The Canterbury Tales Analysis

1920 Words4 Pages

“He who in love maintains his patience best / Has the advantage over all the rest” (771-772).
Through true love, Chaucer examines the morals of his society. In The Canterbury Tales, “The Franklin’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” function as mirrors of society and social satire through the value of true love, ideal marriage, sovereignty of women, and the role of knights.
Trust in the other person in the relationship defines true love in both tales. In “The Franklin’s Tale”, Arveragus leaves his wife Dorigen to depart to fight for his king (Chaucer 807-813). During his long absence, Arveragus trusts Dorigen to remain faithful to him, and Dorigen’s love for him causes her decline the suitor Aurelius’s advances. Chaucer describes Aurelius as, “Among the fairest men alive; a strong / Young man, right virtuous, one rich and wise, / One loved and well esteemed in others' eyes”, strengthening the idea that Dorigen refuted a very enticing offer (932-934). Dorigen, also wrought with bouts of grief during Arveragus’s absence, who “mourned and wailed, she fasted, lost her rest, / By longing for his presence so distressed / That all this world she looked upon as naught”, did not give in to the temptation of relieving her solitude with other men (Chaucer 819-821). She defines true love by remaining steadfast to Arveragus, honoring his trust, and not letting her extensive loneliness or Aurelius’s beauty and talent persuade her into committing adultery. The king’s trust in the queen to sentence the knight justly in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” also serves to define true love. By bestowing his wife a power only men usually have, the king sees his wife as just as capable as any man, who would be superior and greater in a medieval relationship. F...

... middle of paper ...

..., old age, and low class (1097-1103). Chaucer satirizes the knight’s profession as often corrupt and unchivalrous through the knight’s disgrace towards the old woman, although she saved his life by giving him important information. Additionally, the knight’s raping of the young woman also contrasts the value of respect of women through his violation and unconsented taking of her virginity. The knight acts out of lust, desire, and the the want to feel powerful, enacting superiority over the young woman by having unwarranted sex with her.
In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer attacks corruption in society and praises admirableness in those that are honest. The hypocrisy and sinful nature of the Wife of Bath’s Tale show a great distinction from the righteous nature of the Franklin’s Tale. Chaucer held the values of poverty, obedience, chivalry, and true love in high regard.

Show More
Related

  • Naughty Characters in The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer

    1306 Words  | 3 Pages

    The moral compass of mankind has always piqued the interest of authors. The Middle Ages was a time of immoral behavior, corrupt religious officials, and disregard of marital vows. Geoffrey Chaucer used The Canterbury Tales to explore his personal views of this dark time. In particular, he crafted “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” “The Prioress’s Tale,” and “The Shipman’s Tale” to portray the tainted society, using women in all of them to bring forth his views. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer depicts women as immodest and conniving beings to suggest the moral corruption of the Middle Ages.

    Read More

  • The Canterbury Tales And The Wife Of Bath's Tale

    567 Words  | 2 Pages

    Some say women can get the worst out of a man, but in The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1485, proves it. The tales were originally written as a collection of twenty four tales, but has been narrowed down to three short tales for high school readers. The three tales consist of “The Miller”, “The Knight”, and “The Wife of Bath” along with their respective prologues. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer shows the weak but strong role of women throughout the “The Knight’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” to contrast different human characteristics and stereotypes on the spectrum of people.

    Read More

  • A Pardoner Who Needs A Bath

    1584 Words  | 4 Pages

    The dominance of men in the Middle Ages is unethical, irrational, and dangerous; women are given few rights and the opportunity to earn rights is non-existent. The dictates to the dominance is formed by the internal combination of man’s personal desire and religious interference. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s, The Canterbury Tales, the combined perspectives’ on a haughty Pardoner and non-subservient wife is the stronghold of separation in moral roles. The moral roles between men and women are exemplified in the rankings of religious hierarchy for men are at the top and women towards the bottom. Even prestigious women, ones with noble connections, are subservient to men, but contradictorily have religious affiliations. The “Wife of Bath’s Tale” is a perfect example of defying man’s dominance and the “Pardoner’s Tale”, a problematic reasoning of why selfishness connects moreover to the manipulation. The frailties of religious reasoning however, will cause The Pardoner and the Wife of Bath to be separated from society’s morals.

    Read More

  • Wife Of Bath Comparison Essay

    706 Words  | 2 Pages

    Though Chaucer showed multiple tales of various characters in The Canterbury Tales, the Miller’s and Wife of Bath’s tale surpassed them all on their concept of marriage and love. Both allow the reader to understand where they are coming from and their perception. While one does not seem to believe too much in love, the other does. However, both clearly believe that women control the game of love in their own respective ways.

    Read More

  • The Canterbury Tales

    842 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, the stereotypes and roles in society are reexamined and made new through the characters in the book. Chaucer discusses different stereotypes and separates his characters from the social norm by giving them highly ironic and/or unusual characteristics. Specifically, in the stories of The Wife of Bath and The Miller’s Tale, Chaucer examines stereotypes of women and men and attempts to define their basic wants and needs.

    Read More

  • Signification Through Structural Irony in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

    2175 Words  | 5 Pages

    The structure Geoffrey Chaucer chose for his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, of utilizing a melange of narrative voices to tell separate tales allows him to explore and comment on subjects in a multitude of ways. Because of this structure of separate tales, the reader must regard as extremely significant when tales structurally overlap, for while the reader may find it difficult to render an accurate interpretation through one tale, comparing tales enables him to lessen the ambiguity of Chaucer’s meaning. The Clerk’s Tale and The Merchant’s Tale both take on the institution of marriage, but comment on it in entirely different manner, but both contain an indictment of patriarchal narcissism and conceit.

    Read More

  • 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.

    Read More

  • The Wife of Bath: Illustrating Courtly Love

    960 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the Middle Ages, when The Canterbury Tales was written, society became captivated by love and the thought of courtly and debonair love was the governing part of all relationships and commanded how love should be conducted. These principles changed literature completely and created a new genre dedicated to brave, valorous knights embarking on noble quests with the intention of some reward, whether that be their life, lover, or any other want. The Canterbury Tales, written in the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer, accurately portrays and depicts this type of genre. Containing a collection of stories within the main novel, only one of those stories, entitled “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, truly outlines the 14th century community beliefs on courtly love.

    Read More

  • Romantic Love in Stories from Medieval Times

    847 Words  | 2 Pages

    Romance can be defined as a medieval form of narrative which relates tales of chivalry and courtly love. Its heroes, usually knights, are idealized and the plot often contains miraculous or superatural elements. According to Tony Davenport the central medieval sense of romance is ' of narratives of chivalry, in which knights fight for honour and love.' The term amour coutois ( courtly love) was coined by the French critic Gaston Paris in 1883 to categorise what medieval French lyricists or troubadours referred to as ' fin armors'. Romances and lyrics began to develop in the late fourteenth century England, author like Chaucer or Hoccleve produced some of the first english medieval narratives. But how does medieval literature present the expericence of romantic love. In order to answer this question this essay will focus on two tales from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: the Knight's Tales and the Franklin's Tales. It will show that medieval romance can be used as a vehicle to promote chivalric behaviour as well as exploring a range of philosophical, political, and literary question.

    Read More

  • Feminism in Chaucer’s Wife of Bath

    2103 Words  | 5 Pages

    Hallissy, Margaret. Clean Maids, True Wives, Steadfast Widows: Chaucer’s Women and Medieval Codes of Conduct. Westport, Ct: Greenwood Press, 1993.

    Read More

  • Gender Oriented Analysis in Wife of Bath by Geoffrey Chaucer

    1428 Words  | 3 Pages

    Of all the numerous females depicted in literature throughout the centuries, Geoffrey Chaucer’s Wife of Bath has inspired more in-depth discussion and gender-oriented analysis than the majority. She is in turn praised and criticized for her behavior and her worldview; critics can’t seem to decide whether she is a strong portrayal of 14th century feminism or a cutting mockery of the female sex. Both her tale and its prologue are riddled with themes of conflict and power struggle between the sexes, and the victor of this battle is not made explicit. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales being a parody of various societal conceptions and literary conventions, it is likely that this ambiguity was entirely intentional. By comparing the Wife of Bath and her husbands to the characters presented in the tale, Chaucer makes the subtle but sharp implication that there is no true winner in the battle of the sexes; the essential qualities of men and women are equally unsavory, and harmony between the two can only be achieved when an illusion of triumph has been constructed separately for both parties.

    Read More

  • The Wife of Bath: A Literary Analysis

    1091 Words  | 3 Pages

    Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is an important part of his most famed work, The Canterbury Tales. One of the most respected highly analyzed of all of the tales, this particular one is important both for its character development and its prevailing themes. It seamlessly integrates ideas on society at that time with strong literary development. This work stands the test of time both because of its literary qualities and because of what it can teach us about the role of women in late Medieval society.

    Read More

  • The Role of Women in The Canterbery Tales

    2003 Words  | 5 Pages

    Chaucer, in his female pilgrimage thought of women as having an evil-like quality that they always tempt and take from men. They were depicted as untrustworthy, selfish and vain and often like caricatures not like real people at all. Through the faults of both men and women, Chaucer showed what is right and wrong and how one should live. Under the surface, however, lies a jaded look of women in the form that in his writings he seems to crate them as caricatures and show how they cause the downfall of men by sometimes appealing to their desires and other times their fears. Chaucer obviously had very opinionated views of the manners and behaviours of women and expressed it strongly in The Canterbury Tales. In his collection of tales, he portrayed two extremes in his prospect of women. The Wife of Bath represented the extravagant and lusty woman where as the Prioress represented the admirable and devoted followers of church. Chaucer delineated the two characters contrastingly in their appearances, general manners, education and most evidently in their behaviour towards men. Yet, in the midst of disparities, both tales left its readers with an unsolved enigma.

    Read More

  • Chaucer's Use Of Satire In The Canterbury Tales

    530 Words  | 2 Pages

    Geoffrey Chaucer was a on a mission when he wrote The Canterbury Tales. That mission was to create a satire that attacked three major institutions. Raphel displays, “Medieval society was divided into three estates: the Church (those who prayed), the Nobility (those who fought), and the Patriarchy. The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is an estates satire.” Chaucer wanted to shed light on the institutions that were taking advantage of the everyday man. Chaucer does this by making up tales about certain people that she light to the undercover world of the institutions. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses satire to attack the Church, the Patriarchy, and the Nobility.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of the Characters of The Canterbury Tales

    2545 Words  | 6 Pages

    An interesting aspect of the famous literary work, "The Canterbury Tales," is the contrast of realistic and exaggerated qualities that Chaucer entitles to each of his characters. When viewed more closely, one can determine whether each of the characters is convincing or questionable based on their personalities. This essay will analyze the characteristics and personalities of the Knight, Squire, Monk, Plowman, Miller, and Parson of Chaucer's tale.

    Read More

More about The Canterbury Tales Analysis

Open Document