Essays on Chaucer

The European renaissance was a time for people to rediscover philosophies from the Greek and Roman culture. These influences changed aspects to the English literature for the better. During the medieval times, dramas consisted of focusing on religious themes but with the rebirth the renaissance brought tragedies and comedies became the norm for stories and plays. Authors, such as William Shakespeare and Chaucer, began creating works that the held their beliefs on what the world and life were like. This paved the way for many other authors to base their literary works off of what they believed instead of ...

In the Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath is a character designed to be more like the modern woman. Unlike what is expected of other women to behave at the time (which is to be submissive and obedient to their husbands, to have only one husband, to turn to nunnery when widowed, and to be virginal and pure), the Wife of Bath actively uses sex as a tool to get what she wishes. She demands complete sovereignty from her multiple husbands, and the freedom to do as she wishes in any aspect of her life. Geoffrey Chaucer designed the ...

English literature spanning various centuries reveals idiosyncratic trends and ideals of British history, which allows students and scholars to examine and assess successive literary periods. Indeed, literature can be situated within its historical context because literature cannot be separated from the context in which it as written. Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales underscores societal concerns with regards to corruption. Moreover, it provides a window into the historical ideals with regards to gender and how women were expected to behave and comport themselves according to their class. In a similar fashion, Beowulf, a classic in old English literature, reflects the ...

Annotated Bibliography

Boccaccio, Giovanni and John Payne (Trans.). The Decameron. New York: Walter Black Inc., n.d. Kindle. Boccaccio is considered as Chaucer’s counterpart in Italy. The book is a compilation of tales like The Canterbury Tales. He writes of the decadent side of women during the Medieval Age. Almost all of the 100 (Decameron) stories—10 stories for each of the 10 days—are about some illicit affair. Even nuns in a convent get involved with a man. The women in the stories seem to be mostly from the middle or upper class of Italian society. The stories are irreverent descriptions of ...

The Wife of Bath is undoubtedly one of the most interesting characters in the entire collection of Canterbury Tales. She is interesting not only to the readers, but also to the writer himself, Geoffrey Chaucer. The Wife of Bath is the only character to have a prologue longer than their tale. The wife of bath begins by saying that what she is about to say is all meant for entertainment and that no one should take offence. Throughout her tale, she consistently and repeatedly reveals that she is a sly and crafty liar. The reader may question the authenticity of her ...

Derek Pearsall’s essay “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: An Essay in Enigma” is part of The Chaucer Review’s commemorative issue celebrating the work of C. David Benson as he approaches the age of retirement. Pearsall hearkens back to his master’s thesis days when he writes about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; he begins by noting that even though he is quite familiar with the plot of this tale, to the point where he can tell a slightly less salacious version of the tale to his children and grandchildren. However, he also points out that ...

Batt, Catherine. "'Sir Gawain And The Green Knight' And The Idea Of Righteousness." Modern Language Review 88.4 (1993): 937-938. Print.

Catherine Batt’s argument is to agree with scholar Gerald Morgan that a proper reading of mediaeval texts requires understanding the mind of the person or people that created it. There are particular fourteenth-century ideas emphasized in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, such as the pentangle, the symbolism of which must be heavily considered when reading the poem. In other words, modern readers should not apply modern views to the poem, such as views about ...

As with many of the writings of its time, Chaucer resorts to bawdy humor in The Miller’s Tale. It works in The Canterbury Tales, because as the second tale told, it works to set the rhythm and tone for the rest of the story. There is little doubt that Chaucer reaches for the lowest common denominator to draw laughs. The premise of Miller’s Tale is that two separate men, Nicholas and Absolom, have taken a liking to Alison, the carpenter’s wife. But instead of focusing on any type of emotional attachment, the men’s wants are ...

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is one of the most famous works not only of the 14th century English literature but of the history of Literature in general. It is the literary creation which is of high importance to the studies of literary criticism as its author managed to create a piece of art which at his time could be understood by all social classes. Actually it was Chaucer’s main aim and we should admit that he did succeed. All the tales from the above mentioned cycle are quite original and interesting but we will try to analyze a ...

The Canterbury tales is a collection of stories which were written in the Middle English at the end of the 14th Century by Geoffrey Chaucer. Most of the tales are in verses though some of them are also in prose form. The Canterbury stories were part of the story telling contest by a small group of pilgrims who travelled together on a journey from Southwark to Saint Thomas Becket where their shrine was located. Chaucer used the tales and the descriptions of his characters to paint a very critical and ironic paint of the English Community at the time in particular the church ...

Literature

Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer Introduction: Geoffrey Chaucer had skillfully adapted the methodology of frame within frame story telling was a process of storytelling that had only begun to evolve during those times. This method involved the putting together of stories of a number of people. In the main story there is the gripping tale of a group of pilgrims who have taken on the perilous journey together to a pilgrimage to Canterbury. Among all the story tellers there are a wide variety among which some are of noble birth and a large number who are mere common folk. The more interesting ...

Aristotle is considered to be on one of the greatest philosophers that ever lived. He is referred to as the teacher of metaphysics ethics and logic. One of the most famous medieval fable stories concerning this great philosopher is titled “Phyllis et Aristotle” which when translated means Aristotle and Phyllis. This story is about how the great Aristotle, at the time living at the residence of one of his greatest disciples, Alexander the Great seeks to separate the powerful ruler from his wife, Phyllis whom Aristotle considered to be absorbing all his energy and time leading him to neglecting ...

Since ancient times, heroic motives have been often depicted and represented in poems. It is a never-ending topic that brings up eternal questions of loyalty, dedication and moral. It is interesting how we find the reflection of love in most of the heroic poems. It may be the love to the land or country, maybe the love to the woman, as well. In both, “The Knight’s Tale” and The Iliad we find heroic ideas that certainly have something in common. Speaking of the first story it is important to say, that Theseus is the first hero shown, demonstrating ...

There are two significant tales, Miller’s and Wife of Bath’s that stand out from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer for astonishing depiction of eternal problems of love, marriage and sex. The issues of love affairs have always excited people’s minds and hearts both now and always. Chaucer touches upon the majority of the important questions connected with marriage, reveals lustful and sly nature of the dishonest people. Both tales describe liberal attitude and disregard towards marriage and sex. Firstly, it should be said that in both tales the liberal attitude and disrespect towards the ...

Chaucer’s, “The Miller’s Tale” is a classic comedic piece that tells a remarkable story. However, the language in the original story can be discouraging to the modern reader. Therefore the writer hopes to present the tale in a modernized version that will help individuals to better understand the story without losing the true meaning of the story. In addition, there is the hope that readers of all ages will be able to understand the modernized version of the story. The writer hopes to tell the legend and life of the carpenter and his wife. After the knight told his story, ...

The Battle between the Sexes in the middle Ages

1.0 The battle of sexes which started out in the Middle Ages favored men greatly when compared to women. However, women on their part did not take this subject silently. These paper aims at showing how men and women have perceived women in writing in the medieval ages and even today. The discussion follows preempted questions according to their numbering in the assignment. 2.0 During the medieval times, male writers portrayed women in less than positive lights, with their perceived character and structural flaws exaggerated for the reader. This meant that women were often, presented in less ...

Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” is a selection of stories that pilgrims use to tell stories that occurred as they traveled to a holy shrine in Canterbury. At first reading, “The Miller’s Tale” and “The Knight’s Tale” appear inconsistent and incomparable. Nevertheless, a closer reading of the two stories shows that the both stories are similar. The elements in the “The Miller’s Tale” reflects those in “The Knight’s Tale”. Arguably, the characters’ identities are different, yet the romance in both tales remains the same to an extent. In essence, the characters are basically the same in the two ...

Module

Classrooms that have employed best practices in teaching are easily detectable. Immediately when you enter the learning space you will observe things like; project materials and books, focused and engaged students in their work, collaborative and authentic tasks used by the teacher to place students at the centre of the learning process, clustered sitting arrangements varied with multi-instructional areas, classrooms are activity based spaces as opposed to ‘sit and get lectures' spaces, students will be eager to enlist visitors into their tasks and teachers are engaged with various groups and there will be a joyful feeling of informed movement, industrious ...

Introduction

The Canterbury tales are a compilation of 20 stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer. The tales cover different themes written in the Middle English language of the 14th century. Most of the tales were written in parts. The manner in which Geoffrey Chaucer describes the characters as well as the incorporation of elements such as sarcasm and irony portrays a critic of the English society, specifically the church (Ackroyd, Peter & Chaucer 2). This essay explores two of the Canterbury tales: “The Clerks Tale” and “The Franklin’s Tale”. The aim of the essay is to provide the similarities and the differences between ...

In the study conducted by Theodore I. Silar, he focused on the connection of land law and the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, specifically the Canterbury tales. This was due to the reason that landholding litigation was a common occurrence in the late feudalism, which prompted the nobility and gentry to learn land law either in school or in court. Because of this, medieval literature was pervaded with feudal-legal terminologies. Another purpose of the study was to provide further understanding of the land law, which was a vital part of the medieval system of the English law. He discussed that land law ...

Many of the stories in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales are bawdy or tragic tales of love in some form; characters are always falling in love, getting married, being tricked into getting married, sleeping with married people, and many other permutations of that central theme. In The Canterbury Tales the storytellers seem to focus on love and marriage but their perception of love and marriage seems to be different. For the most part, while love is the domain of men (n terms of the pursuit of amorous or courtly love), marriage is the domain of women (as they use ...

Themes are elements that give more meaning and direction to a literary piece. In the story “The Canterbury Tales”, several themes emerged and all of these brought more meaning to the legendary masterpiece. Geoffrey Chaucer highlighted the significance of women in the community. This is evident in the way Chaucer discovers the possible subtleties of marriage between a man and a woman. During the middle Ages, feminism was not as emphasized as it is now; nonetheless, equality for women were not at all uncommon. As a whole, there is also a sense of religiosity that existed in the story especially during a pilgrimage; however, ...

Philosophy

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer has an outstanding collision of themes that are immaculately portrayed in the different tales by the pilgrims on their way to the Saint Thomas Becket’s Shrine. These range from radical themes on feminism and anti-feminism, religion, fables, fiction and fabliaux, sex and adultery, tellers as dramatic voices and words and language in a growing list of themes. In his collection, Chaucer joins the pilgrims as an evident narrator as he tries to fit into the shoes of his characters to attempt to voice their views on a variety of themes in the Medieval English. ...

Global Restructuring and the Impact on Women in the Service Industry

The role of women in the service industry exemplifies the struggle they undergo, both physically and mentally, in order to satisfy and comply with their employer’s wishes. In the process, they are degraded, rebuked, discriminated, paid less, made to work more, and dispensed with. Toward the end of the twentieth century, and the beginning of the twenty-first century, the world witnessed a surge in social-economic and socio-political changes that instigated changes to challenge and compete in a globalized world. Women were recognized for their contribution to science & technology, arts and humanities. Inequality gave way to equality and men and women ...

- Literature produced in early Old English, a Germanic language with a Celtic imagination, expressed in Arthurian legend - Legends of knights and honor - Chivalric code - Origin - How chivalric code was passed on - Definition Dark Ages or commonly known as the ‘Middle Ages’ or the medieval era. This period is called ‘middle’ because it was midway between the end of the Holy Roman Empire in the fifth century and the beginning of Renaissance in the fourteenth century. However, this period in history does not have precise dates and most of the ...

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales have been narrated in almost similar cultural times where a man was a symbol of authority whiles a woman a subject to a man. Amidst such cultural restrictions, there are women who showed extraordinary characters and managed to overcome the challenges that came with a male dominated society. Feminism has been described differently in the tales yet what mattered I show they responded to the challenges that they faced. There are those who ultimately became victims yet there are also those who used their feminism to win the hearts of men around them and hence gaining favour. In this paper, we shall ...

Research paper

Exploring identity of national cultures and their interaction has recently attracted the interest of scientists in various fields. Although the study of the features of different cultures is very high , however the impact and breaking borrowed national and cultural realities (such as literary works of art ) on a national- cultural soil can not attract special attention of the researcher. Possibility or impossibility of transferring foreign cultural ideas and its embodiment in a different region with its own, unique to this region national features , remains very challenging and interesting problem. The present study was to review and comparative characterization of " The ...

Geoffrey Chaucer is certainly known to be someone who knew how to write a good story and especially in the Nunn Priests Tale and other similar recounts he espouses on the subject of love quite often. However he tended to see love rather lightly and in some cases, there is also an element of bawdiness and eroticism in his works especially where women are concerned. The Parliament of Fools is also an important work in the Chaucer canon as it shows how he would be treating politicians who are of the ilk full of stupidity. This compares well with ...

. The poem could be seen to be a description of the endless conflict between nature and chivalry. Other analysts have described the poem as a critique of the values of Christianity where the zeal to eliminate all traces of paganism leaves the court of King Arthur without any semblance of humanity. The manner in which the Knights are dressed is also important demonstrating the way the girdle is used since this is the only element of clothing which is discussed at length in the poem. This girdle returns as a leitmotif several times especially when one has to consider that it reappears ...

The Canterbury tales is an anthology of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer. The stories are written in verse and some in prose and are told by a group of pilgrims on their way to Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. They were contesting for a prize with the stories they tell. The prize of the winner was a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their way back. They stopped at the Tabard Inn where they decided to tell stories on their way to Canterbury. The host of the Inn decided that, each pilgrim was ...

The Pardoner Tale is among the tales of The Canterbury Tales. The Canterbury tales were written by Geoffrey Chaucer. The Pardoner is given initiated by the Host’s longing to have something that is positive following the depressing story. The Pardoner prompts his prologue to show up the different evils associated with tricking people. After the evil deeds to the people he goes ahead and brings into context a moral tale. Originating from the Pardoner’s prologue and story, he is displayed as the most evil of the pilgrims. However, the pardoner is the most modern and intriguing character. Among ...

Canterbury Tales

Introduction The Canterbury tales are a set of short stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in Middle English by the end of the 14th century. The Canterbury tales are a set of stories told in a pilgrimage to the pilgrims. This makes them very interesting as the analysis of each of the characters helps explore the culture and way of life in the 14th century. It also gives an insight into the feelings, emotions and social structure of the life of the English in the 14th century (Linne R. Mooney, 2006).

Character analysis

The four characters chosen for analysis include the knight, the wife ...

The General Prologue is the first and most important part of the Canterbury tales. It establishes the framework of the entire stories in the Canterbury tales collections. Chaucer is the narrator in the prologue and introduces the readers to the travelers going to the pilgrimage to Canterbury. The prologue introduces the characters from the major characters to the minor ones describing their traits in details. Furthermore, the characters are described one by one in organized manner and how they are related to each other with their duties. Chaucer First introduces the Knight, his son the Squire and their ...

Introduction

Feminism is a social and political movement aimed at establishing equality for women in the society (Klein 12). From the feminist perspective, the Canterbury Tales expresses some critics of Ruth Evans and Lesley Johnson who argued that it is hard to ignore the difference between how people viewed women in the past and today. In addition, males who mostly advocate for anti-feminism composed most stories found in the Caterbury Tales. This essay has deeply touches on the bad and good attributes assigned to women in the Canterbury Tales. Some of the bad attributed discussed included denial of rights to enter ...

__ July 2013

Since time immemorial, the issue of gender has been subject to much debate. Literature captures gender perceptions of people in the past and the widespread sentiments of gender roles and equality back then. More often than not, women and men were boxed into the same set of roles in many classical literary pieces. Women were always portrayed as frail, gentle, submissive and passive. They obeyed their husbands and fathers without question. Men in classic literature always took on roles that characterized them as brave, strong, aggressive and initiator. Decision-making was their turf and they occupied positions of ...

Question1

The Knight’s Tale is one of the books in Geoffrey Chaucer’s story collection, The Canterbury Tales. The story is about two knights who are attracted to the same woman. The woman is a princess named Emily. Because the two knights had sworn to always support one another in all their endeavors, their attraction towards the same woman does not definitely go well. Chivalry was actually a system of duties, behaviors and rituals that every knight ought to follow if he desired to behave honorably. Religious devotion was one of the most adhered to virtue of chivalry by the knights. ...

Discuss the fourteenth century as a period of transition from the medieval to early modern culture (Renaissance). Include historical events, literature, and art.

Introduction:

The 14th century was an extremely important phase in the history of art and culture since it brought about major historical changes both in the way society changed but also in the way which art was perceived and how this was distributed amongst the population in general. Several events also affected the development of the general population but most notably one has to list The Black Death, the Hundred Years War as well as the decline of ...

- Robertson, D.W. Jr. "Why the Devil Wears Green". Modern Language Notes. (November 1954) 69.7 pages: 470–472.

Poets like Chaucer have alluded to the devil as a green being. Indeed, one of the cardinal sins- greed, and another, envy have often been referred to as “green”. The referred to work seems to agree with this, and hence can be seen as supporting the view that the color is in fact a symbol of the devil and hence of sin.

- Randall, Dale B. J. "Was the Green Knight a Fiend?" Studies in Philology 57.3 (1960). 479-91. Reprinted in ...

Question D

Chaucer uses The Canterbury Tales to mock the society of the Medieval Era. The miller’s tale is crude and is a drunk and his tale is insulting to his company, especially when he does not acknowledge his rank and speaks out of turn. Throughout time the English society has always acknowledge status; it is everything England and a true English know his or her class in society and abides by it. Chaucer uses the miller to defy the ranking in the British society. Not only does he speak out of turn but his tale is crass. Despite the crudeness ...

Hierarchy and social status are two of the major aspects of the Middle Ages, and two of the major themes embodied in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. In fact, what makes The Canterbury Tales is such an outstanding literary work is that Chaucer as depicted an extensive range of characters and occupations from the 14th century. The Canterbury Tales, of course, contains characters of both genders, from the various prominent social classes of the time, from the common to the aristocrat, the poor to the wealthy, the secular to the saintly, etc., and focuses on their interactions and relationships. ...

During Chaucer’s time women were not thought of as important human being, they were just people who were put on the earth to gratify men. They did not have a voice and Chaucer uses “The Wife of Bath” as a satire to challenge the unfairness of this society. The tale begins with the wife of Bath telling her story with pride of the five men she has married. In her culture she knows that it is the norm that women like her should be shun; and even if a woman dares to behave as she does she would keep herself ...

Introduction.

The element of common core was established and implemented in 2009 by the state governors and education administrators. The standards ruling the introduction of common core in institutions of learning was to make sure that all learners across the defined states learned the same concepts. Initially every state had its own educational standards and, as a result, learning varied in different states. The introduction of common core in the institutions assisted in collaboration and coordination of education syllabuses and in assessing performance of students equally among the states. It is also a measure of pooling resources and cutting down on educational ...

PART-I: CHARACTER SKETCH OF “THE WIFE OF BATH”

In the Prologue to The Wife of Bath Tale, we come across a woman, who in medieval times was regarded as a “wicked Woman” because she had married five times. She gives an account of her five marriages out of which three husbands were good and two were bad. She has been presented as a woman who does not care about what the world says about her character. She lives life on her own rules and if someone criticizes her on her five marriages she rebukes by saying that the holy figures like Jacob and Abraham married so many times so why ...

Introduction

It is a million dollar question. What makes a good piece of literature? What makes a memorable piece of music? The question applies to every medium of art in factwhat makes the work of a human worth seeing, worth reading, listening, feeling or watching, studying. And the answer too is simple enough. Any work of art that conveys an idea in its purity and freshness no matter where the looking glass is aimed at, from whichever perspective, is worthy of note. Literature can transmit ideas from ages past, to demographics wide, mould itself into fashions and traditions and yet mean something different to ...

What is love? Explain Chaucer? s attitude toward love. Although we have read only a few of his works so far, we have read several substantial pieces, enough to take a stab at this important and that you may now tackle this central and recurring theme in Chaucer’ s works. You’ll want to look at The Parlement of Foules, of course, and compare it to the treatment of love in The Canterbury Tales we have read so far, bearing in mind Chaucer’ s love for irony (which may appear in any of his works) and the possible interference that Chaucer’ ...

The poem entitled Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written by an anonymous individual – thought to be a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer – in the fourteenth century (Pace University). Its narrative is a moral one and discusses the importance of remaining honourable and chivalrous. Sir Gawain is a knight of King Arthur’s rule and as such, he always attempts to behave in a brave and noble fashion. His encounter with the Green Knight tests this as he must ward off his friend’s beautiful wife’s sexual advances, and honestly bestow his day’s awards upon his friend, as well as honourably ...

Chaucer’s attitude to the Church was ambivalent: it depended on the individual employed by the church. For example, in The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, he displays enormous admiration for the piety and Christian lifestyle of the poor Parson who will do anything for his parishioners. This character is an exception, however. In his portraits of the Monk, the Prioress and the Friar, Chaucer mocks them for their failure to lead a Christian lifestyle, fitting to their role in society. The monk is harmless enough, but is more interested in hunting than in doing God’s work; the ...

Dante’s Inferno presents the reader with a series of ‘circles’ that depict different layers of hell – each designed for a different sort of sinner. These circles are designed to hold and punish particular types of people for eternity. In this essay, I will choose three literary characters and discuss which circle of Dante’s hell is pertinent to them. The characters I have chosen are Okonkwo from Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, who I believe belongs in the first layer of Dante’s hell – ‘limbo’ – because he does not accept Christ as his personal saviour and, whilst he is ...

The great plague that devastated England in the mid-14th century wiped out entire villages and filled the streets of London with cartloads of bloated corpses. The relevant statistics are difficult to gauge accurately, but estimates are that from a population of about 6 million people in 1300, as many as four million are thought to have died from the outbreak of bubonic plague that hit England in the 1340s (Borsch, 2005). All of Europe was similarly affected, with as much as 45 percent of the continent’s population dying from the Black Death in less than a decade (Borsch). There were ...

The novel Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s stone is one of the interesting novels in the world. The writer of the novel widely explained a story. Several novels have different perspective on the content of the novel. The popularity of the novel raises concern especially by religious leaders on whether the novel is actually appropriate for use by children.

Although the harry potter’s series have all the qualities of a book that capture the interest of many it should not be generalized as best or worst. It is therefore the goal of this work to analyze various views from ...

Chaucer was writing at a time when English life and society were dominated by the Church, and it is no surprise that many of the pilgrims described in The General Prologue were employed by the Church in some capacity or that Chaucer defines them and reacts to them according to their religious beliefs and practices. The description of the pilgrims starts with the Knight – the person with the highest social status. The knight is one of Chaucer’s most admired pilgrims – but not because of this social status. The reader is expected to admire the knight because of his ...

The question of whether the narrator, in Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath is reliable or not, can be called due to the narrator and the Wife herself, being one and the same voice. The Wife of Bath and the prologue are amongst Chaucer’s most famous tales: the prologue tells the tale of ‘Alyson’ (or ‘Alys’) who claims to be an expert on marriage, having been married five times: “For, masters since I was twelve years of age … Oh husbands at church door have I had five.” (Chaucer) The ‘bragging’ tone of the narrator instantly calls into question ...

Based on your reading of The General Prologue, what do you believe are some of the predominant aspects of English society that Chaucer intends to write about in The Canterbury Tales? Chaucer’s opening 12 lines are a celebration of spring and new life, so we might expect the Tales which follow to show the variety and sheer vitality of different human experiences.

Am important aspect of English society at the time was the class system and this is shown in The General Prologue. Chaucer begins his descriptions of his fellow pilgrims with a description of the Knight (becauae he ...