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Canterbury Tales are a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the late 1300s. At the end of the contest and pilgrimage, the person who has told the best story will win a free meal at the Tabard Inn in Southwark. Among the most popular tales in the book are "The Knight's Tale," "The Miller's Tale," and "The Wife of Bath's Tale."
"The Knight's Tale" is a story that follows Arcite and Palamon, cousins who are captured by the duke of Athens, Theseus. The cousins are imprisoned in a tower in Theseus's castle that overlooks a garden. One morning, Palamon awakes and looking out the cell's window, spots Emily, instantly falling in love with her. Arcite is woken up by Palamon, and looking out the window, instantly falls in love with Emily too. The cousins' fierce love for Emily causes them to grow apart and hate each other, which will contribute to their downfall later in the story. Arcite is eventually released from prison, only to disguise himself and enter into Emily's service in order to be close to her....
Eventually, the two cousins confront each other and are about to enter into a duel until Theseus intervenes and forces them to gather one hundred men each to enter into a tournament. The champion of the tournament will be given the right to marry to Emily.While Arcite wins the tournament, he dies; his dying wish is that Emily marries Palamon, which she does.
"The Miller's Tale" revolves around adultery and the repercussions of attempting to betray and trick people. Like "The Knight's Tale," this story also involves a love triangle. In the story, John, a carpenter, and Alisoun are married to each other; Nicholas rents a room from John and successfully convinces Alisoun to have sex with him. Later on, Absolon, also falls in love with Alisoun, and in his attempts to woo her, sings to her outside her window. Alisoun rebuffs Absolon's advances and Nicholas, in an attempt to spend more time with Alisoun, convinces John that…
But while it is true that he loved the funny side of life, he was also quite genuine and sincere in his purpose to expose the superficialities of social roles. "If we look at the whole corpus of his work, we see his tragic poems all interrupted, unfinished, or transfigured into celestial comedy" (Garbaty173). Chaucer unlike some tragedy masters of his time was not too concerned with gloom and sadness
They were seen as wives, mothers, daughters and usually "portrayed in relation to a man or group of man" (Klapisch-Zuber285). While they were given little freedom outside this restricted sphere, critics observe that medieval women were granted substantial autonomy within that sphere. Men "imposed a closely circumscribed domain in which women exercised a degree of autonomy... primarily the house, a space both protected and enclosed, and, within the house,
Chaucer's "The Monk's Tale" "The Monk's Tale," from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, is intriging because it is different from the other poems in the collection. Presented by a monk who appears to be very unlike a monk, it focuses on the calamity of life with a slight mention of how fate can intervene and set anyone's life upon a new, and sometimes not better, course. Life is difficult and
Of course a Queen would expect to be in charge, but the story serves to support the Wife's rather bad behavior in four of her five marriages. She ends her story by suggesting that every woman should have a young and attractive husband who has the sense to obey his wife. The views of the Wife of Bath must have been startling or even shocking for its day. Relations between
Thomas's gift turns out to be a giant fart, which Chaucer describes using richly comedic imagery: "Ther nys no capul, drawynge in a cart, / That myghte have lete a fart of swich a soun," ("Summoner's Tale," lines 486-487). The humor continues to enliven the Summoner's tale; toward the end the characters seriously debate how to divide up a fart. Chaucer's use of comedy and farcical imagery parallels his mockery
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales On The Pardoner Character Palucas An Ironic Tale of Hypocrisy Chaucer's work titled, The Canterbury Tales, reflects his life and the politics of the medieval era. Written between 1347 and 1400, this work is considered Chaucer's masterpiece. It is organized as a collection of stories told by a group of travelers on pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury. The Canterbury Tales reflects the diversity of