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They poem analysis
They poem analysis
Two kinds of literary analysis
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Favoring, it is just a natural tendency that all of us do, whether we want to or not. We have favorite colors, favorite movies, books, poems, music, etc. There are favorites when it comes to family members, even if we don’t want to admit it. Everyone has something or someone they would favor over others, it is just a natural tendency. In the poem The Canterbury Tales: The Prologue, by Geoffrey Chaucer, there are many characters in this tale. For starters, a short summary on the tale: in the poem, Chaucer is making fun of many things that bother him during the 1300 society, he writes about how many people like to take a pilgrimage to a place called Canterbury, and he has many colleagues on the way. He reveals many thrilling characters, and some that shouldn’t be favored, but sometimes are. The three characters that I preferred the most in The Canterbury Tales: The Prologue, was the Knight, the Pardoner, and Wife Bath.
The first character that I favor from The Canterbury Tales: The Prologue is the Knight. What is not to love about this knight? He is brave, strong, and always willing to help people when needed. For starters, he has fought in countless battles, as well as broken up numerous fights. He is almost as selfless as you can possibly get. According to the text, “There was a Knight, a most distinguished man,/ Who from the day on which he first began/ To ride abroad had followed chivalry,/ Truth, honor, generousness, and courtesy.” (G Pg. 98, Lines 44-46). This backs up my previous statements on how great this knight is. Truth be told, I am a sucker when it comes to the “Knight in Shining Armor” who always is there to save the day. Also, this Knight is favorable because he would rather talk about things that bring joy and hap...
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...Lines 457-458 and 463-465). This reassures my statement on how she is an excellent seamstress, a fact that I admire about her. Any woman that can handle herself is a woman that should be looked up to.
In conclusion, my three favorite characters from The Canterbury Tales: The Prologue is the Knight, the Pardoner, and Wife Bath. The Knight is my favorite character out of the three because he is the most honorable and respectful knight in this tale. The pardoner, although greedy, reminds me of the selfish part of myself which reminds me to keep myself in check and put myself before others a majority of the time. The last character that I come to terms to is Wife Bath, she is very relatable to me because she loves to talk and she has a happy personality. Many characters can be favored in any story; however everyone has their own specific characters that they relate to.
In the movie A Knight’s Tale the two main knights were William Thatcher and Count Adhemar. They both showed chivalry and courtly love, but not correctly. More of chivalry was followed more and the right way. The movie is very loosely based on Geoffrey Chaucer’s book Canterbury Tales. His father always wanted him the change his stars so he would not live in poor life forever. Even though both knights were good, William was better because he followed chivalry, courtly love, and prowess in battle.
The Knight’s leadership is one quality that Chaucer values. The Knight is a wise, noble, modest, and brave man. Chaucer recognizes this when he writes, “To ride abroad had followed chivalry, / Truth, honor, generousness and courtesy. / He has done nobly in his sovereign’s war / And ridden into battle, no man more, / As well in Christian as in heathen places, / And ever honored for his noble graces” (ll. 45-50). Chaucer speaks highly of the Knight because he was well liked and the everyone looked up to him.
The Knight shows bravery and loyalty, and the pardoner displays a great heap of honesty, about himself of course. The Knight was off battling in the crusades until one day he came back just in time to go on a religious journey to a shrine. His bravery was shown there because he fought in the war, let alone he was loyal enough to his religion to come back to the shrine. He had no time to even change his clothes to go onto the journey, but as always he was dressed to battle. Right when he returned he went straight into another journey. This shows his loyalty to his land and people. The other character, the pardoner, was a so called “holy” man who had pardons sins for money. He lied and snuck people into scams which led to more money for the pardoner. Although the pardoner belonged to the church, he is probably the most sinful men on the whole canterbury tales journey. He shows brutal honesty by telling everyone on the journey about his schemeful plans and his “holy relics” that he sells. These relics are all just the things that he found on the side of the road. As a result the pardoner and the knight has shown bravery, honesty, and loyalty to resemble the cultural values of this time
Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Canterbury Tales Study Guide : Summary and Analysis of The Pardoner's Tale | GradeSaver." Study Guides & Essay Editing | GradeSaver. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2011. .
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are filled with many entertaining tales from a variety of characters of different social classes and background. The first two tales told, by the knight and the miller, articulate very different perspectives of medieval life. Primarily, The tales of both the knight and the miller bring strikingly different views on the idea of female agency, and as we will discover, Chaucer himself leaves hints that he supports the more involved, independent Alison, over the paper-thin character of Emily.
Chaucer satirizes knights and chivalry in two different ways: in the prologue and in the Knight's Tale. The first way in the prologue is with the pilgrim Knight's character. Chaucer wanted to present a realistic knight, but he also wanted to give the Knight some very real, and obvious flaws, as a sort of social commentary on the way that knight's were perceived in the 14th century. To that end, he gave the Knight some qualities that could be termed as the antithesis of the qualities that a good and honorable knight should have. The second way I see Chaucer as satirizing chivalry is through the Knight's Tale. The Knight's Tale presents the "ideal" knights. They follow the codes of chivalry. They follow the graces of courtly love. They have duels. Have battle honorably. And, they also make fools of themselves on more than one occasion. Palamon and Arcita are so perfect, that they become parodies of the perfect knights. And, in the end of the tale, everyone ends up somewhat unhappy, and there is no clear winner. By writing this parody, Chaucer is trying to convey the idea that a lot of the ideals of chivalry are a bit silly. And, as all of the different tales reflect back on the characters of the pilgrims who tell them, the ideas in the Knight's Tal...
For my second example, I looked to Sir Gawain. The story of the Green Knight is seeped with instances of chivalry, and honorable men. “Always keep one’s word of honor,” was an obvious code for this particular story. Not only did Sir Gawain show respect for the codes of chivalry by serving his king, exhibiting courage, and fighting with honor; he kept his words of honor that had been spoken with the Green Knight. Although he was distracted in his course, he kept the appointed new year challenge with the knight. Not a perfect instance of chivalry, yet his example leads nicely into my next character assessment.
Chaucer identifies a pardoner as his main character for the story and utilizes the situational and verbal irony found in the pardoner’s interactions and deplorable personality to demonstrate his belief in the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church during this time. Chaucer first begins his sly jab at the Church’s motives through the description of the Pardoner’s physical appearance and attitude in his “Canterbury Tales.” Chaucer uses the Pardoner as a representation of the Church as a whole, and by describing the Pardoner and his defects, is able to show what he thinks of the Roman Catholic Church. All people present in the “Canterbury Tales” must tell a tale as a part of a story-telling contest, and the pilgrim Chaucer, the character in the story Chaucer uses to portray himself, writes down the tales as they are told, as well as the story teller. The description of the Pardoner hints at the relationship and similarity between the Pardoner and the Church as a whole, as well as marks the beginning of the irony to be observed throughout the “Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale.”
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.
In his story titled "The Canterbury Tales" Chaucer seems to truly admire some of the pilgrims while displaying disdain and sarcasm towards the others. The pilgrims that he most seems to admire are the Knight, the Oxford Clerk and the Parson. The knight he seems to admire based on his notation of all the campaigns in which the knight has participated in service to just causes. Chaucer makes mention of the knight 's worthiness, wisdom and humility "Though so illustrious, he was very wise And bore himself as meekly as a maid." (67,68 Chaucer). It seems as though Chaucer admires the knights great ability both in warfare and practicing what he preaches. This can be seen in his description of all those he seems to admire in the tale. The Oxford Clerk
Chivalry dealt with loyalty honor, and service to women on and off the battle field’ (“The Medieval Period: 1066-1485” 76). The Knight in The Canterbury Tales is the perfect example of someone who follows the code of chivalry. Chaucer describes him with much admiration as “a most distinguishable man, who from the day on which he first began to ride abroad had followed chivalry, truth, honor generousness and courtesy” (Chaucer, "The Prologue." 117). While Chaucer praises the knight for ... ... middle of paper ... ...
In General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales the character of Chaucer as the narrator serves as our guide to the action. Chaucer narrates as if he is in the moment himself, just meeting these pilgrims for the first time, and he makes the audience as though they are right there with him. At other times, though, Chaucer is a narrator who seems to know more than he ought to. For example, he tells us that, when the Shipman wins a fight, he murders the loser by throwing him overboard, or that the Reeve is stealing from his master. Are these really stories people would tell Chaucer when first meeting him? Chaucer also seems to know a suspiciously large amount about each pilgrim everyday lives. At these moments, Chaucer acts much more like an omniscient, or all-knowing, narrator, rather than one who's truly in the heat of the action. The reason for this choice could be that verisimilitude, or making things seem like real life, was not as important to a medieval author as it is to authors today. Instead, the narrator might choose to tell whatever he wants in order to better serve the purposes of characterization. The narrator makes it quite clear that he is also a character in his book. Chaucer creates an ‘alter ego’, a pilgrim called ‘Geoffrey’, who is the naïve narrator of the pilgrimage story, commenting on his fellow-pilgrims, and providing the links which join many of the Tales. This further extends Chaucer’s narrative possibilities, enabling him to open up another layer of opinion other than his own. In the General Prologue, the narrator presents himself as a gregarious and naïve character. Later on, the Host accuses him of being silent and sullen. Because the narrator writes down...
One of Geoffrey's less believable main characters is the Knight, for reasons of chivalry. The knight displays many traits which make him seem almost too good to be true, and a true gentleman that rarely exists in reality. The narrator sums up the knights character by stating that "Though he were worthy, he was wys,/And of his port as meeke as is a mayde." (pg. 5, The Canterbury Tales) The knight holds four main admirable traits, making him the most liked traveler in "The Canterbury Tales," and also amplying the doubt of his realism. The reader is prepared to learn of each of his noble accomplishments and importance when the narrator remarks that" A knight ther was, and that a worthy man,/That fro the tyme that he first bigan/To ryden out, he loved chivalrye,/Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisye." (pg. 4, The Canterbury Tales) From the characters impressive introduction, it is clear that this man is the most valued and honorable traveler among the group. This perfect gentleman holds a love of ideals that are often not displayed by people. First and foremost, he believes in the ideals of chivalry, and always stays true to its principles. He also feels that one should be honest, truthful and faithful, which many people are not all of these ideals. The knight thinks one should only do what is right, and what will gain him honor and reputation. This character also believes in freedom and generosity towards all, and displays this ideal repeatedly throughout the novel. And lastly, the knight also strongly feels that any proper person should display courtesy and elegance at all times. Another aspect of this character's life which makes him seem too prestigious to be truthful is his impressive military career. He fought in the holy war, known as the Crusades and was involved in 15 "mortal battles." In the prologue, the narrator informs the reader that "Ful worthy was he in his lordes werre,/And therto hadde he riden, no man ferre,/As wel in Cristendom as hethenesse,/And ever honoured for his worthinesse.
How would you describe Sir Lancelot? Most people would say he is the strongest, bravest, and kindest knight of the round table. Some might say he is the biggest Benedict Arnold of all time because of the adultery he committed with Queen Guinevere. However, his chivalry and code of honor make him the epitome of a true gentleman. These contrasting qualities set Sir Lancelot apart from all the other knights and characters in the “Morte D’Arthur.” Lancelot’s gallant, courageous, and conflicting personality make him a complex character in this dramatic tale of love and betrayal.
According to Immanuel Kant, “Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness,” which perfectly describes the overall theme of The Canterbury Tales. Morality is a prominent issue throughout the entirety of the poem. The Canterbury Tales is a collection of twenty-four complete stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer. In the poem, each of the pilgrims struggles with their sense of morality. Although most of the pilgrims in the poem are notorious for their unscrupulous behavior, there are those few virtuous ones. The morality between the pilgrims contrasts immensely and allows for an easily seen division between the amoral and the honorable pilgrims. Among these pilgrims are two by