The Lawyer's Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer
In, “The Lawyer’s Prologue”, by Geoffrey Chaucer, Chaucer mixes and tries to differ
himself in telling the story, by making it seem that the tale is being told between the actual
author and the narrator, by giving the lawyer some critical reference to Chaucer. Chaucer is
writing this trying to show as if the lawyer were to be telling the tale, and not Chaucer him
self. The majority of what the Lawyer says is not important or not of significance with the
story. The Lawyer is portrayed as dignified and formal, addressing the diverse crowd as if he
were speaking to the court.
Introduction to The Lawyer’s Prologue
The host speaks to the rest of the travelers, telling them that they can regain lost
property but not lost time. The host suggests that the lawyer tell the next tale, and he agrees
to do so, because he does not want to break his promises. He also says that the people should
keep the laws they give to other people. The host refers to Chaucer who works shallow and
writes poorly, but at the least he does not write of tales of lust. The Lawyer prepares to tell of
a tale which will include poverty, and talks of it in an affectionate and formal way.
The Lawyer’s Tale
In Syria there was a company of wealthy traders who made a journey to Rome. After
a certain time there encountered Constance the emperor’s daughter, who was famous for her
goodness and beauty. When the merchants returned to Syria, they reported to the Sultan what
they had seen; the Sultan was immediately filled with lust for this Constance. The Sultan met with his advisors and told them of what he was told and his intent...
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...r lives by becoming Christians.
Both the Sultan’s mother and Donegild share similar characteristics. Both prevented
Constance from marrying their sons, fearful of the Christian religion that Constance brings
to their lands. Both are led to commit evil and murderous acts, to prevent their interference
with this religion which does not blend with their pagan religion. Again, it is shown how powerful the Christian faith is for Constance as she survives
an attack by a rapist through divine faith. Fate can always be found revolving a religious
story which has religious context. The examples are when the knight swears on the bible, he
suffers divine harm, and Constance is saved by prayer when attacked by the rapist. Not only
is she rewarded by God for remaining faithful by being reunited with her family, her son is
made emperor of Rome.
In There Will Be Wolves, Ursula, which is the protagonist, is a healer. But due to the old Christian rules, women were not allowed to heal, but Ursula did. So they say Ursula was a witch and wanted to punish her. The bishop was a powerful person. He sentenced Ursula and brought her to the trial and tried to burn her, but her father Master William saved her. They then brought her to the cell. Until one day, her father came to the cell and released her, she was pardoned by the god, she had a chance to compliment her sin, as long as she help the Crusade free Jerusalem.
*the narrator is looking back on what he has once witnessed long ago, and it's haunting him, makes him feel guilty and ashamed.
Like all compelling characters, Merricat is both strong and weak, both villain and hero. If you spoke to her, she might sprint off into the woods with her cat Jonas, but if you anger her she might set one’s room on fire. Merricat would be impossible to live with, which is why Constance fears her. As some may say Constance is weak and is still paralyzed by the townspeople, Charles their cousin, comes to town to challenge her ways and is tested to see if she will follow him into the outside world or be subsumed into Merricat’s fantasy. As the novel goes on, the reader learns that Merricat killed her whole family except Constance. This shows that Merricat
In the beginning of The Pardoners Tale he talks about his qualifications and what he does, talking to several people. The pardoner tries to use his story to get the audience to give him money for their greedy sins. Then he tells a story about three young men who find an old man and they talk about age, the younger kids say the don’t want to grow old like the old man. The old guy tells the kids that they can find death by a tree. Excited to see death, the kids go to the tree and discover a pile of gold coins instead. Excited they decide to draw lots to decide which one would go down to the store, and who gets to stay with the money. The one who lost would have to go down to a store and buy some bread and wine that is later poisoned. Meanwhile, back at the gold, the other two conspire to kill the guy that is walking to the store by stabbing him to death, so instead of splitting the money three ways there would be more money apiece by splitting it two ways between them. So when they guy who walked to the sore gets back they stab him (he dies). Then the two drink the poisoned wine afterwards and they died from the poisoned wine.
... an entire community can fall apart, by doing his job the ruler ensures his success, “this can be improved only through the equitable treatment of people with property and regard for them, so that their hopes rise, and they have the incentive to start making their capitol bear fruit and grow. This, in turn, increases the ruler’s revenues in taxes” (Khaldun 1734). A ruler must know that subjects have an important role and he does as well; however, he must never confuse this role because it leads to his downfall as well as those who look up to him.
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 ...
tells the story as it should be told and comes under the utter annoyance of the
In “Another Holiday for the Prince” by Elizabeth Jolley the author draws upon many themes, one in particular that Jolley illustrates is how poverty influences changes in the individual lives within one family. To begin with the head of the family; a father is never mentioned in the story, not even once. But by not having a father figure in the story the reader can understand a lot. In society the man is the one who earns the money and provides all the essentials for his family, however this story is presented in a society were the mother has to be the man of the family. Ones self-esteem can be diminished as a result of poverty, alienation; destructive effects of a week personality or society on the individual. The author effectively conveys this theme through the use of characterization, symbolism and contrast.
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The narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” has taken the time to meticulously plot. He sneaks nightly into the old man’s room preparing until he is ready to carry out his plans. His discontent lies...
It is now established that Yossarian is the central character and that most of the events told in the story are told in a third person narration from his view
Now, one might argue that because the narrator thinks this story “is worth a book in itself. Sympathetically set forth it would tap many strange, beautiful qualities in obscure men”, then he is biased: ergo, he’s an unreliable narrator (1940). However, being biased in and of itself is not the sole criterion for a narrator be...
The lawyer, also the narrator, hires Bartleby to work as a scrivener at his business that involves bonds, mortgages and titles. The lawyer thinks he has all of his scriveners behaviors “on lock”. Although Bartleby started as a hard working employee, he eventually and in a calm manner refuses to do any requested work by the lawyer by simply saying, “I would prefer not to”. The lawyer doesn’t fire Bartleby after he declines to work, instead he gives Bartleby another chance. The lawyer preference to remain calm shows that he chooses to stray from confrontation. Bartleby continuous refusal to work leads to him being fired, but he refuses to leave. The lawyer’s philosophy and careful balancing of his employees is compromised by Bartleby actions. The lawyer moves his entire practice to another building to only find Bartleby there. Bartleby is arrested and continues in his bizarre daze. The lawyer visits Bartleby to convince him to eat and get through to him, but it doesn’t work and Bartleby dies. The lawyer sensitivity and empathy towards Bartleby raises questions to the lawyers sincerity. Ultimately, my goal is to demonstrate what was the lawyer’s intent to help Bartleby?
Zimmerman takes Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart”, in a an oratory form of a defense plea. Zimmerman goes through the complexity of the writing and explains rather than this being a story it is a defense plea trying to convince the reader that the narrator is actually a mentally deranged man. He goes through the different steps in a defense statement and correlates each part to the story.