Human Nature and The Canterbury Tales
When Geoffrey Chaucer undertook the writing of The Canterbury Tales, he had a long road ahead of him. He intended to tell two stories from each of thirty pilgrims on the way to Canterbury, and then two more from each pilgrim on the way back from Canterbury. Of these, he completed only twenty-four. However, in these tales, Chaucer depicts both the pilgrims and their stories with striking realism. In "The Nun's Priest's Tale," "The Canon's Yeoman's Tale," "The Friar's Tale," "The Reeve's Tale," and "The Cleric's Tale," Chaucer demonstrates his remarkable insight into human nature. By comparing and contrasting these tales, one can see the universality of human nature as shown by Chaucer.
One human trait apparent in these selections is greed. Avarice drives the hearts of many men, whether they may be a common miller or a summoner or a supposedly religious canon, and Chaucer was aware of this. In the tales which contain these three characters, Chaucer depicts the greed of these characters. The Reeve tells his fellow pilgrims in his tale of a miller who "was a thief ... of corn and meal, and sly at that; his habit was to steal" (Chaucer 125). The summoner in "The Friar's Tale" "drew large profits to himself thereby," and as the devil observes of him in this tale, "You're out for wealth, acquired no matter how" (Chaucer 312, 315). The canon in Part 1 of "The Canon's Yeoman's Tale," as well as the Yeoman himself, had been driven by the goal of converting base metals into gold, and "though we never realized the wished conclusion we still went on raving in our illusion" (Chaucer 478). The second canon of which the Yeoman speaks is many times worse than his own canon and master, using h...
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.... Works Cited
Balliet, Gay L. "The Wife in Chaucer's Reeves's Tale: Siren of Sweet Vengeance." English Language Notes 28.1 (1990): 1-5.
Baylor, Jeffrey. "The Failure of the Intellect in Chaucer's Reeve's Tale." English Language Notes 28.1 (1990): 17-19.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Trans. Nevill Coghill. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1960.
Dictionary of Literary Biography: Old and Middle English. Ed. Jeffrey Helteman and Jerome Mitchell. Detroit: Sale Research, Inc., 1994.
Edden, Valerie. "Sacred and Secular in the Clerk's Tale." The Chaucer Review 26.4 (1992): 369-376.
Fehrenbacher, Richard W. "'A Yeerd Enclosed Al About': Literature and History in the Nun's Priest's Tale." The Chaucer Review 29.2 (1994): 134-148.
Whittock, Trevor. A Reading of The Canterbury Tales. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 1970.
Rome and the Statue of Liberty in New York are all proof of the extraordinary celebrated artwork human kind has been able to do throughout several years. Now, I want to discuss another celebrated work of art that was quite popular in the medieval period, Gothic architecture. During the medieval period Gothic architecture was considered to be luxurious because of its exaggerated height given to buildings. Not only did it give height, it also had plenty of other characteristics like the pointed arch, the vaulted ceiling, and of course, plenty of windows where light could pass right through. For statesman historian, Abbot Suger, light was important. He believed light was a connection from heaven to Earth. The more light, the better. It was because of Abbot Suger that the admired Gothic style began along with more of his art program from about 1125-1144 (Inventing the Exegetical Stained-Glass Window: Suger, Hugh, and a New Elite Art, par 1). However, not everyone agreed with this extravagant style. When Gothic cathedrals began being built, French abbot, Bernard de Clairvaux made a judgment of his own. He explained that he did not see the need to be so extravagant when the money going to those glittering churches can go to a better use, the poor. I agree with Bernard; there is no need to be stylish when adorning cathedrals if there are better uses for that money.
The Virtue of Men and Women in The Canterbury Tales People never change. In every town you will always be able to find the "rich guy," the "smart guy," the "thief," and the "chief." It has been that way since the first man was swindled out of his lunch. Throughout his life, Geoffrey Chaucer encountered every kind of person and brought them to life for us in "The Canterbury Tales," a collection of short stories written in the 1300's. There are tales of saints, tales of promiscuity, tales of fraud, and tales of love.
It was a don of a new age, belief, conviction, and devotion were felt throughout the period, and it was the time of the Romanesque churches. This was the time to view these boundless, monastic complexes, majestic cathedrals, and painted artifacts; the churches were beaming with activity and life. With the assembly of nuns, monks, and local town folks, these structures offered safety, a simpler way of life thru thought, simplicity, and reflection, which than sparked an overall energy and spirit throughout the air, it was the age of faith. In this period of time a massive building project had begun, within a short time span of 150 years, the construction of more than 1000 monasteries, and abbeys were built throughout Western Europe. Some of the main architecturally features and designs were the massive towers pointed heavenward and seemed as if they were touching the sky, it made the church visible from great distances and became the center point of the towns where they were built. The stone portals separated the nonspiritual, from the divine realm and dramatized the entrance door, as the gateway to salvation. The Gothic style of architecture, or Gothic cathedral began in the seventeenth century and was born in France, Over 580 Gothic & cathedrals class churches were built and constructed between 1170 to 1270; they were often large enough to house the entire population of the town. Two dominant architectural designs and styles emerged Romanesque and Gothic; there were differences and some similarities between the two. If the Romanesque church constituted a rural retreat for monastics and pilgrims, the Gothic cathedral served as the focal point for the urban community physically dominated the town, the design of the to...
When one sees the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral in person or in pictures they are likely to be awestruck. The twin towers of the western façade rise high into the sky, seemingly in an attempt to scrape heaven. Spiky arches seem to grow out of the sides and claw at the ground. Inside it is cavernous with colored light filtering in through the large, intricate stained glass windows. All of these physical qualities make Notre Dame a prime example of Gothic architecture. It does not stand alone in that distinction. One is also likely to see several hundred examples of this style on varying scales throughout Europe. Because, despite its humble origins, Gothic architecture became the standard for religious buildings in the early 11th century thanks to innovative use of new and old design techniques which resulted in majestic buildings that symbolized the builder’s version of heaven.
The Gothic Period in the twelfth century influenced the creation of Gothic Revival Architecture in the nineteenth century. Gothic architecture began in France in 1140. Some of the first buildings made using this style are the Basilica of Saint Denis and the Cathedral of Sens. (Gothic Architecture By Paul Frank) This style of architecture started losing popularity in the early sixteenth century, but did not die out completely during this time period. Gothic architecture was still predominantly in cathedrals and churches. The rise of Romanticism began in the eighteenth century–leading to an awareness and increased interest of the Middle Ages, specifically interest in church architecture. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_Revival_architecture) Thus, Gothic Revival Architecture was created. When admirers of neo-Gothic styles wanted to revive medieval Gothic architecture, Gothic Revival Architecture was created—along with many sub styles, such as Polychrome Brick Gothic and Carpenter Gothic in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Several elements from Gothic architecture were borrowed from the Lombards and the Franks. They took the compound pier and archivolt, the alternate system, and the ribbed and domed vault. It can be seen that the main dispositions of the Gothic plan are derived from Carolingian developments of the early Christian basilica. The most fundamental element of Gothic architecture is the pointed arch, whi...
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, (written c. 1387), is a richly varied compilation of fictional stories as told by a group of twenty-nine persons involved in a religious pilgrimage to Canterbury, England during the fourteenth century. This journey is to take those travelers who desire religious catharsis to the shrine of the holy martyr St. Thomas a Becket of Canterbury. The device of a springtime pilgrimage provided Chaucer with a diverse range of characters and experiences, with him being both a narrator and an observer. Written in Middle English, each tale depicts parables from each traveler.
The gothic architectural style came about after the fall of the Roman Empire and was well received by the Catholic Church in England. Evolving from Romanesque styles, gothic style incorporates ribbed vaults, large pained and painted windows, and flying buttresses. Gothic styles also having pointed roofs and arches was popular during the mid to late medieval period. The gothic style of architecture is not only important, it was vital to the church, the people, and to the commonwealth of the cities and towns that had such amazing structures erected.
One example of the architecture from the Gothic period and the Renaissance changed was the construction of cathedrals. The Gothic cathedrals
The strength of a gothic building is made to reside in a finely organized framework rather than in its walls. This framework, which consists of perfectly placed piers, arches and buttresses, frees up any unessential impediment of walls and presents a light feeling. The stability of the building depends only on inert massiveness in its outermost parts, whose opposing forces counteract each other in a perfect stability of thrust and counterthrust. Gothic architecture is an artistic, strategic system of engineering, schemes for building were followed for elevations, termed quadratum (four sided) and triangulorum (three sided). 2 This system allowed them to raise their ideal structures according to symbolic measure and numbers reflecting the geometry of the New Jerusalem and its prototype, the Temple of Solomon. (Figure 1.1)
Bray, Gerald. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. New Testament VI Romans. (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1998)
...hing truly inspiring. The architecture inspires today and will continue to for hundreds of years into the future. Gothic architecture was the impetus and inspiration for Western European civilization to have the courage to move forward after centuries of war and disease. Gothic architecture has enjoyed several revivals over the centuries, proving its endurance inspite of the changing world. Gothic architecture transcended national boundaries and created organized labor. The Gothic Period in Western European history was indicative of their dominance of world culture in the centuries to come. Gothic architecture showed Western Europeans that they were capable of great feats of engineering and art. This was at a time when the region had emerged from the “Dark Ages”. The Gothic style was a symbol of a civilization coming to live and rising above its infirmities.
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. (1992). Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. University of California Press, Ltd: England. (pgs 188-208).
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high what's more, late medieval period. It developed from Romanesque structural planning and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture. Originating in 12th-century in France and lasting into the 16th century. Gothic cathedrals resulted from additions to a Romanesque church. The desire to enrich an earlier church was a strong motivation behind Gothic cathedral building. Numerous Romanesque holy places were crushed to clear a path for a cathedral in the new style. As a result, the majority of cathedrals in Europe are Gothic
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...