for the love of Emily when Theseus comes upon them. He decides that these two former friends and prisoners will have a duel wherewith it will be decided who may win Emily's hand. Arcite and Palamon each pray to a different god to grant his victory. Arcite wins, but he dies before getting to claim Emily as his wife. She is later married to Palamon.
What does this fantastic story tell us about the knight's character and beliefs? This tale gives us insight into the Knight's sense of romance, passion, courage, loyalty and justice or fortune. Firstly, it shows us his ideal of one true, romantic love. He is virtuous and passionate, especially in his love-life. There was only one woman to be ...
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...te and analyze these characters to relay stories that would reflect their personalities. He conducted the interaction and relationships of these characters like Mozart would a symphony. He gave all of the characters their solos, but all of them interacted melodically. If nothing else, he was a humanist in the sense that he had concern for the needs and interests of other people. One may even call him a sociologist, or an observer of relationships between people of different classes. He gave a voice to many different types of people and had them all exchanging ideas and interacting. I wonder only if he had any idea that his stories were a window into his own personality.
Works Cited
The Canterbury Tales: The Knight's Tale, The Miller's Tale, The Wife of Bath's Tale. Chaucer, Geoffrey. Translated by: Coghill, Neville. London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1951.
The Knight's tale of love, loyalty, and battle is placed in the chivalric romance genre. The courtly romance concerns the mythical kingdom of Theseus, wealthy rulers, and pagan (mythical) gods. Throughout the tale, the Knight and the other characters refer to the concept of the "wheel of fortune." In the beginning of the tale, weeping, broken women plead to Theseus to help them avenge their husbands. Although impoverished, they tell Theseus that they were all at one point wealthy and of high rank. Even though Theseus is glorified and powerful now, the goddess will spin the "wheel of fortune" and he will one day be low. The concept of destiny and the wheel of fortune represents the Knight's acceptance of an incomprehensible world. His inclusion of the mythical gods, Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Diana furthers this idea. Emily, Arcite, and Palamon each pray to a diety, asking for help and their unattainable wish. In the end, father Saturn decrees Arcite's death. Thus, paradoxical human emotions and senseless tragedy are safely distanced; they are attributed to the will of the pagan gods. Similarly the love triangle between Arcite, Palamon, and Emily stresses tha...
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First the queen who gets to decide the knight’s fate. “He gave the queen the case And granted her his life, and she could choose Whether to show him mercy or refuse.”(line 72-74) Then the old hag who will tell him the answer to the queen’s question if he will marry her, and who he lets make the choice in which kind of wife he would rather have. ““My lady and my love, my dearest wife, I leave the matter to your wise decision.”(line 406-407) The point of her story is the only way a man can be happy is if his wife is happy, and for her to be happy she must be in
The Maiden was out for her daily walk, when a handsome knight pulled her from the path of a rogue carriage, saving her life. The Maiden fell for the Knight at first sight, convinced that she had finally found a man worthy of her love. But the Knight had heard about the Maiden’s cruelty, and he had no interest in courting her.
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This diverse view he had of all aspects of life, gave him the opportunity to be able to become an amazing writer as he could honestly write of a non bias view of each kind of people in life and have others able to relate. In his most known story of Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer creates himself as a narrator and character into his own story of many different people coming together on a pilgrimage where
The Knight’s first story is one of valor, romance, and justice. The story was told in a narrative where the Knight talks about everyone’s feelings, while at times not conveying everything to a hidden part. This story is about Palamon and Arcite who were knights that loved each other like brothers. They are captured by King Theseus and thrown in jail for being associated with a ruthless
The Canterbury Tales, written in the late fourteenth century by Geoffrey Chaucer, are a group of stories about an assortment of diverse characters whose personas existed during that period in time. The stories cover a wide variety of individuals, ranging from the Wife of Bath, the Pardoner, and the Reeve. Although the majority of the stories were all clearly fictional, the problems seen in each story were true; the author mentions the real-world issues that the members of his society had to experience and endure. Most of the messages found in Chaucer’s literature from the fourteenth century are still applicable today, in the twenty-first century, like the message found in The Reeve’s Tale. One of the concepts found in The Reeve’s Tale was the
During the Medieval time period, Geoffrey Chaucer was an English writer who was well known for his magnificent literary work. The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is a work that includes different stories about twenty-eight pilgrims who travel to Canterbury, England. With one of the twenty eight pilgrims being a Friar. Chaucer describes the Friar in the general prologue, a physical description and in his occupation. The Friar's Tale is told by the Friar himself and consists of a conversation between the summoner and a bailiff. The friar tells his tale about the corrupt summoner while the summoner tells his tale about the corrupt friar. Chaucer expresses that the Friar takes advantage of his position in the church and that he represents
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