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311).
In contrast to bolstering the position of any specific class of society, in the Canterbury Tales Chaucer's method of story telling refuses to take sides: a tale by a knight is deflated by that of a miller, and the miller's wit is undercut by his drunkenness. While many critics have commented upon the ironic contrast between the Chaucerian teller of the tales and their content, such as the greedy Pardoner who condemns money as the root of all evil, this irony is also evident within the pilgrim's tales, even the funny miller's tale (Spearing 2001). Those who know best are shown to know least, and the man who tries to control his wife is shown to be the most out-of-control. "Philosophical sleaze? The 'strok of thought' in the 'Miller's Tale' and Chaucerian fabliau." The Modern Language Review. 102. 3 (July 2007), 621-640.
Heffernan, Carol Falvo. "Chaucer's 'Miller's Tale' and 'Reeve's Tale,' Boccaccio's Decameron,
and the French fabliaux." Italica. 81.3 (Autumn, 2004), 311-324
Morgan, Gerald. "Philosophical Chaucer: Love, Sex, and Agency in the Canterbury Tales. The Modern Language Review. 102. 2 (April 2007), 477-478.
Spearing, a.C. "Narrative Voice: The Case of Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale."
New Literary History, 32.3 (Summer 2001), 715-746.
Turner, William. "Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2.
New…
Works Cited
Blamires, Alcuin. "Philosophical sleaze? The 'strok of thought' in the 'Miller's Tale' and Chaucerian fabliau." The Modern Language Review. 102. 3 (July 2007), 621-640.
Heffernan, Carol Falvo. "Chaucer's 'Miller's Tale' and 'Reeve's Tale,' Boccaccio's Decameron,
and the French fabliaux." Italica. 81.3 (Autumn, 2004), 311-324
Morgan, Gerald. "Philosophical Chaucer: Love, Sex, and Agency in the Canterbury Tales. The Modern Language Review. 102. 2 (April 2007), 477-478.
http://find.galegroup.com/gps/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=IPS&docId=A21240794&source=gale&srcprod=ITOF&userGroupName=va0035_004&version=1.0 Works Cited Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Trans. Neville Coghill. New York: Penguin Books, 1977.
Contrary to the common image of the 'damsel in distress' women often play a very active role in medieval literature. In "The Wife of Bath's Tale," the Wife tells the story of a crafty old witch who manages to break a spell that forces the sorceress to appear ugly during the day. The moral of the "Wife of Bath's Tale" is that men should show deference to their wives, and
Chaucer Both Shakespeare's Hamlet and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales do offer universal truths. As Volve states about Chaucer's work in particular: "The tale is firmly anchored in one specific period of history…but it seeks as well to represent other periods and other lives," (300-301). Likewise, Shakespeare's plays like Hamlet have endured precisely because there are few cultural, geographic, or temporal barriers that would prevent universal understanding and interpretation. Texts like these
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
Since they are blank pages, the women possess no direct say in which man will use her to write his story. The result is that men will compete over her and she will remain largely passive in this pursuit. This motif is used by Chaucer both within the Miller's and Knight's tales, and between these two pilgrims; men compete for women in both stories, just as the Knight and
While the tale is succesful in illustrating it point, it does not stand up to the test of sentence and solas the way "The Oxford Scholar's Tale" does. The Miller's Tale" is a wonderful tale that exposes courtly love through mockery. This tale is unconventional in that it is not one of happy matrimony. True love and respect are disparaged in practically every way. From this tale, we might assume