The Host In The Canterbury Tales Analysis

888 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The canterbury tales prioress

Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales has many characters Harry Bailey also known as the Host is one of them. His job upon many is to organize the storytelling challenge for the Pilgrims with the winner to have a meal at his Inn. His character is also considered to be inspired by Aristotle’s notion of place. The Host is a natural born leader which is shown by his actions, and his words. The Host has the most unique role in the story. When he initiates the storytelling challenge it is in a democratic way. Throughout the storytelling the Host helps out the Pilgrims. As the stories continue the Host becomes more emphasized during his confrontation with the Pardoner. The Host also continues his roles as the stories are winding down. The Host …show more content…

He tries to the stories balanced so half way through the stories the Host modifies the rules of the competition. During the Franklin’s interruption of the Clerk, the Host says, “Ech of yow moot tellen ate leste/A tale or two, or breken his biheste” (Chaucer V.697-8). This helps the competition stay balanced for the Pilgrims. Throughout the wife of bath’s Tale the Summoner and the Friar kept arguing so he moderated it. He tried to kept things fair between the Pilgrims as the stories went on. The Host never treated one Pilgrim any different than the other Pilgrims. At the end of one of the tales he starts to talk about his wife, and his personal life. He tells the Pilgrims things about his life that other people didn’t know about. There was also one story that he did not want his wife to hear. After, that he tries to quickly move on to the other stories so people don’t ask him questions about it. Then the Host asks the Merchant to “telle us part” of the sorrow he has experienced with his horrible wife (Chaucer IV.1242). After, the Merchant tells his tale he asks the narrator to describe him in a story. The narrator describes him as a short, chubby guy. The narrator also describes him as always looking down. During the stories the Cook is drunk, and ends up falling off of his horse, and the Host helps him get up and back on his horse again. The Host continues to enforce rules and other boundaries as the Pilgrims continue to keep telling their stories. It is not only his role but also, his job to deal with his criticism on others. One of the most interesting sayings in the wife of bathes is “Hire beautee was hire deth” (Chaucer

Show More
Related

  • The Role Of Positivity In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

    454 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Host is the character that really starts to develop the story. He is the one that brings up the idea of the tale-telling game. The passage explains the Host as a jolly guy – large, with piercing eyes, fit "to been a marchal in a halle".

    Read More

  • Version I of the Canterbury Tales

    732 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, has gone through many adaptations. Some authors decided to translate the story into verse, while others chose to write the as a narrative in prose. Although all adaptations are based off the same story, they are vastly different and can be the result of opposing interpretations of the original work. After reading a text translated by Nevill Coghill (referred to as Version I) and a text translated into a narrative by a different author (referred to as Version II), it is obvious that for each similarity they share, there are many more differences in language, syntax, and imagery as well.

    Read More

  • Historical Characteristics In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

    926 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are two types of people in this world, the first ones are, the people who doesn't really like reading books because most of them doesn't have pictures on it, and they find it extremely boring. Then the other type of people, who simply gets lost into their book every time they read, because they just simply love reading. Some of them even say that when they're reading, it is taking them to a different world that only their imagination can create. That is why some people consider their books as their most priced possessions, because of how much it means to them and also some books can be rather pricey. Indeed, books can really be expensive, however, you might be too astonished when you see the following books, because they're considered

    Read More

  • General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales: The Friar and the Parson

    1654 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Friar and the Parson, as described in the General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales, can be used to portray both the good and the bad sides of clergy. They make a stark contrast to each other, often even directly, with their characteristics as told by the narrator. From physical traits to their actions, these two pilgrims are almost exact opposites in certain ways. Their motivations for these actions describe the differences in the mind sets of the good holy man and the one who is less true to his orders, the Parson and the Friar respectively. Throughout their portraits, the descriptions of the two are set at odds, so as to highlight their contrariety.

    Read More

  • The Nun In The Canterbury Tales

    1200 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is a collection of short stories told amongst pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. The pilgrims are competing against one another to see who can tell the best story on their trip. Along the way Chaucer makes quick comments and critics about the travelers. Some pilgrims he likes, for example the Parson. Others like the Pardoner, are disliked strongly by Chaucer. He also finds some pilgrims entertaining, like the Nun. She is described as a women who, instead of centering her life round Christ, tries to impress everyone. Although in his prologue Chaucer pokes fun at the Nun’s appearance and behavior, ultimately the readers can see that Chaucer

    Read More

  • 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

  • Common Sense, Ethics, and Dogma in The Wife of Bath

    3341 Words  | 7 Pages

    In his Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer assembles a band of pilgrims who, at the behest of their host, engage in a story-telling contest along their route. The stories told along the way serve a number of purposes, among them to entertain, to instruct, and to enlighten. In addition to the intrinsic value of the tales taken individually, the tales in their telling reveal much about the tellers. The pitting of tales one against another provides a third level of complexity, revealing the interpersonal dynamics of the societal microcosm comprising the diverse group of pilgrims.

    Read More

  • The Monk and the Parson of The Canterbury Tales

    572 Words  | 2 Pages

    as brown as is a berry." (P 120 line 211)  This shows that the Monk spends

    Read More

  • Corruption and Greed in The Canterbury Tales

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a collection of stories by a group of pilgrims who are heading to Canterbury Cathedral. In this book, the pardoner and the reeve show antipodal characters in many ways. The pardoner is beautiful blonde hair man who is being loved by everyone. However he is very corrupted and smart and sells fake religious stuff to people saying very good compliment. On the other hand, the reeve is very serious and honest business man. He is very smart enough to know what criminals think and do. The pardoner story-tells a great example (or tale?) of seven deadly sins and reeve’s story is mocking of the miller. These very different characteristic men tell story telling that human beings are always punished for being greedy. The crooked pardoner and the honest reeve have different purposes for telling their tales, but their stories have the same major theme; sins deserve punishment.

    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

  • Greed and Corruption in The Canterbury Tales

    365 Words  | 1 Pages

    Many of the religious characters in The Canterbury Tales represent character traits that are different from what is traditionally expected of them. This is because the Catholic Church, which ruled all of England, Ireland and most of Europe in the Fourteenth Century, was extremely wealthy. Extravagant cathedrals were built in every big city while the people suffered from poverty, disease and famine. The contrast between the wealth of the church and misery of the people was overwhelming. As a result, the characters in Chaucer's tales were portrayed as deceitful and greedy. Two examples of this are the Summoner from the "The Friar's Tale" and Death from the "The Pardoner's Tale."

    Read More

  • Literary Essay: Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales

    1362 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the general prologue to The Canterbury Tales were seen the hierarchical barriers being broken by joining representatives of various strata on a pilgrimage. For this reason The Cook, The Squire and The Manciple were chosen. The first character is The Cook, where whose description begins with a rather daily language, but never quite approaching this informality. The physical experience of the cook is represented by grotesque details; he suffered from a sore in his shin that was visible to everyone even when he cooked. It also had the reputation of being dirty. And despite of having decent repertoire of dishes and cooking techniques, he was not very reliable with his job, as dirt and flies flying around his kitchen made a lot of their guests become intoxicated with th...

    Read More

  • The Characters Of The Church In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

    1141 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the “General Prologue” of The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer indirectly denounces the church describing that they are corrupt, greedy, hypocritical, and selective. The people that have some sort of relation to the church are The Prioress, The Nun, The Priest, The Friar, The Monk, The Parson, The Summoner and The Pardoner. The “General Prologue describes each of the pilgrims and their general traits. Some characters are described more than others because of the fact that Chaucer likes people who are affluent, beautiful and noble. The problem with some of the characters that were described by Chaucer is that they were negatively viewed based on stereotypes and appearance. Overall, Chaucer wants the readers to know that the church people are corrupt and deceptive. Chaucer wants the reader to understand that most of the church people do not live their life by the holy book.

    Read More

  • The Narrator In The General Prologue Essay

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...eveals insecurities of him in the process while that itself tells us more about the popular culture in this time. Chaucer, along with many of the other pilgrims attempts to place themselves in a socially desirable or even superior position. With the Narrator having the responsibility of articulating the tales to us in a coherent fashion, he might feel pressure to present himself as all-knowing or superior to his companions rather than show us an honest and unbiased point of view. After all, he is telling the story; the Narrator can ultimately choose to tell us whatever he pleases. The Narrator plays the role of telling tales and providing the groundwork for this pilgrimage story, but since his ideas and opinions are designed in such a particular way; he indirectly tells us so much more about not only about the pilgrimage but of this time period’s culture as a whole.

    Read More

  • Summary and Analysis of The Merchant's Tale

    1743 Words  | 4 Pages

    The prologues that link the various Canterbury Tales shift effortlessly from ponderous drama to light comedy. The lamentable tale of Griselde gives way to the Host's complaint about his shrewish wife. This prologue further illustrates how each of the characters informs the tale he tells. The travelers largely tell tales that conform to their personal experiences or attitudes, such as the Merchant, whose awful marriage is the occasion for his tale about a difficult wife. In most cases the influence of the narrator on his tale is apparent, but the authorial touch lightly felt. The Merchant's Tale, for example, gains little from the prologue's information that the Merchant is disenchanted with his own marriage. Only a few of these tales exist largely as extensions of the characters who tell them; the Wife of Bath's Tale is the most prominent of these stories.

    Read More

More about The Host In The Canterbury Tales Analysis

Open Document