The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

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Recommended: Short note on Geoffrey Chaucer

Chaucer’s Claim to Fame: Entrepreneurial Skills Seen in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Life Chaucer is not some unknown literary author who is known only by a dozen people in the English field. Besides Shakespeare, Chaucer is probably one of the most well-known contributors to English literature, if not the most well-known. His name is instantly recognizable, and many a high school student learned of him through the oftentimes-painful reading of his most famous work, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer’s work is an extremely important text in terms of the evolution of the English language; The Canterbury Tales set itself apart from other literary works at the time by being one of the first pieces of literature to be written in English instead of French, and its extreme popularity spurred the creations of even more English literature, allowing the language to regain its prominence and evolve into the English we know today (“Chaucer”; Kemmer). Today, it’s the most prominent example of Middle English work, and is studied not just for its literary worth but as evidence of what the language was like at the time. The Canterbury Tales and Chaucer’s importance are extreme, and the author enjoyed his fame during his life as well as long after, largely due to his abilities to make sound decisions, take risks, learned to learn as a professional, and transfer knowledge, skills that people even today can utilize to be successful. Chaucer’s life was well-documented for someone of the time, and sound decisions made early in his life allowed him to gain positions of importance at a relatively young age. Born in 1343 to a wine merchant father, there is indication that Chaucer’s family was upper class and very profitable (Polland). With his famil... ... middle of paper ... ...fer knowledge making the story enduringly popular and an important work of literature that is read to this day. The skills Chaucer possessed can be utilized by anyone then and now to become successful, and are in fact required to prosper in whatever discipline one plans to work in. Works Cited "Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales." Learning English: Timeline. The British Library Board, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. . Kemmer, Suzanne. "Chronology: History of English." Chronology: History of English. Rice University, 16 Sept. 2013. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. . Pollard, AW. "The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer." Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature. Anniina Jokinen, 3 Sept. 2006. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. .

Chaucer: an analysis of Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales"
964 Words | 2 Pages
In summation Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” is a story that mocks the church, shows us class separation and uses a language which may today be lost to us. But it has stood the test of time and showed us a pilgrimage of the century that to this day is still a good read.
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Corruption In The Canterbury Tales Essay
899 Words | 2 Pages
During the middle ages in England, 1154-1485, Henry II was king throughout the Renaissance; England established parish churches with their towers and had now retired from their late medieval form. Geoffrey Chaucer was born in the late 1300’s in London. He worked as a servant in the 1350’s making little to no money, just enough to pay for his own things. In 1366 Chaucer got married to a woman named Philippa. He started again and fulfilled diplomatic missions in Florence, Italy in 1370 through 1373. Chaucer had no time to write poetry, his true passion. His wife Philippa died in 1387 but he just kept working to pay debts.
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The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
4506 Words | 10 Pages
Are there many ways that themes and symbols can be shown in stories? Geoffrey Chaucer uses many different themes, symbols and styles in writing all of tales in The Canterbury Tales. By using these things, Geoffrey utilizes several specific symbols to illustrate various central themes. The characters in the tales make the same mistakes that ordinary people would make, and they receive the same or even worse consequences. One message that is portrayed is greed can make people to evil actions. An example of this is in "The Pardoner's Tale," when the three friends wind up killing each other because of their greed for the money. The second message that is displayed is that one should be careful when meeting strangers and to be cautious of the sincerity of false flattery from those that one does not know. For example, in "The Nun's Priest's Tale," Chanticleer falls for false flattery from Sir Russell Fox, but then he gets even with him when he to uses it to trick Sir Russell Fox. The third and last message that is shown is that reformation in a person can occur because of some type of punishment. This theme occurs in " The Wife of Bath," in that the lady that the knight has to marry is old and ugly, but because of this punishment of having to marry her, he eventually starts to like her. As shown with the three friends in "The Pardoner's Tale", greed stabs friends in the back and deceives them into doing wrong. There are two occasions in which the three friends plot against each other so one may receive more money than the others may. First of all, the three friends find a collection of gold coins under a tree, which they decide should be theirs and they choose to try to take it. They realize ...
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Chaucer
622 Words | 2 Pages
Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales embodies Middle Age ideas while incorporating his own values. He conveys these ideas and values by creating stories for twenty nine different men and women taking the religious pilgrimage to the Canterbury Cathedral. These characters include immoral clergymen, poor, yet virtuous farmers, an honorable knight and more. Chaucer’s value of honesty, humility, and hard work juxtaposes Middle age ideas such as religion, wealth and hierarchy.
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Comparing The Miller's Tale and The Reve's Tale
1187 Words | 3 Pages
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales: Riverside Chaucer Third Edition. Ed. Larry D. Benson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,1987. 3-328 Secondary
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Ambiguity and Understanding of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde
1727 Words | 4 Pages
Tatlock, John S.P., and Arthur G. Kennedy. A Concordance to the Complete Work of Geoffrey Chaucer. Gloucester: Peter Smith, 1963.
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Geoffrey Chaucer: A Near Contemporary of Malory
1055 Words | 3 Pages
Many websites contain information on the life and works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Most of these websites provide useful information, timelines, and miscellaneous facts about Chaucer. The Geoffrey Chaucer Page is a very helpful website that contains a brief note on Chaucer and provides a timeline of the important events which occurred during Chaucer’s lifetime . A better description of Chaucer and his works is given by Anniina Jokinen’s website, Luminarium . It is an organized source of data on Chaucer’s life and works, and has a medieval yule carol playing on the Chaucer homepage . Columbia’s Electronic Encyclopedia offers a less impressive description of Chaucer, and does not adequately analyze his works . Librarius offers excellent insight on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales . These four websites offer us a window into the life and works of Geoffrey Chaucer.
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Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
946 Words | 2 Pages
As we go through life each of us have been hurt by the sarcastic comments of others. The words a person speaks to us become very important and the true massage they contain is what we being to analyze. Similar to sarcasm being used in speech, satire has been used by authors for centuries to carry an underlying message in the works they produce. Satire is defined as “the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.” and is often used to disguise a real message. One shining example of satire in literature is Geoffrey Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales the General Prologue, The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale, and The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale. Chaucer uses his satire to call attention to the issues he sees in their society and the audience he chiefly addresses are those who are being fooled by their firm belief in the church and others with hypocritical intentions. In The General Prologue uses satire to describe the characters he will introduce, The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale is his attack on the catholic church, and The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale is his attack on the social pyramid especially where women are concerned. Each prologue or tale, Chaucer had cleverly designed with the use of satire to describe and ridicule issues he sees inside his own society.
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The Life and Success of Geoffrey Chaucer
906 Words | 2 Pages
Geoffrey Chaucer was a man with an interesting life to say the least. From imprisonment and royal service to being renowned as one of the greatest poets and writers of the 1300s. Chaucer's life had many mysteries to it as well such as what intrigued him to write The Canterbury Tales, one of his most famous works.
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Analysis of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
770 Words | 2 Pages
The Canterbury Tales is more than an amusing assortment of stories; it is an illustration of the society in which Geoffrey Chaucer lived. It portrays the culture and class system of the medieval ages in microcosm. Every strata of human life at the time were represented by the many characters whose tales are told. Each character’s basic human nature also plays a role in their stories, and each one has within them the strengths and weaknesses that make up all of humanity. Each character exemplifies their life and reputation through the stories they tell. The Pardoner uses his tale as a ploy to garner money. His tale embodies each deadly sin, and every reader can relate to his story and feel the guilt of his characters. The Wife of Bath’s tale expresses her own ideals in the way her character is given a second chance after committing a crime. The Franklin’s tale, because of its straightforwardness and honesty is a direct representation of the Franklin’s simple and joyful life. Each character tells a tale that is a suitable match to their personality. These characters’ tales represent prevalent themes of the middle ages, including greed, corruption of religious clergymen, violence, revenge, and social status. In Chaucer’s society, the traditional feudal system was losing its importance and the middle class began to emerge. The middle class characters within the Canterbury Tales, with their personal lives and interactions with members of differing social classes, gave an understanding of the growth of society, especially the rising middle class, during medieval times.
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Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales Proves How Historical Changes To The English Langue Can Cause Middle English Works Impossible To Read.
1096 Words | 3 Pages
Chaucer’s The Canterbury tales is truly a perfect example of how much the English language has changes. I instantly noticed the differences in rhythm, rhyme, sentence structure, vocabulary, and pronunciation, which directly reflects the historical changes over the last five or six hundred years. These changes are what now cause many people to struggle to quickly understand Middle English text. It is also why many people feel that Chancers work is impossible to read let alone understand.
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Canterbury Tales Essay - Sexuality in The Wife of Bath and the Pardoner
1709 Words | 4 Pages
Chaucer used controversies to create character. He wanted his characters to teach the readers something new about life. The Wife of Bath and the Pardoner demonstrate Chaucer’s way of creating characters based on the sexuality of the medieval period.
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The Characters in The Canterbury Tales
4004 Words | 9 Pages
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales: Riverside Chaucer Third Edition. Ed. Larry D. Benson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,1987. 3-328 Secondary
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Chaucer’s The Prioress
919 Words | 2 Pages
The Medieval period of The Canterbury Tales is held on April 11, 1387. The writing style of tales are literary skilled. “There is clear evidence in them that Chaucer was familiar with a considerable number of the great book of his time, and it is fairly well established that his writings show a steady increase in his literary skill” (Chaucer xxxvii). Chaucer is a writer of surprise. His stories not only come from plots of other writers but also from his lifetime. “There is of course no explaining where or how Chaucer acquired his ability as a great storyteller. However, the fact that he was a man of affairs as well as a man of books, a civil servant who dealt frequently with people from all walks of life, seem to have had great influence on the writing he did at night when he returned home from the office” (Chaucer xxxv). The Prioress tells an anti-Semitic tale, which reflects her position among the clergy.
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Geoffrey Chaucer
775 Words | 2 Pages
Known for his amazing Canterbury tales, Chaucer set the bar for writers in mid-evil times, and even now a day. Works Cited Bio. True Story. 2010. 25 February 2010 http://www.biography.com/articles/Geoffrey-Chaucer-9245691>. Geoffrey Chaucer.
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The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Chaucer: an analysis of Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales"

Corruption In The Canterbury Tales Essay