Good and Evil in Dante’s Divine Comedy and Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath

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Good and evil are concocted differently in every imagination. To some, evil is the most appalling sins, including such heinous acts such as murder, rape, distortion, or betrayal. To others, evil might be something so simple as indecisiveness, extravagance, or vain glory. Goodness is ambiguous to mankind as well because one man might define goodness as the ordinary man living a free life, yet another might conclude that true goodness is obtainable only through a perfect, honorable lifestyle, completely abstaining from worldly endeavors. One’s attitude at good and evil will predetermine their values, actions, and points of interest. Whether life is spent pursuing heavenly goals or the applying oneself to his or her life, their experience deeply affects literary works. A good example of these two opposing thought processes can be seen by looking at Dante’s Divine Comedy, and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath.

Even though Dante and Chaucer never met, Dante died nineteen years before Chaucer was born, Dante inadvertently became Chaucer’s life long mentor. Dante’s severe spirit turned out to be far more harsh than Chaucer’s mild nature, however Dante’s protégé, Boccaccio, became one of Chaucer’s greatest inspirations. While under Boccaccio’s wing Chaucer learned an appreciation for Dante that he took with him through out his writing career. Looking back at both Dante and Chaucer’s works, experts now see striking similarities in their writing. Whether Chaucer ever meant to use Dante’s materials or not, he is now closely compared with his contrary counterpart. While one can see how closely related Chaucer’s writing was to Dante’s, a closer look shows just how differently their writing attitude was. They have comparable...

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...ton. “Geoffrey Chaucer 1918”. A History of English Literature. Date unknown. About.com: Classic Literature. 20 Nov. 2009

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Lawall, Sarah, and Mack, Maynard. ”Divine Comedy ”. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Dante. Trans. Mandelbaum, Allen. New York and London. W. W. Norton Company,2002. 1836-1914.

Lawall, Sarah, and Mack, Maynard. ”Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath ”. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Chaucer, Geoffrey. Trans. Morrison, Theodore. New York and London. W. W. Norton Company,2002. 1836- 1914.

Limentani, U. “The Mind of Dante”. London: Cambridge University Press, 1965.

Unknown. “Dante and Chaucer’s Concepts of Evil“. Comparison Essay # 62512. 2005. AceDemon. 20 Nov. 2009 http://www.liu.edu/CWIS/CWP/library/workshop/citmla.htm

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