Chaucer 's characters appear heavily invested in the belief that the gods and the stars, not their own earthbound decisions and abilities, control their fates. Their steadfast faith in the power and prudence of the gods contrasts sharply with their often visible lack of confidence in themselves. Is this lack of confidence born out of the characters ' deference to the gods? Or conversely, is this obsession with the supernatural perhaps an attempt to rationalize, excuse, and possibly overcome their previous and potential shortcomings of which the characters are so often aware? In a collection of tales in which pride, honor, superlative excellence, and supernatural influence are so prominent, the rampant confusion, self-doubt, and "negative boasts" …show more content…
Each pilgrim claims to have a tale good enough to match, or "quite," the previous tale told. The constant presence of competition in the tales—which often takes on an odd tone, as the combatants treat it more as a debate over whom the gods will or should choose to support and guide to victory— is echoed by the "route" of travellers telling them. And yet, as each character boasts of his or her tale, they constantly hedge their own bets, warning of the possibility that they might err in some way as they tell their story, and asking their company to absolve them of their flaws in advance. The most striking example of this is the Miller. The drunk, boorish Miller interrupts the pecking order, leaping over "better" men such as the Monk and the Man of Law in order to share a tale with which he plans to "quite the Knightes tale." When told by the Host to know his place, he threatens to leave the company unless he is permitted to tell his tale, and has to this point come across as brash and very confident in his abilities. However, when the Host relents and allows the Miller to have the floor, he backtracks: "But first I make a protestacioun, That I am dronke--- I knowe it by my soun." While the Pagans in the Knight 's tale blame failures on Fortune, the Miller, far more plain and earthly than the Knight or any of his characters, has a more practical scapegoat in mind: the …show more content…
At times, he appears to be pandering to expectations of modesty, telling the readers at the outset that "my wit is short, ye may wel understonde." On multiple occasions, he breaks the fourth wall, jokingly criticizing his own rhyming abilities (through his own characters, of course) or having others lament that there is no story they can tell that Chaucer has not already told. Before the Miller 's tale, he apologizes for the crudity of the story (giving the excuse that it is the Miller spewing such ribaldry, not Chaucer himself), and asking his readers to "noght make ernest of game " (advice which perhaps his overly competitive pilgrims would do well to heed). Chaucer 's moments of uncertainty arise in his tales as well as his prologues, such as when he inserts himself into the Knight 's Tale after Arcite 's death, saying that he cannot possibly know where departed souls go when they leave the Earth. Chaucer 's proud quest to turn previously foreign classics into informative English poetry is in many ways a quest to prove the extent of his knowledge and abilities, which makes it most conspicuous that he inserts himself into a tale to tell the reader that there is a gap in his knowledge. Perhaps Chaucer 's ostentatious confusion when it comes to pagan theology is a subtle means by which he intends to distance himself from the non-Christian beliefs widespread in the setting of his opening
In The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, Chaucer’s real opinions about marriage and relationships between men and women are shown. Marriage is an institution viewed upon in many different ways. Some believe it is a consecrated union of two people in order to procreate. On the other hand, there are those who look at it as a social contract which often binds two people that are not necessarily right for each other. Chaucer combines these two beliefs into one major belief. Chaucer seems to look at marriage as an obligation that is constantly dominated by one of its two members, this view being shown in the prologues and tales of the Clerk, the Wife of Bath, and the Miller.
Throughout each prologue of the first three tales, we can see a clear description of the social rank of each speaker. The Knight is clearly the person to start the Tale cycle, as he belongs to the highest class of all the Pilgrims. By following the Knight, the Miller usurps the Monk’s privilege to tell the next tale, and begins one of his own. The Miller is allowed by the Host to use the pretense of being drunk, and proceeds to tell a story which goes against social conventions by poking fun at the rules and regulations of a higher social class. The Reeve then follows the Miller’s Tale with one of his own. Osewold tries to "quit" the Miller’s Tale by telling the story concerning Symkyn. The progression from the Knight to the Miller to the Reeve, gives us a picture of three very different class-levels. Through their speech, however, the lower-class characters of the Miller and Reeve are allowed to comment and pass judgement on people without fear of the socially-constructed class system.
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. Berkeley: U of California P. 1992. Print. (Kennedy Library PR1928.W64 H36 1992)
There are seven deadly sins that, once committed, diminish the prospect of eternal life and happiness in heaven. They are referred to as deadly because each sin is closely linked to another, leading to other greater sins. The seven deadly sins are pride, envy, anger, sloth, gluttony, avarice, and lechery. Geoffrey Chaucer's masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, provided an excellent story about the deadly sins. Focusing mainly on the sins of pride, gluttony and greed, the characters found in The Canterbury Tales, particularly The Pardoner's Tale, were so overwhelmed by their earthly desires and ambitions that they failed to see the effects of their sinful actions, therefore depriving themselves of salvation.
The narrator is the first element of humor Chaucer uses in his story. The Miller is rude and drunk but generally a jolly fellow. This sets the tone of story as being fun and even a bit coarse, just like the Miller himself. He tells a few jokes before he tells his story: "One shouldn't be two inquisitive in life? / Either about God's secrets or one's wife. / You'll find God's plenty all you could desire"(53). As well, the Miller wants to punish the Reeve, a ...
In "The Ending of 'Troilus,'" E. Talbot Donaldson writes in response to the conclusion of the "Knight’s Tale," one of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, "What it does suggest…is that Providence is not working justly." Though Donaldson correctly points out the fact that the "Knight’s Tale" ends in injustice, he confuses the role of sin in the injustice with the role of God. He asserts that God is to blame for the injustice in the "Knight's Tale" rather than exploring the role of human sinfulness.
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.
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.
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
Beidler, Peter G. "Chaucer's Tales" Chaucer Review Vol: 34, Issue: 4. April 01, 2000. 388-397
“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,
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, (written c. 1387), is a richly varied compilation of fictional stories as told by a group of twenty-nine persons involved in a religious pilgrimage to Canterbury, England during the fourteenth century. This journey is to take those travelers who desire religious catharsis to the shrine of the holy martyr St. Thomas a Becket of Canterbury. The device of a springtime pilgrimage provided Chaucer with a diverse range of characters and experiences, with him being both a narrator and an observer. Written in Middle English, each tale depicts parables from each traveler.
...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.
we see how Chaucer the pilgrim has been swayed and convinced by what the other pilgrims tell him. So much so that he reports qualities that are often the opposite of the true personalities of the characters he is describing. This ambiguity reveals a very clever sort of irony on behalf of the writer - while Chaucer the pilgrim is easily drawn in by their deliberate misrepresentations, it is up to the readers to see how wrong he is and draw their own, more accurate, conclusions. It shows many of the pilgrims to be very different people than those symbolised by the ideal qualities they want others to see.
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.