Canterbury Tales Essays (Examples)

At which point, Palaomon would marry Emelye. This is significant, because it is highlighting how the various outcomes of different events can change quickly. As the knight is drawing upon his own experiences to: illustrate how your personal fortunes can change (based upon your level of preparedness for them). ("The Knight's Tale Part 1 -- 2," 2011) ("The Knight's Tale Part 3 -- 4," 2011)
When you step back and analyze the Knight's Tale, it is clear that the story teller is talking about events that have occurred in his life. Most notably: the underlying amounts of violence, the complexities of various experiences / personalities and the consequences that this could have on life itself. These different factors are important, because they are illustrating how the knight was often a victim of society itself. As, he became: a knight and followed the code of chivalry, with the belief that he…

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…

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 that prevailed in the lives of some of his characters. Instead he wanted to expose human frailties and societal flaws in a humorist style. According to Bloomfield:

If we can comprehend this tragic perspectivism, we may grasp something of the Chaucerian humor, which hates human meanness and cruelty and which at the same time pities human weakness and affectation and even at times sin. Even though we may condemn it, we should also acknowledge that this attitude comes from a…

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, certain even more private places such as the bed chamber, the work areas, and the kitchen" (Klapisch-Zuber305).
The Wife of Bath is a representative of this kind of social system. While she may poorly represent the women of her times, still her clothing and mannerism effectively reflect "the folly of the bourgeoisie -- its appetite for goods, both social and economic -- as the ancestral license of women.... If she [the Wife of Bath] is an arch-woman (all women ever), she…

The destination is a holy and venerated site, one that should inspire devotion, a spirit of penance, and peace; and it is fitting that a merry man should be the one to invite the other pilgrims to the game of the telling tales.
Unlike Dante's pilgrimage through the afterlife, which tends toward a much more spiritual focus, Chaucer's pilgrimage is earthly in the sense that its main focus is on human nature, in all its different shapes and sizes. If Dante analyzes the effects of sin and virtue on the human soul by viewing them from the realm of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, Chaucer analyzes the effects of sin and virtue on the human soul by viewing them from the everyday people he meets on a pilgrimage to a real place in real time: Canterbury.

Like Dante, however, Chaucer's Tales show the ways in which virtue is rewarded and vice…

The contrast between the pardoner and the content of his tale also shows that from a literary perspective, Chaucer was illustrating a new subtly of character. What a character thought he was like (a holy man) might not be who he or she actually was. This could be revealed through involuntary 'slips of the tongue,' like the pardoner condemning greed, even while he was a greedy person in life. What one said, medieval thought now recognized, was not always congruent with what one did, even if one was a member of the clergy.
Chaucer's valorization of the middle class and the emerging trades people of the Middle Ages is seen in the bawdy humor of the "Miller's Tale," which not only is viewed in a positive regard, told by an earthy man of the people who works for his bread with the sweat and toil of his hands, but also…

Perhaps no one has more of a sense of humor about herself and the world than the Wife of Bath. The Wife of Bath shatters a number of stereotypes of the Middle Ages a contemporary reader might possess: first of all, she is socially powerful. As a widow, she is rich, and she is willing to speak her mind. Chaucer's evident delight as a narrator in her lustiness shows that not all medieval women were desexualized in literature, and portrayed as shrinking maidens or nuns. Her tale seems openly feminist: it depicts a knight who must rely upon an old woman's wisdom to fulfill his quest, and after he is forced to marry her, she offers him a choice: she can be beautiful and unfaithful, or ugly and faithful. When given the option to choose the knight surrenders his choice to his wife -- to which the woman responds that…

Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer. Specifically, it will compare and contrast the element of a love triangle in several texts: The Knight's romance, the Miller's fabliau, and Franklyn's lai, and discuss how the treatment of each triangle is appropriate/inappropriate for its genre. Each of these triangle tales is unique, and fits its genre quite well; which shows Chaucer's great skill as a storyteller.
Love Triangles in The Canterbury Tales

Each of these tales within "The Canterbury Tales" takes a different look at love and love triangles, which seem to have existed as long as man has. The Knight's romance is an example of courtly and romantic love, where two strong and vital men vie for the hand of a beautiful woman. It has all the elements of chivalry that were so common at the time, and so, the Knight and his fight to win the beautiful Emelye are historical examples…

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 fate is cruel appears to be the message from this man of the cloth. His tale might have been dark but his message is clear: be happy because misfortune could strike at any moment.

It is a collection of short tales about men who lose their power in oe way or another. Readers are cautioned at the beginning of this tale to let "no one trust a blind prosperity" and to be "warned by these examples, true and old" (207).…

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.
elations between the sexes along with witty manipulations of others figure into other stories as well. In "The Shipman's Tale," the Shipman tells a story full of twists and turns. A wife asks a monk for a loan of 100 francs because her husband will give her no money. The monk agrees to the loan if she will sleep with him. The monk then asks the husband for a 100 franc loan, which he gives to the wife. When the husband looks…

Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer [...] parson, who is one of the truly good characters in the tale. Chaucer does not make a satire of him, as he does the rest of the characters. The parson is a good and decent man who cares about his religion and his parishioners deeply. His is unlike the other characters in that Chaucer holds him up as a model, rather than making a mockery of him.
THE PARSON

From his first introduction, Chaucer portrays the Parson as a good but poor man who would not leave his flock to better himself. Chaucer writes, "nat his benefice to hyre / And leet his sheep encombred in the myre / and ran to London unto Seinte Poules / to seken him," (507-512). This shows he is honest, and cares about the people of his church, so he would not leave them and got to London…

Knight's Tale" from "Canterbury Tales," by Geoffrey Chaucer.
THE KNIGHT'S TALE

The Knight's Tale" is one of the most memorable in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales. It tells the story of two young knights, Palamon and Arcite, who are imprisoned together in a tower, and both fall in love with the same girl, Emelye. Chaucer wrote it in Middle English, which, unlike Old English, is fairly easy to read and understand by modern readers.

For example, at the end of the story, Chaucer has the lines, "The Firste Moevere of the cause above, / han he first made the faire cheyne of love, / Greet was th'effect, and heigh was his entente./... For with that faire cheyne of love he bond / The fyr, the eyr, the water, and the lond / In certeyn boundes, that they may nat flee" (The Knight's Tale, 2987-2993). They show Emelye why she must marry Palamon,…

Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (make read Wife Bath's Tale, Prologue), respond: This week,'ve read Prologue Canterbury Tales. From 've read (including Prologue), create a profile character.
Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: Character profiles

Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales chronicles the procession of a series of pilgrims to visit the shrine of St. Thomas Becket. The pilgrims that make up the party of travelers span from the highest classes of the aristocracy and priesthood to lower-class members of common trades. One example of a high-born pilgrim is that of the Knight. The Knight tells a tale of two cousins warring for a beautiful woman's hand; at the end of the tale, as one of the cousins dies fighting for her love, he tells her to marry the other man. The tale reinforces the values of courtly love.

In contrast, the bawdy Miller's tale satirizes the notion of perfect, transcendent love. While the…

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 of the clergy, of the "First Estate" which claims moral superiority. Furthermore, the Friar and the Summoner were both outsmarted. Through the Friar's Tale and the Summoner's Tale, Chaucer implies that the feudal caste system is hilariously outmoded as well as being a source of evil.

Furthermore, the Friar and the Summoner both note that men of the cloth often hypocritically extort money in the name of the Church. Such men claim moral righteousness while they exploit other people and…

Franklin's Tale as early women's rights lore
The Canterbury Tales tell of the journey that a group of 29 people make and the tales they tell along the way. The people in the story are all as important as the tales they tell and of all the tales we have read so far, The Franklin's Tale is the one that portrays women in the most favorable light.

The Franklin's Tale is Chaucer's way of telling society that there can be equal footing in a marriage and that women indeed can be honorable and trustworthy. Compared with the women depicted in the other tales we've read, the leading lady of the Franklin's Tale shows that there is a good side to women.

In the Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, the reader is introduced to the travelers, but most prominently described is the Wife of ath, perhaps with the purpose of discrediting…

Chaucer's Friar
In the Canterbury Tales, the Friar's Tale and the Summoner's Tale are intended to be satires about the corruption of the church in the Middle Ages, and would have been considered comedic by the audience, but also as being quite close to the truth. Chaucer was very likely sympathetic with the early-Protestant Lollards and Reformers and intended this to be a humorous commentary on "the abuse that infected the medieval church" (Hallissy 138). Although the Friar and the Summoner work for the church, neither of them is even a remotely holy man, and their reasons for being on the pilgrimage are purely material rather than religious. Both of these characters equally corrupt and venal and have no real spiritual values but only an urge to satisfy their appetite for money (Pearsall 166). Chaucer does have a serious moral intent in these tales, and is condemning "the financial abuses…

Knights in the Canterbury Tales, The Knight's Tale, And The Miller's Tale
The narrator in the Prologue of "The Canterbury Tales" paints a noble view of the Knight. For instance, we are told that the knight is a distinguished man who practiced "chivalry,/Truth, honour, generousness and courtesy" (20).

e are also told he is wise, and he fought in "fifteen mortal battles" across the world. (21) hile the narrator may have an ideal view of the noble knight, Chaucer has another.

For instance, in The Knight's Tale, we have two imprisoned knights who are cousins born of "Royal Blood" (46). As fate would have it, Arcite and Palamon fall in love the lovely Emily and this causes great strife between them while they are in prison. This is the first example of how Chaucer is using satire because the two knights are certainly not behaving in a noble manner. The…

Franklin's Tale from the book the Canterbury Tales
At the end of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Franklin's Tale the author asks, "hich seems the finest gentleman to you?" Although all the characters demonstrate chivalrous behavior, all except one has ulterior motives behind their actions, and that person is the magician.

Dorigen loves her husband deeply, yet her immature nature imposes on all those around her. She is so distraught when Arveragus leaves, that she mopes and frets like a schoolgirl. Her behavior worries her friends who invest their time and energy into trying to make her happy. hen they take her for walks along the seacoast, she only becomes more upset because the ships remind her of Arveragus and the rocks along the coast only remind her of the all the deaths they have caused. hen her friends take her to a social gathering and she is confronted by Aurelius, who…

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 Miller compete for the praise of the travelers. The Miller and the Knight are social opposites, and Chaucer makes use of this to convey two stories that each says something very different about life in medieval England, yet maintains many of the basics of Chaucer's personal views of women and society.
In this way, the first story unfolds largely as the typical Medieval audience may have anticipated. The Knight tells the story of Palamoun and Arcite and their love for Emilye.…

Chaucer's "Retraction" and Its Meaning within the Context of the Canterbury Tales
The "Retraction," a fragment that follows the last of the Tales in Chaucer's masterpiece, has attracted much critical attention, as students of Chaucer attempt to divine whether it implies a renunciation on the author's part of his work, or is intended ironically.

Benson comments that "the authenticity of the Retraction has been challenged" (Benson, 2000), and certainly it is possible that "some scribe added them on to Chaucer's own incomplete copy of the Tales" (Benson, 2000). Establishing authorship of works of that period can be difficult, and there is enough content of a bawdy nature in the Tales that a concerned churchman might have been inspired to round the work off with a cautionary note of piety, however belated, on the author's behalf. However, Benson, along with most scholars, agree that this is not the case; that Chaucer…

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. ritten 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 fourteenth-century English life while reflecting the full-range of medieval society with the pilgrims sharing tales that span the medieval literary spectrum. Here critics concur that Chaucer brings each character to life and creates truly memorable individuals. ithin the framework of the Canterbury Tales are ten parts that appear in different order in different manuscripts. Critics believe that Chaucer's final plan for this work was never realized because he either stopped working on the piece or died before he…

Mentor for the Squire
The Canterbury Tales" and "Beowulf" were written centuries apart, yet, each work contains similar elements such as heroism and chivalry. Chaucer's tale, set in the late 1300's England, depicts English society as each character tells a story to pass the time during a delayed journey. The anonymous author of "Beowulf" sets his story during the sixth century and describes the heroic life of its protagonist. Both authors give a vivid insight into the culture and societal attitudes of their times.

Chaucer's England was based on societal structure. People belonged to certain class systems and remained there their entire lives. Chaucer gives the reader a sample of each class within his characters. The Plowman represents the peasant class, for example, and the Knight represents the person of highest rank among the author's characters. The Squire, basically a knight in waiting, is also of high social rank. Chaucer…

Chaucer wrote a number of works that were directly influenced or inspired by Greek mythology. These include short poems like “Complaint of Mars” and “Complaint of Venus” as well as longer ones, like “Troilus and Cressida” and “Anelida and Arcite.” Even in his most famous work, The Canterbury Tales, there is a direct link to ancient Greece, with the Knight’s tale telling the story of Theseus, king of Athens in Greek mythology. This paper will discuss how stories of gods, legends, and traditions of ancient Greece greatly influenced English writer and poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Greek mythology had captured the imaginations of people in the West for centuries. The Romans were so enamored of Greek mythology that they essentially adopted the Greek beliefs as their own, Latinized them (gave them Roman names to replace the Greek ones), and built their own altars and shrines and temples honoring them. Jupiter and Zeus,…

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orks Cited

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Trans. Neville Coghill. New York: Penguin Books, 1977.

Neither lust, nor greed, nor vanity, is necessary to account for betrayal: it is the simple and inevitable reflex of the changeability that is the very life of human beings."(Mann, 19)
Thus, the discourse of the ife of Bath should be seen rather in this light, than as an antifeminist one. In fact, her prologue is to be read rather like a purposeful unmasking of the many antifeminist stereotypes circulated in that epoch. As Jill Mann has noted, the fact that the ife of Bath recounts all the things that her husbands have told her, the specific nagging that takes place between men and women:

That is, she [the ife of Bath] does not live in the insulated laboratory world of literature, where she is no more than a literary object, unconscious of the interpretations foisted upon her; she is conceived as a woman who lives in the real world,…

During the pilgrimage Muslims are expected to acknowledge the importance of living and the significance that afterlife has. It is interesting to see how this particular pilgrimage is also meant to strengthen bonds between Muslims everywhere by highlighting that social class or background is not necessarily important before Allah. Chaucer himself makes it possible for people to look at pilgrimages from this perspective by saying that pilgrimages are also important for the feelings they induce in individuals as they experience them directly. "The Canterbury Tales" play an essential role in having people better acquainted with the idea of pilgrimage. Readers are likely to understand that there is much more to a pilgrimage than the religious aspects associate with it. As a pilgrim a person is likely to experience spiritual progress and to connect to a higher degree to other pilgrims and with society as a whole.

The Hajj is meant…

Seeing that he was miserable, she told him he could either have her loyal but ugly or beautiful and unfaithful (Chaucer pp). The knight leaves the decision up to her thus, giving the old hag exactly what she wanted, to be in control of her husband. This decision resulted in the old hag becoming beautiful and loyal (Chaucer pp).
omen are central to this tale from the beginning to the end. The knight is saved by the queen, then is sent on a quest to find what appeared to be an impossible answer to a riddle concerning women, and then is saved again at the last minute by another woman who, although wise, was ugly and undesirable. However, he proved true, loyal and obedient, and granted the hag the one thing she wished, control over her man. And in doing so, he received what he truly wanted which was a…

The ible, he argued, cites the creation of Eve for Adam as proof that a wife is man's support, as well as many other examples of humble and devoted wives.
The knight told his brother that he desired a young wife, who was no older than thirty, for she would be more pliable. Placebo cautioned that it takes great courage for an older man to marry a young woman (Classic Notes, 2004). He warned him that a young woman who married an older man may have ulterior motives, which the man would never know until he was married. Despite the fact Placebo has a wonderful wife, he understands what faults she has and advises January to be aware of who he marries.

The brothers argue about the merits of marriage, with Placebo predicting that January would not please his wife for more than three years, but Placebo eventually agrees to…

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. hile 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.

orks 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.…

By association, he is implying that he is a man of action rather than words, which is a logical extension of his occupation as Knight. One might, however, question, why he focuses his attention on the comfort of his companions rather than simply stating that he is not inclined to make his tale too long for his own reasons. Indeed, he claims that he "would also not hinder any of this company." This casts doubt on the Knight's honesty, since it is highly unlikely that his reasons for keeping the details he mentions out of his tale are purely unselfish. It could be that he uses these statements to conceal what the company might perceive as a flaw in his narrative, in that it somewhat lacks imagination.
When considering the details of what the Knight claims not to have time for, it becomes clear that such tales would be filled…

Chaucer's The Knight's Tale
Jonathan Zaun

The societies which flourished throughout Europe during the medieval period were built upon a foundation of institutionalized honor known as chivalry. Orders of knighthood were established throughout the region which sought to produce exemplary soldiers and leaders of men. Medieval knights earned membership to this warrior class by defending their nation from external threats while always striving to uphold a personal code of conduct. The concept of chivalry emerged to encompass the entirety of a knighthood's commitment to virtue, at once describing his proficiency on the battlefield, his willingness to protect a woman's honor, and the supreme loyalty he pledged to his liege. A chivalrous knight was expected to demonstrate prowess in the art of combat, honesty and truth in his dealings with others, honorable behavior when confronting his enemies, and freedom from the hold of worldly possessions; displaying a courtly manner while seeking…

Brevity is also preserved to prevent his audience from losing their interest in listening to the knight's tale, as illustrated in the following passage: "The remnant of the tale is long enough. I will not hinder any, in my turn; Let each man tell his tale, until we learn Which of us all the most deserves to win..." Compared with his father, the knight, the squire pales in comparison to his father's narrating skills and ability to entertain an audience. In his tale, the squire expresses his insecurity over his inability to speak with brevity, clarity, and articulateness while making, at the same time, his tale appear more interesting to his audience. This insecurity is reflected in his claim that, "But to describe to you all her beauty, it lies not in my tongue nor my knowing; I dare not undertake so high a thing. My English is quite insufficient…

Gender
Women occupy conflicted and ambiguous roles in Middle English and enaissance English literature. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and Shakespeare's Twelfth Night all show how male authors in particular grappled with the role of women in an increasingly patriarchal society. Women feature prominently in each of these stories, even if their status and perceived morality is questionable. Each of these stories features women who have a fair degree of power, albeit expressed within the confines of a patriarchal social and political construct. What's more, the women in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Canterbury Tales, and Twelfth Night create their own power; power is not "given" to them by self-serving benevolent men. In fact, women like Morgan Le Fay, Lady Bertilak, the Wife of Bath, and Viola all wield power effectively. Women and men occupy separate and distinct spheres, and each wields a different type…

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
There are a bevy of similarities that exist between the tales of the wife of bath and the prioress in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. The similarities largely pertain to the circumstances in which these individuals tell their tales. They are both women, and each are telling a tale to other pilgrims in which there presumably is both entertainment as well as ecclesiastical value in the subjects. However, a close analysis of these two particular stories reveals that despite the similarities between them, the differences between them are more pronounced. Although both tales emphasize various elements of satire, characterization, and tone, it is clear that the principle distinction between them is that the wife of bath's tale is ultimately secular while the tale of the prioress is ecclesiastical in nature.

An analysis of the characterization in both of these stories readily proves this thesis. One point of…

However, because of Gilgamesh's thought that he may be invincible, he is actually putting his friend's life at risk by going on his adventure. In his attempt to prove that he is brave and that he would rather die for a cause, he actually indirectly causes the death of Enkidu, who shows that he was the stronger of the two.
5) Defining Honor

Honor is a characteristic that few individuals posses. It is a special type of distinguishing factor, that although many attempt to have, very few actually embrace it to its full meaning. Honor entails pride and personal excellence. It is fully believing in an action or an entity that represents something very important to the self and to those around. To me, honor is being able to stand up for your beliefs despite the opinion of others.

Honor in society can actually be viewed in two ways, depending…

Like so many of us, he feels that heaven has cursed him. The element of disgrace would mean that he has fallen out of favor with God. He feels that all of his efforts are "bootless" (useless). However, the skylark has risen above this, implying that by remembering his love, he will also rise above it.
This author used the example of heaven because it is universal. We all think about our mortality and want to make sure that our lives have meaning. Without it, we are lost and rudderless. However, like the skylark, love will help us rise above the situation and finally make our way through the troubles of life that we all have.

4) the issue of Jews, Judaism and the character of Shylock are famous and among the most examined aspects of the Merchant of Venice. The raise all sorts of questions about whether or not…

Thisclearly implies that this sort of perception was more of a weakness than an advantage.
Samuel Johnson's "The Vanity of Human ishes"

In this poem, the author demonstrates to the audience the reality of struggle in life. The author, just like, he mentions in the poem's title demonstrates how human wishes are, in many cases egoistic and useless. According to Meyers (p 1), Johnson had his reflection long years of human struggle, unavoidable fates, and theerroneous hopes. The author demonstrates some of the common situations that ordinary human being experience under the authority of certain political powers, which seem to have a hand in the sealing of their destinies. The author, in exploring this demonstrates how cruel, humiliating, and unwarranted such treatments are. The actions that the persona witnesses in the society make life to him more of a tragedy than anything else does. He in fact states that the…

Wife Bath: Feminism Chaucer
Chaucer appears to create the Wife of Bath shine intentionally from the rest of the characters in the novel; she has been possibly one of his most controversial figures since her contradictions as to what she states and just what she does. The writer's formation of her character offers one significant objective which has been to surprise his readers. Chaucer chooses to consider each and every bad attribute that ladies were thought to have in those times and also the outcome has been Alisoun. This kind of vivacity and boldness had been seldom observed in female fictional figures of that era (Oberembt 287).

The Wife Bath: Feminism Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales had been written towards the end of the Fourteenth century, however it was left incomplete. It has been setup as numerous stories within one story. The primary frame has been a travelling crowd…

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 lend themselves towards literary regurgitation; allowing for the recycling of themes, characters, and conflicts.

However, within the texts, reality is skewed, distorted, and ambiguous. This is especially notable in Hamlet, because of the play-within-the-play. Chaucer accomplishes a similar goal by cloaking themes in the garb of ancient Greece. For Shakespeare, reality and the truth are absolute. There is no moment in the play at which the audience is led to doubt the guilt of Claudius. The truth might not…

Knighthood and Chivalry: Heroism, Love, and Honor in "Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"
Fourteenth century literature was characteristically based on medieval period, wherein the dominance of Christianity is evident in estern society during that time. Influenced by the image of a knight, who serves as a warrior and man of noble birth, literary works during this period centered on the virtues taught to be important by the Church: love, honor, and chivalry. These are the characteristics that every heroic knight should have: respect for other people and the self, respect for love, and protecting those people who are unable to protect themselves from harm.

These are the traits that readers see in the images of the 'knights' depicted in Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Belonging to the 14th century estern literary period, these works have illustrated how…

Those with issues to overcome are always more heroic. Hector also becomes a hero when, after at first running from Achilles, he eventually stands up to him and dies a heroic death.
The Iliad is primarily a war epic. In your opinion, is the Iliad condemnation of the it could easily be argued that the Illiad glorifies war, as much of the poem is spent portraying the warriors as brave and courageous, even as they go on killing rampages. Warriors are describes as "masters of the battle cry" and "warlike" in glowing epithets. When Achilles originally refused to fight, he is roundly condemned for it by all of the other Greek characters. Even the weapons of war, such as Achilles impenetrable shield, are glorified. But homer is more complicated than simple -- war also brings death, which he describes in great detail. Hector's death is perhaps the most graphic of…

Your answer should be at least five sentences long.
The Legend of Arthur

Lesson 1 Journal Entry # 9 of 16

Journal Exercise 1.7A: Honor and Loyalty

1. Consider how Arthur's actions and personality agree with or challenge your definition of honor. Write a few sentences comparing your definition (from Journal 1.6A) with Arthur's actions and personality.

2. Write a brief paragraph explaining the importance or unimportance of loyalty in being honorable.

Lesson 1 Journal Entry # 10 of 16

Journal Exercise 1.7B: Combining Sentences

Complete the Practice Activity on page 202 of your text. After completing this activity, read over your Essay Assessment or another journal activity you've completed.

* Identify three passages that could be improved by combining two or more sentences with coordinating or subordinating conjunctions. Below the practice activity in your journal, write the original passages and the revised sentences you've created.

* Be sure to…

Madam Eglantyne the Nun, is also an ironic charater. She eats in a very refined manner and attempts other fine characteristics such as speaking French, although she fares poorly at this. Ironically, not all her language is pure, as she swears cosntantly by "St. Loy," a saint renowned for not swearing. Unlike the general conception of the Nun, she is very concerned with outward appearances and did not much care for human beings. Indeed, she cared much more for her three dogs than the human beings around her. Another irony is that she has a coral trinket to fight worldly temptations, which is clearly failing badly.

A second character is the Friar, Hubert. While he is jolly, merry, and festive, his actions are nevertheless evil and cunning. He impregnates girls, for example, and marries them off. He deceived the faithful by hearing confessions for a fee, and even begged from…

Interestingly, although Raskolnikov's punishment comes before the end of the novel, only after he is banished to Siberia is he able to truly let God into his heart. This shows how earthly punishment and salvation are not always linked. The novel ends with him throwing himself upon Sofia's mercy, as she finally understands that he has accepted God into his heart and been redeemed.
Although no figure is Christ-like in the novel, Sofia acts like a figure of wisdom and a facilitator of Raskolnikov's faith. She inspires him to reject secular philosophy for God, as philosophy and his intellect cannot save him, only religion. Although Sofia has no education, she is depicted as wiser than most of the learned men in the novel. Sofia hears Raskolnikov's first confession of his crime, before the authorities. Unlike the anonymous authors of Beowulf, for Dostoevsky true heroism is sacrifice and repentance, not manifesting…

From a good soldier, he turns into a bad king. He becomes a man who believes the transparent lies of the witches who, along with the urging of his ambitious wife, motivated him to commit the murder of King Duncan.
Hamlet: Hamlet's depressed and uncompromising nature resonates with anyone who has ever been an adolescent. Hamlet is intensely critical of aspects of his society others take for granted, such as King Claudius' right to marry his brother's widow and Old Hamlet's suspect death. Hamlet's criticism can be harsh, and misogynistic as well as misanthropic, but he is an inspiring example for young readers. He urges readers and playgoers today to continually question the morality of their elders and betters, and strike out against the 'smile' or lie that hides the real truth about power in society.

The Scarlet Letter: Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter shows that the appearance of religion without…

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 not merely strive to rule the roost alone. Even "The Miller's Tale" shows a woman happily engaging in lustful adultery, and demanding sexual satisfaction in her marriage.

In the Decameron, women are less apt to take central roles in the narratives than in "The Canterbury Tales," although they feature prominently as storytellers. When women do appear in the Decameron, women are either innocents who are seduced, as in the case of story I.4, or they act to curtail male passion…

Sometimes, as we see in King Lear, the thirst for power leads to nothing but trouble. It should be noted that the power did come but it was not enough to erase what had already happened. As a result, of this power hunt, King Lear and Cordelia discover what true love is all about. Gloucester and Edgar also learn the value of love. In "The ife of Bath's Tale," we see that power is ugly as the knight only acts to fulfill his desires. However, he is redeemed when he comes around and finally realizes true love and can appreciate it. Both of these stories tell cautionary tales about the power of love and the love of power.
orks Cited

Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. New York: Riverhead Books. 1998.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The ife of Bath's Tale," the Canterbury Tales. Nevill Coghill, trans. New York: Penguin Books.…

This is also true in another tragedy of murder, Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. One of the more humorous characters in the novel is the drunken Marmeladov. Marmeladov is an alcoholic, and his long, rambling monologues are a startling counterpoint to the seriousness with which Raskolnikov regards his life. ithout characters like Marmeladov, the novel would be almost unbearably claustrophobic and ridden with tension, as Raskolnikov tormented himself with guilt over his double murder, and the police officer Porfiry tried to trick the law student into a confession. But like the porter, Marmeladov serves an important function in underlining the novel's theme. It shows the desperation to which the poor in Russia sink: Marmeladov's dissipation forces his daughter Sofia to become a prostitute.

ithout knowing Sofia and the patience with which she bears her sacrifice and her misery, Raskolnikov would never have found his path to moral redemption. Even in…

sex and marriage as found in the Wife of Bath and the Franklins' Tale of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Looking at how they define love, sex and marriage within certain aspects of the time and how they relate to one and other within the texts.
Marriage and the Canterbury Tales journey can be a slow and tiring event. This is as true today as it was in the fourteenth century. Travellers will often get talking with each other, passing the time of day and pleasantries, however, back in the fourteenth century a journey was likely to be longer.

In Chaucer's Canterbury tales, we see the stories of traveller being told to pass the time. In these tales there are some common themes, but the perspective of the tales may be seen as interesting and different.

The role of choices and destiny maybe seen contrasting in the stories of Wife of Bath…

ife of Bath's Tale And Modern Stream-of-consciousness riting
Dear Chaucer:

The ife of Bath is one of the most memorable of all of your characters in the Canterbury Tales. The ife is likeable not only because of her boisterous, honest, and sexually frank persona but also because of the way in which she tells her tale. The ife's storytelling anticipates modern stream-of-consciousness style. The ife's style underlines the fact that it is not only how a story is told but who tells it that is important.

The ife begins her tale by relating her experience of marriage before setting up the plot of her story: "I have had five husbands at the church-door (for I have been wedded so often); and all were worthy men in their ranks." She defends her ability to hold forth on the subject of marriage because of her obvious experience and also makes a humorous…

Revenge, too, is prominent in all of these works: Beowulf must destroy the monster our of revenge for the havoc on the Kingdom; the Greeks must avenge the kidnapping of Helen and the slights against their lands; the Knight, the Miller and the ife of Bath all must seek revenge for perceived wrongs. Poems like Canterbury Tales, Beowulf, and the Iliad and Odyssey, especially as oral tradition, frame the journey of the hero through trials and tribulations to, eventually success. The saving of society, though, is often met with grave personal sacrifice, sometimes of tangible wealth, more often of loved ones, or, in the case of Beowulf, the ultimate sacrifice -- giving up one's own life in the service of society.

Yet in each of the tales there is at least one, and frankly many more, characters that have a fatal personality flaw that causes not only consternation, but increases…

Power of Goodness in 1001 Nights
"One thousand and one nights" is probably one of the most famous books in the world. While most of the readers are children, it is just as true that the book can be enjoyed by adults as well. The texts provide not just beautiful descriptions and captivating adventures, but they are also full of symbols and significant meaning. From this point-of-view, it can be stated that the levels of interpretation may vary according to the readers' general culture. "One thousand and one nights" is a book in which the marvellous and the supernatural are mixed with the everyday life elements, creating a fantastic world in which goodness and evil encounter and fight under various forms.

The book consists in a collection of tales. Some of them can be considered as belonging to the folk genre. It is worth underlining that the book was written…

Lawrence often compares the mechanistic world of industrialize Britain with the world of nature, and the fecundity and sexuality of the natural world is seen as distorted by the mechanistic world that has developed in this century. In such a comparison, Clifford is on the side of the industrial world, while Connie comes out on the side of the natural world. Yet, this is not what society wants women to be, and yet it is also the reason women were so restricted by society, because they were viewed as dangerous threats to the natural order because of their inherent sexuality.
In Lawrence's conception, living according to nature precludes the possibility of sin, though society may see the issue in a different light. hile one could apply this idea to Hester and Tess as well, their authors clearly do not view the issue in that way, though they do find their…

Pearl-Poet
Indeed, few figures are more dominant in any era of literature in any language or cultural tradition, than both Chaucer and the Pearl-Poet are in the way that they tower over the rest of Middle English literature in terms of having crated the most imposing, lasting, and resounding works of literature associated with that time period and that stage of the development of the English language. Indeed, both Chaucer's and the Pearl-Poet's works are indubitably some of the most important and lasting of any works in English literature and without their contributions to the early development of literary style in English, it is difficult to imagine the stage having been properly set for any of the later greats of Modern English, from Shakespeare on down to Joyce. Indeed, for the very fact that their works was so unbelievably influential in even setting the tone for the sort of literature…

She has an earnest love for the purity and perfection of the Virgin Mary, but she is overcome by her own immaturity in expressing her love. Finally, the Prioress desperately wants the world to consider her as pious, devout and worthy of respect and dignity. However, she exudes an amount of prejudice and anger not befitting a lady who is devoted to love and mercy. To assess the character of the Prioress is quite difficult indeed; her character, as presented by Chaucer, is much like that of most ordinary humans. The prioress has some admirable and endearing virtues that many wish to emulate and some character defects that prevent her from being of maximum service to god and her fellow men and women.
orks Cited

Ames, Ruth M. God's Plenty: Chaucer's Christian Humanism. Chicago: Loyola

University Press, 1984.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales: The Prioress' Tale. Online Accessed 17

Ocober…

videos presented week. Identify a piece art, music, architecture, philosophy,
The work of literature from the high and late Middle Ages that was analyzed in this week's readings and videos and which resonated the most was Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. This piece of literature is fascinating partly because it is so emblematic of this particular timeframe in a number of different ways. Specifically, the preoccupation with the theme of religion which dominates this book is extremely indicative of this time period in general. During the high and the late Middle Ages the crusades were taking place, in which many Christians were motivated to attempt to reclaim the territory that had fallen into the hands of infidels. Chaucer's work was partly inspired by the fact this type of sentiment as the basic premise is that a motley assortment of Christians are going on a religious pilgrimage and decide to pass…

These descriptions have indeed demonstrated that the Lawyer is the bastion of justice for his society. However, not even halfway through the Narrator's description of this interesting character, the narrative is already interspersed with negative images of the Lawyer as a corrupt and insincere professional in his society.
The portrait that Chaucer draws up in the Lawyer's tale is reflected in the following lines of narrative in the Tales: "He took large fees...So great a purchase was never known...Belted in silken sash, with little bars, but of his dress no more particulars." In this passage, Chaucer, through the Narrator of the Tales, offer a comic portrait of the Lawyer as a corrupt individual, as explicated in the line "So great a purchase was never known." It is also evident that the Narrator centers on the Lawyer's physical appearance in order to create the impression that despite his gallant and respectable…

Malone dies just as he finally does away with the alternate identities of his storytelling, such that he can be seen as 'becoming Malone' at the same moment of Malone's death, so that his death forces the reader to recall the beginning of the story and the Malone already in existence there, restarting the narrative loop.
In effect, Malone's storytelling creates an infinitely looping continuity that diminishes the finality of his death, because 'although the physical body will eventually die, we cannot be sure that consciousness discontinues,' and in fact, the novel seems to suggest that Malone's consciousness never ultimately discontinues, but rather briefly goes dark before being reactivated once again at the beginning of the novel (hite, 2009, 45). The tragedy, of course, is that Malone is entirely unequipped to deal with this kind of torturous immortality, so his mind is frayed and confused, with different characters and moments…

No other hero is so frequently mentioned. He is the only person so important that triads are enlarged into tetrads to fit him in. (Ashe 45)
The account that did the most to establish Arthur as a prominent historical figure was the History of the Kings of Britain written in 1135 by Geoffrey of Monmouth, a elsh monk, and the book provides a history of the earliest kings of Britain, some 99 in all, including King Coel, known to us today from the nursery rhyme as Old King Cole. About one-fifth of the book is devoted to Arthur, and Geoffrey provides the first organized version of the story. Many of the elements that would be part of the later tradition were missing, however. Arthur's court is not at Camelot but at a place called Caerlon-on-Usk, or City of Legions. Geoffrey contributed at least three new elements to the existing histories…

Melbourne Cup is not a specifically or inherently gendered event, the special weekend will entail extra activities that must be planned, coordinated, and executed with gender issues in mind. This year's Melbourne Cup carnival celebration is being marketed towards females in overt and covert ways: such as by the use of hot pink typeface and a floral background plus a prominently featured section on style and fashion that uses a female model for the menu item (Melbourne Cup Carnival 2011). Yet it is precisely the gender segregation of the races from the non-race activities that bring gender issues to the forefront. In this critical analysis of the Melbourne Cup main event, the Melbourne Cup carnival, and the non-Cup-related recreational activities scheduled before and during the event, I will draw upon the following three disciplines: gender studies, marketing, and the politics of socio-economic class.
From a gender studies perspective, horse racing…