More handpicked essays just for you.
Comparison of characters in Canterbury tales
Women in medieval literature and society
Female roles in medieval literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, has gone through many adaptations. Some authors decided to translate the story into verse, while others chose to write the as a narrative in prose. Although all adaptations are based off the same story, they are vastly different and can be the result of opposing interpretations of the original work. After reading a text translated by Nevill Coghill (referred to as Version I) and a text translated into a narrative by a different author (referred to as Version II), it is obvious that for each similarity they share, there are many more differences in language, syntax, and imagery as well.
There are few ways in which the two versions are alike. The most obvious is that they tell the same story, albeit with a slight variation at some points, but in essence, the story told is the same. They are both about a knight who committed a crime against a woman and was sent on a quest by the queen to learn “what women most desire.” Throughout his journey, the knight asked many women what they most desired and received varied answers. Dejected, the knight travels back to the kingdom to receive his punishment, but he comes across an old woman. She tells him what women most desire, the knight is acquitted, and he is forced to marry the old woman. In the end, the knight allows the old woman to choose whether she would like to be beautiful or faithful, so she becomes a beautiful and faithful young woman because the knight learned his lesson about women. Moreover, by glancing at the two poems, it is obvious that the length is similar.
In addition to the similarities, there are differences as well. Version I of The Canterbury Tales was written in the form of a poem. It follows an A-A, B-B, etc. rhyme s...
... middle of paper ...
...lied and only mentioned at the very end. However, in Version II, the woman expressly states her conspiracy theory about the friars and the fairies in the beginning of the text.
While these two stories show great similarities, they also contain many differences. Because they are derived from the same original work, The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, they are greatly deviated in their structure, vocabulary, and story line. Version I, the text from the textbook that was translated by Nevill Coghill was more indicative of Old England based on the old and sophisticated language used and the verse of the text. Version II, the adaptation be another author into a narrative was an easier read and used lower-level vocabulary and although it attempted to use an old style form of writing, it did not seem likely to a reader that the narrative was close to the original.
Throughout literature, relationships can often be found between the author of a story and the story that he writes. In Geoffrey Chaucer's frame story, Canterbury Tales, many of the characters make this idea evident with the tales that they tell. A distinct relationship can be made between the character of the Pardoner and the tale that he tells.
Mandell, Jerome. Geoffrey Chaucer : building the fragments of the Canterbury tales. N.J. : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1992.
Upon reviewing three versions of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales done as children’s storybooks, one can see that Chaucer’s tales are essencially timeless and can be enjoyed today as they were in the Middles Ages. While the amazing poetic skill of Chaucer’s work is not included in the modern children’s versions, which are written in simple prose, the key plot points are kept, unbowdlerized even for young readers.
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.
The Canterbury Tales is a very popular and well known set of stories, written by Geoffrey Chaucer. This collection of stories is great entertainment and some even provide very good moral lessons; most of these stories show the contempt Chaucer had for the Church of England which had control at the time over most of England. Chaucer’s bias towards the corruption of the Church is best demonstrated in the Pardoner’s Prologue, in contradiction with the Parson’s Tale, and the level of power within the Church structure. These are two of the stories of the many that are in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer uses the Pardoner as a high level leader who is corrupt and yet enables him to convert the sinners even if he does it for personal gain. While the Parson is of lower standing in the Church, he is not corrupt, and gives the message to the pilgrims so that they might be forgiven.
The structure Geoffrey Chaucer chose for his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, of utilizing a melange of narrative voices to tell separate tales allows him to explore and comment on subjects in a multitude of ways. Because of this structure of separate tales, the reader must regard as extremely significant when tales structurally overlap, for while the reader may find it difficult to render an accurate interpretation through one tale, comparing tales enables him to lessen the ambiguity of Chaucer’s meaning. The Clerk’s Tale and The Merchant’s Tale both take on the institution of marriage, but comment on it in entirely different manner, but both contain an indictment of patriarchal narcissism and conceit.
Both use the words of Shakespeare but are strikingly distinct due to rendition of the words and the environment which provides a different feel.
Ellis, Roger. Patterns of Religious Narrative in the Canterbury Tales. Banes & Noble: Totowa, 1986.
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.
The Canterbury Tales is an in-depth narrative analysis of twenty-nine unique characters and their Host on a collective pilgrimage to Thomas Becket’s shrine in Canterbury. Chaucer paints vivid pictures of each pilgrim through his description of their physical appearance, inner nature, and outward behavior towards others. The individuals are not given names but the reader can identify them by their titles. One of the clearest cut characters in this work is the Parson. Chaucer presents the Parson in The Canterbury Tales to create a stark contrast for the other religious figures by his description of the Parson’s inner constitution, outward actions, and shepherd like qualities.
In The Canterbury Tales the author seems to use perspective as a theme in the story. Each person tells two stories from their own perspective, one on the way to Canterbury, and one on the way back. Although this seems like a basic concept, it’s the foundation of this story. No two people have the same story and I will discuss that in a few of the stories given.
An interesting aspect of the famous literary work, "The Canterbury Tales," is the contrast of realistic and exaggerated qualities that Chaucer entitles to each of his characters. When viewed more closely, one can determine whether each of the characters is convincing or questionable based on their personalities. This essay will analyze the characteristics and personalities of the Knight, Squire, Monk, Plowman, Miller, and Parson of Chaucer's tale.
Chaucer is not some unknown literary author who is known only by a dozen people in the English field. Besides Shakespeare, Chaucer is probably one of the most well-known contributors to English literature, if not the most well-known. His name is instantly recognizable, and many a high school student learned of him through the oftentimes-painful reading of his most famous work, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer’s work is an extremely important text in terms of the evolution of the English language; The Canterbury Tales set itself apart from other literary works at the time by being one of the first pieces of literature to be written in English instead of French, and its extreme popularity spurred the creations of even more English literature, allowing the language to regain its prominence and evolve into the English we know today (“Chaucer”; Kemmer). Today, it’s the most prominent example of Middle English work, and is studied not just for its literary worth but as evidence of what the language was like at the time. The Canterbury Tales and Chaucer’s importance are extreme, and the author enjoyed his fame during his life as well as long after, largely due to his abilities to make sound decisions, take risks, learned to learn as a professional, and transfer knowledge, skills that people even today can utilize to be successful.
Chaucer's Irony - The Canterbury Tales Chaucer's Irony Irony is a vitally important part of The Canterbury Tales, and Chaucer's ingenious use of this literary device does a lot to provide this book with the classic status it enjoys even today. Chaucer has mastered the techniques required to skilfully put his points across and subtle irony and satire is particularly effective in making a point. The Canterbury Tales are well-known as an attack on the Church and its rôle in fourteenth century society. With the ambiguity introduced by the naïve and ignorant "Chaucer the pilgrim", the writer is able to make ironic attacks on characters and what they represent from a whole new angle. The differences in opinion of Chaucer the pilgrim and Chaucer the writer are much more than nuances - the two personas are very often diametrically opposed so as to cause effectual irony.
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.