Chaucers Vivid Characters

661 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: chaucer satire on characters

Chaucers Vivid Characters Essay- Chaucer’s Vivid Characters Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is so poignant that it almost single-handedly defines a whole epoch in history. It is the people living in the time period who define the era, and it was Chaucer who described the people living in the Middle Ages. Just describing a few people in an offhand way would not have had a profound impact. Chaucer’s writings did have impact because he characterized every social class using very vivid characters. Describing his characters with much vividness is key for that is what defines the way the reader feels about the character and the degree of power of association the reader makes with the character. Hence, the vividness of the character is directly proportional to how pointed his work is which creates the tone. Themes and proportions are tools Chaucer uses to create his tone. The more vivid the character is, the more pointed the message. For example, his writing is very vivid as to how ugly the Summoner is. Thus indicating Chaucer’s extreme dislike for what the Summoner represents. Through the use of literary tone, the characters of the Wife of Bath and the Summoner are described very vividly. Through The Wife of Bath, Chaucer gives an example of a freethinking individual. In regards to virginity, the Wife of Bath said, “advice is not commandment, no; He left the thing to our own judgment so.” This statement was very extraordinary for it’s time as it questioned the sanctimonious state of virginity. Moreover, the Wife of Bath is attributed with reasoning powers, which was probably not a common practice when portraying women in those times. The Wife of Bath gives an example of a character that is an independent thinker very much like Chaucer himself. Chaucer’s tone when describing the Wife of Bath was sensuous. Her face being fair with red hue and her buttocks large as she sat upon an ambler gives vivid impression of a tactile and visual nature. She had a bold face that coincides with her strong character. Not only does the tone conjure up pleasure; it also expresses mental thoughtfulness. It questions the church’s foundation of St. Peter’s ideas about virginity. Chaucer uses the Wife of Bath to indirectly express the church’s inconsistency in regards to the natural propagation of the human race and virginity. The Wife of Bath is honest. She feels no shame in ‘dancing the old dance of love’.

Show More
Related

  • A Pardoner Who Needs A Bath

    1584 Words  | 4 Pages

    The image of the woman in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue is depicted by Chaucer to be “barley wheat” in a town and civilization lusting for whole white wheat or virginity (Chaucer 1711). The woman has married many men and in doing so forgotten the true value of the Christian faith and now believes worldly influence can overpower the scriptures of the Bible, “can you show in plain words that Almighty God forbade us marriage? Or where did he command virginity?” (Chaucer 1709). Jackie Shead analyzes the prologue and states, “it begins by manipulating authoritative texts--a pre-emptive strike to justify the Wife's marital history and her single-minded pursuit of self-gratification” (Shead). The possibility of the Wife of B...

    Read More

  • Wife Of Bath Euphemism

    1768 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the words of the Broadview Anthology’s introduction to the Wife of Bath, she is “a sexually experienced cynic who teaches young people the tricks of love…. The Wife’s history and the literary shape of her prologue conform to many of the traditional misogynistic stereotypes found in her husband’s book” (Broadview 298). Why would Chaucer write such a clever portrayal of personal pleasure through the eyes of a woman, and yet design her to possess every quality so despised and abhorred within her so-called lifetime? Because the audience of this poem would probably include wives, and because everything the Wife describes is almost laughably vulgar, it can be understood that this poem would not be interpreted literally and women would instead be forced to listen to an account about female power, desire, and pleasure written, unfortunately, as cruel satire of their

    Read More

  • Sexual Relations in Wife of Bath

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sexual relations between men and woman have created issues of life and death from the beginning of time. In most classic Western beliefs it began when Eve with the help of the Devil seduced Adam thus leading the downfall of humanity into an abyss of sin and hopelessness. This issue arises in all literature from Genesis, Chaucer and into modern day. Authors, clerks and writers of all types have aided stereotyping women throughout history and Geoffrey Chaucer is not an exception in most cases. However, in Chaucer's Wife of Bath we can find the beginnings of a new type of woman arising from the dark ages of the post-Roman era. And of course at the center of his character's struggle is sex. As this topic develops, we shall take a brief look into sex, women, the Middle Ages and Chaucer's Wife of Bath as an example of Middle Ages reflections.

    Read More

  • Canterbury Tales Essay - Anti-Feminist Rhetoric in The Wife Of Bath

    1220 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath is a strong woman who loudly states her opinions about the antifeminist sentiments popular at the time. Chaucer, however, frequently discredits her arguments by making them unfounded and generally compromising her character. This brings into question Chaucer's political intent with the Wife of Bath. Is he supportive of her views, or is he making a mockery of woman who challenge the patriarchal society and its restriction and mistrust of women? The Wife's comedic character, frequent misquoting of authorities, marital infidelity, and her (as well as Chaucer's) own antifeminist sentiments weaken the argument that Chaucer supported of the Wife's opinions.

    Read More

  • Canterbury Tales Essay - Sexuality in The Wife of Bath and the Pardoner

    1709 Words  | 4 Pages

    Chaucer used controversies to create character. He wanted his characters to teach the readers something new about life. The Wife of Bath and the Pardoner demonstrate Chaucer’s way of creating characters based on the sexuality of the medieval period.

    Read More

  • The Canterbury Tales: Two Character Exegesis Of The Canterbury Tales

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this paper I will compare two of Chaucer’s characters using both the interpretation of the characters as written and how those same characters would be interpreted today. The two roles I will be discussing are the Wife of Bath and the Summoner. I will attempt to show that although the Wife of Bath was supported as a good woman in part because of her sexual prowess as the character was written, the same sort of character - were she to tell her tale today - would be shamed and looked down upon as promiscuous and unworthy. The Summoner, on the other hand, would not be reinterpreted very differently and would be as reviled today as he was at the time of writing. His corruption, lechery and drunkenness would still be condemned.

    Read More

  • Masculinity in The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale

    2166 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Wife of Bath, with the energy of her vernacular and the voraciousness of her sexual appetite, is one of the most vividly developed characters of 'The Canterbury Tales'. At 856 lines her prologue, or 'preambulacioun' as the Summoner calls it, is the longest of any of the pilgrims, and matches the General Prologue but for a few lines. Evidently Chaucer is infatuated with Alisoun, as he plays satirically with both gender and class issues through the Wife's robust rhetoric. Scholars and students alike have continued this obsession with her, and as a consequence Chaucer's larger than life widow has been subject to centuries of scrutiny. Indeed, she is in the vast minority amongst the Canterbury bound pilgrims; apart from the in-vogue Prioress she is the only female - though she appears in no way daunted by the apparent inequality in numbers. It seems almost a crime to examine masculinity in her prologue and tale, but as I hope to show, there is much to learn both about the Wife and about Chaucer from this male presence.

    Read More

  • Parody on Chaucer

    1254 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chaucer’s book The Canterbury Tales presents a frame story written at the end of the 14th century. It narrates the story of a group of pilgrims who participate in a story-telling contest that they made up to entertain each other while they travel to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Because of this, some of the tales become particularly attractive for they are written within a frame of parody which, as a style that mocks genre, is usually achieved by the deliberate exaggeration of some aspects of it for comic effect. Chaucer uses parody to highlight some aspects of the medieval society that presented in an exaggerated manner, not only do they amuse the readers, but also makes them reflect on them. He uses the individual parody of each tale to create a satirical book in which the behaviours of its characters paint an ironic and critical portrait of the English society at that time. Thus, the tales turn satirical, ironic, earthy, bawdy, and comical. When analysing the Knight’s and the Miller’s tale, one can realise how Chaucer mocks the courtly love convention, and other social codes of behaviour typical of the medieval times.

    Read More

  • Geoffrey Chaucer Stance on Feminism

    1267 Words  | 3 Pages

    example of the complicated nature of Chaucer’s belief system. On the one hand, we have many strong female characters that despite still being extremely dependant on the men in their lives, know what they want out of life. From a contrasting point of view, readers see a group of men, including Chaucer as the writer himself, making fun of the very nature of women as a whole. Is this really how Chaucer felt towards women, or is the prologue of The Wife of Bath’s Tale simply a parody of the opinions of his time?

    Read More

  • Women In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

    568 Words  | 2 Pages

    In medieval England, society’s roles were dominated by men and women were either kept at home or doing labor work. Among the most famous medieval English literature, “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer, lies ‘The Wife of Bath's Prologue’ and ‘The Wife of Bath's Tale.’ Within, Chaucer shares his perspective of the Wife of Bath, the Queen, and the Crone. Through the use of symbolism and diction, Chaucer aims to change society’s expectations of women.

    Read More

  • The Wife of Bath: A Literary Analysis

    1091 Words  | 3 Pages

    In terms of literary quality, Chaucer went great lengths to give all elements a bit of attention. The work is primarily about a knight who is pardoned from a rape on the condition that he acquires the answer to one of life’s most difficult questions. He is sent out on a quest to figure out what women want from their men, and he is eventually successful in this task. Chaucer uses the action and the plot along with strong character development to make this a compelling story. First and foremost, he develops the Lady of Bath very well in the prologue to this work. In her article in the Chaucer Review, Susan Carter writes at length about the ways in which Chaucer uses strong character development to hammer home his points. She writes, “If Chaucer is not actually endorsing the strident voice he gives to the Wife, he is certainly making play with textuality, with subjectivity, and with the construction of ideas about sexuality” (Carter, 2003). Alongside the character usage, Chaucer creates a stirring plot where the knight is nearly brought down until he is finally saved by a woman late in the game. The atmosphere surrounding this story is somewhat dark and mysterious, especially when Chaucer includes magic as a part of the eq...

    Read More

  • What Women Most Desire

    1049 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women have the ability to get what they want, when they want it. Chaucer portrays the Wife of bath as the dominant person in her marriages. She looks at men as her trinkets to be used and played with. She moves from one man to another, always looking for more. The Wife of Bath is a control freak, wanting to have sex when she desires it and with whom she desires.

    Read More

  • The Role of Women in The Canterbery Tales

    2003 Words  | 5 Pages

    Chaucer, in his female pilgrimage thought of women as having an evil-like quality that they always tempt and take from men. They were depicted as untrustworthy, selfish and vain and often like caricatures not like real people at all. Through the faults of both men and women, Chaucer showed what is right and wrong and how one should live. Under the surface, however, lies a jaded look of women in the form that in his writings he seems to crate them as caricatures and show how they cause the downfall of men by sometimes appealing to their desires and other times their fears. Chaucer obviously had very opinionated views of the manners and behaviours of women and expressed it strongly in The Canterbury Tales. In his collection of tales, he portrayed two extremes in his prospect of women. The Wife of Bath represented the extravagant and lusty woman where as the Prioress represented the admirable and devoted followers of church. Chaucer delineated the two characters contrastingly in their appearances, general manners, education and most evidently in their behaviour towards men. Yet, in the midst of disparities, both tales left its readers with an unsolved enigma.

    Read More

  • Chaucer's Use Of Satire In The Canterbury Tales

    530 Words  | 2 Pages

    Geoffrey Chaucer was a on a mission when he wrote The Canterbury Tales. That mission was to create a satire that attacked three major institutions. Raphel displays, “Medieval society was divided into three estates: the Church (those who prayed), the Nobility (those who fought), and the Patriarchy. The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is an estates satire.” Chaucer wanted to shed light on the institutions that were taking advantage of the everyday man. Chaucer does this by making up tales about certain people that she light to the undercover world of the institutions. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses satire to attack the Church, the Patriarchy, and the Nobility.

    Read More

  • Chaucer's Society in Canterbury Tales

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about Chaucers Vivid Characters

Open Document