Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Emergence of standard english between 15th and 17th centuries
Chaucer's characterization
Chaucer's prologue
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Cheeky Chaucer “An Analysis of Chaucer's Characters” Chaucer's Prologue is an introduction to the characters that he will soon be talking about in his short stories. It was written to combat the Italian Buchartio, and write his own version to achieve fame. The reason that the Italian version became so popular is because of how it was written in the Italian of the street people, in other words, it could be understood by the whole of Italy, not just the rich. Chaucer wanted to do the same thing, but came to halt when he was deciding what language to write it in, he thought of Russian and other languages, but soon decided on English. This is extremely important because it is the first time that English has ever been written down, usually it is just a spoken language with no written form. This is why it was so important to the English language that he wrote it specifically in English. Giving the language a written form, sort of. It was a mixture of German of the east and native language from the Anglo Saxons. It is difficult to read, because this is the first time English has been written down, so there wasn’t any set way to spell words, and they were spelled how they sounded phonetically.”Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of March Hath Perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich liquor” (Page 97 Lines 1-3). Typically, this meant that the same word was spelled fifty different ways throughout the entire Prologue. Though it is hard to read it is still an excellent story, and has very depth in its characters, which are fully developed and give further detail into the story and make it one of the best stories in English there is today. Initially, my first favorite character in Chaucer’s Prologue was... ... middle of paper ... ...that when that song was sung he’d have to preach and tune his honey-tongue And (well he could) win silver from the crowd”(Page 690-696 & 731-733) this is exactly how people are today only doing things for themselves, not for the others around them. This is one of the things that Chaucer stresses throughout his stories, that greed and other selfish acts only will lead to the destruction of humankind. Characters from Chaucer’s Prologue are very well developed and full fledged characters, he goes very far into the depth of the character which only enhances his story, making it one of the highest regarded in the English language. Whether it be the characters, of the Pardoner, the Nun, or the rich Monk, it all expresses things of people that need to be changed in society, which I agree wholeheartedly with. Works Cited Prentice Hall Literature Vol. 1 Page 90-120
In “The Pardoner’s Tale,” Geoffrey Chaucer masterfully frames an informal homily. Through the use of verbal and situational irony, Chaucer is able to accentuate the moral characteristics of the Pardoner. The essence of the story is exemplified by the blatant discrepancy between the character of the storyteller and the message of his story. By analyzing this contrast, the reader can place himself in the mind of the Pardoner in order to account for his psychology.
...l, each tale within Chaucer’s Canterbury Tale relates to satire, in which he is intending to reach is audience. To begin, in the general prologue there are many examples, of satire that are displayed. Secondly, the Pardoners tale also has excess amounts of irony and satire in it. Lastly, the Wife of Baths prologue is the one that most people get offended by. Satire can be used in a good way or a bad way, it just depends on how you apply it. In the way that Chaucer applied it he wanted to make a lot of people mad and he accomplished just that. All in all, Chaucer did an excellent job when it came to using satire to reach his intended audience. Chaucer’s General Prologue is a masterpiece of satire due in large part to his frequent and often viciously funny use of verbal irony. Henry Kewt says here, that he is the king of irony, when it comes to The Canterbury Tale.
...s a dictionary of 14th century English peopleIn this majestic piece of Literature, Chaucer uses physiognomy and striating to express his suggestion, dislike and admiration to the Church. He thinks Church has been polluted by people’s own greed and lost its original faith. He doesn’t like the Churchmen because they are nothing like their spiritual leader Jesus and don’t practice their religion in life. But he admires how people are well-educated in Church though these educations don’t do much in building of their moral standards. Today, more people think that indeed Canterbury Tale is a historical critique against the society during Chaucer’s time. But no matter how people define it, its sparkling dialogue, acute rendering of characters, warm humor and sympathetic understanding of Church, society and human nature will always shine in the universe of literature.
One reason why he would add a talk show host, is because many times they make things up just to cause controversy. A lot of the hosts speak in a really fast manner, and try to be comical, even though they know they are hurting people’s feelings and leaving an impression stating that their views may not be verifiable. They continually want to get the people to commit their attention so that their viewers will increase. Chaucer would more than likely criticize them because they are dishonest about more topics than people will ever realize. Talk show hosts dress in a very formal way a majority of the time. They wear either business dresses, or a nice button up shirt. You could infer that they dress like they are very wealthy people. Chaucer would be very indignant at how they make people believe things that aren’t actually true. That hints to why he would probably write about them being
First off, The General Prologue is all about introducing the characters who tell the tales on the way to Canterbury. There are twenty some characters who tell stories, but of those, only two we can read about because of the content. Even though The General Prologue is mainly introducing of the characters, Chaucer still finds a way to use satire. One of the characters he explains is the Friar. The Friar is a priest for the church; he is supposed to be a role model for the people of England, but he is the opposite. “There was a Friar, a wanton one and merry a limiter, a very festive fellow. In all Four Orders there was none so mellow, so glib with gallant phrase and well turned speech. He’d fixed up many a marriage, giving each of his young women what he could afford her.” Even though he was a high and mighty priest, he would go out and get young girls pregnant ...
...ck to be caused by greed, lust, natural habit of testing something out, and all other human nature shown in the tales. Chaucer used the tales to symbolize the natural behaviors that people have that is similar within all people. Some tales were used to symbolize love over relationships and some were even to hide Chaucer’s true thoughts as if it were the ‘character’s’ ideas. Using the different perspectives of each character, Chaucer was able to show the readers all the kinds of corruptions that can occur with the natural habits. He wanted to regenerate the ideas of using Middle English within writing and show his new style of using allegory to express the nature of humans. Again, using different character’s to lead a tale was another way for Chaucer to reveal his beliefs. He wrote about similar traits that people have that can lead to bad behaviors and corruptions.
In The General Prologue, Chaucer’s narrator depicts a number of pilgrimages who represent different estates: the chivalrous and righteous Knight, the fashionable young Squire in the military estate; the graceful and merciful Prioresse, the rich Monk who breaks down the tradition, the slick Friar in the clergy estate; the indebted Merchant, the knowledgeable Clerk in the professional estate. That group of people reflects the contemporary situation of the whole English society. Chaucer uses irony as a primarily rhetorical device to reveal the corruption of those people. Squire, Prioresse and Clerk are three typical figures in the poem.
The monk receives some scathing sarcasm in Chaucer’s judgment of his new world ways and the garments he wears “With fur of grey, the finest in the land; Also, to fasten hood beneath his chin, He had of good wrought gold a curious pin: A love-knot in the larger end there was.” (194-197, Chaucer). The Friar is described as being full of gossip and willing to accept money to absolve sins, quite the opposite of what a servant of God should be like. Chaucer further describes the friar as being a frequenter of bars and intimate in his knowledge of bar maids and nobles alike. The friar seems to be the character that Chaucer dislikes the most, he describes him as everything he should not be based on his profession. The Pardoner as well seems to draw special attention from Chaucer who describes him as a man selling falsities in the hopes of turning a profit “But with these relics, when he came upon Some simple parson, then this paragon In that one day more money stood to gain Than the poor dupe in two months could attain.” (703-706, Chaucer). Chaucer’s description of the pardoner paints the image of a somewhat “sleazy” individual “This pardoner had hair as yellow as wax, But lank it hung as does a strike of flax; In wisps hung down such locks as he 'd on head, And with them he his shoulders overspread; But thin they dropped, and stringy, one by one.” (677-681,
My presentation is based an article titled The Inhibited and the Uninhibited: Ironic Structure in the Miller’s Tale it s written by Earle Birney. The literary theme that Birney is discussing in his essay is structural irony. Structural irony is basically a series of ironic events and instances that finally build up to create a climax. The events and the climax the Birney chooses to focus his essay on are the events that lead towards the end when almost each character suffers an ironic event:
It is not hard to apply Chaucer's description of the greedy doctor to today's medical system, nor is it difficult to find modern-day people with equivalent personalities to those of many of Chaucer's other characters. However, it is the institutions of his time as well as their flaws and hypocrisies that Chaucer is most critical of; he uses the personalities of his characters primarily to highlight those flaws. The two institutions that he is most critical of have lost much, if not all, of their influence; in many instances, the Church has only slight hold on the lives and attitudes of the people as a whole, and the strict feudal system has entirely disappeared. Few institutions today are as clearly visible and universally influential as those two forces were in the Middle Ages, so, if Chaucer were writing his tales today, he would most likely turn to the hypocritical attitudes of the general populace and the idiosyncracies of our daily lives. He gives some emphasis to these in the Tales (for example, he mentions the prioress's ladylike compassion for even the smallest creature in the Prologue, but has her tell an anti-Semitic tale later), but, in today's American culture, he would be most likely to criticize businessmen, middle-class parents, and the demand formust instantaneous gratification.
Geoffrey Chaucer is renowned as one of the most prominent and innovative writers in the history of the English language. He was born in London to a thriving merchant family, gaining an opportunity for education in elite schools. Chaucer learned French, the language of wine trade, while working for his father; whom served him to explore and pursue his love of poetry from a young age (Bleiberg). Over the course of his maturity, he developed remarkable skills to write his own first poems in French. With his family connections within the royal court, Chaucer served under the royal service, while obtaining valuable knowledge by relentlessly reading and analyzing Italian literature and by immersing himself into French poetry (Hacht 2). Geoffrey Chaucer is a monumental writer whose compositions have contributed to evolution of the English Language and Literature by altering society’s view and dependence of the language, by transforming the English dialect and versification into a treasured vernacular, by exposing contemporary life through his poetry, and by the employment of his personality and sense of humor in his works.
The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is a masterpiece of satire due to the frequent use of verbal irony and insults towards the characters and their roles in society. A major source of Irony is Chaucer’s representation of the Church. He uses the Prioress, the Monk and the Friar, who are all supposed to be holy virtuous people to represent the Church. In his writing he suggests that they are actually corrupt, break their vows and in no way model the “holiness” of Christianity.
One of the conclusions that can form from the prologue is the higher the intellect one holds, the more capable they are to exploit someone beneath them. This mentality allows opportunities for those with a lack of moral to step in and control the community. Chaucer displays that the Parson is straightforward about the motivation for his behaviour, as he believes he must be a level of excellence that his parishioners should aspire to be "if gold rust, what shal iren do?" (502). From this, it is perceived that Chaucer has an intense amount of respect for him. The Parson is an important figure in the prologue because without his love and compassion, we would only have corrupted characters such as the Pardoner and the Friar; who give the reader a fallacious perspective of what those of religious status should be. Contrasting the comfortable lives other characters choose to hold, the Parson puts his personal comfort second and stays close to his parishioners in order to serve them to the highest quality he can
In General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales the character of Chaucer as the narrator serves as our guide to the action. Chaucer narrates as if he is in the moment himself, just meeting these pilgrims for the first time, and he makes the audience as though they are right there with him. At other times, though, Chaucer is a narrator who seems to know more than he ought to. For example, he tells us that, when the Shipman wins a fight, he murders the loser by throwing him overboard, or that the Reeve is stealing from his master. Are these really stories people would tell Chaucer when first meeting him? Chaucer also seems to know a suspiciously large amount about each pilgrim everyday lives. At these moments, Chaucer acts much more like an omniscient, or all-knowing, narrator, rather than one who's truly in the heat of the action. The reason for this choice could be that verisimilitude, or making things seem like real life, was not as important to a medieval author as it is to authors today. Instead, the narrator might choose to tell whatever he wants in order to better serve the purposes of characterization. The narrator makes it quite clear that he is also a character in his book. Chaucer creates an ‘alter ego’, a pilgrim called ‘Geoffrey’, who is the naïve narrator of the pilgrimage story, commenting on his fellow-pilgrims, and providing the links which join many of the Tales. This further extends Chaucer’s narrative possibilities, enabling him to open up another layer of opinion other than his own. In the General Prologue, the narrator presents himself as a gregarious and naïve character. Later on, the Host accuses him of being silent and sullen. Because the narrator writes down...
The Church is the first institution that Chaucer attacks using satire in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer wants to attack the church’s hypocrisy. Chaucer decides to create the character of the pardoner to prove his point. Cawthorne conveys, “His Canterbury Tales collects together 24 narratives with a General Prologue and an epilogue or Retraction.” Chaucer describes the character before telling their tale. The Pardoner is a man who steals from the poor. Chaucer says on page 127 line 77, “For though I am a wholly vicious man don’t think I can’t tell moral tales.” The pardoner knows what he does is wrong, but he continues to do it anyway.