The Nun: devoted to Christ or impressing society? 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 …show more content…
She tried very hard to be perceived as courtly and dainty, something she was not. “To counterfeit a courtly kind of grace” (Chaucer, “Prologue” 143). Chaucer was quick to realize that everything the Nun did was an act to seem courtly. She was obsessed with the courteous world and romance. She spoke French to try to seem well-educated but the French she spoke was incorrect. “And she spoke daintily in French, extremely, / After the school of Stratford-atte-Bowe; /French in the Paris style she did not know. /” (Chaucer “Prologue” 128-30). She tries speaking French which is known to be one of the world’s most romantic languages at the time but, she ends up making a fool of herself because she is doing it incorrectly. Chaucer also describes her as having remarkable table manners but also makes sure to inform the reader that it is all self-taught because, she does not come from a courtly world. “Of table manners she had learnt it all,” (Chaucer “Prologue”127). Chaucer also leaves out a description of how she interacts with people on purpose instead shows how she interacts with …show more content…
There was a reoccurring theme of anti-Semitism which is clearly seen as the Nun tells her tale. The tale goes on to talk about a young child who is deemed a martyr after a group of Jewish kid’s murder him. This tale fits the Nun’s spiritual belief because many religious members of Christianity did not think highly of the Jewish. “The serpent Satan, our first enemy, who has is wasps’ nest in the heart of Jews” (Chaucer “The Prioress’ tale” 558-59). The tale also shows religious irony, the belief that a certain religion is superior to another is not something that religion teaches, in fact it speaks against it. Many religions teach tolerance for other religions regardless of if they do not share similar ideas. Overall her tale shows readers how hypocritical and ironic religious conflicts were in medieval
The Nun or Prioress is on page 218 of the Norton Anthology of English Literature, seventh edition volume one. Her passage discusses her impeccable manners.
Using the rich monk to her advantage, she spent all the money that he gave her, soon realizing the money he gave her was money that he borrowed from her husband. With no remorse of spending the money that would free her husband of his debt, she said “He gave me a sum of money… I spent it in a way of pretty clothes; it didn't go to waste… don't be angry” (Chaucer 168). Leading him to think his debt disappeared/ was gone forever, he soon found out she spent his entire savings on things she claimed he never gave her. This shows how materialistic she is to pick pretty clothes and expensive gifts for herself over the fact of having a happy relationship, without having the decency to tell him, but forcing him to find out on his own. The Merchant's wife is not the only women that corrupted her relationship. In the Death of King Arthur, the king finds out the Queen has been having an affair with their noblest knight, Lancelot, making him rethink his whole marriage. The king thought “ My lady, she wanted to be my wife or my lover. How could I allow her to be either? Love must spring from a loving heart. It cannot come
In analyzing this story, there are several other interesting facts that merit further exploration. For instance, throughout the story all references to the little convent girl use black or dark references. But, when plunging to her death, the author describes the little convent girl as a "flutter of white petticoats, a show of white stockings". What is the significance of the sudden color change? Also, Since the reader must assume that the little convent girl is Catholic, what can be concluded about a proper catholic committing suicide?
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.
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.
...irony, the corruption he believes can be found in the Church, pointing at its common tendency in this time to take advantage of the people through its power. He also shows through the Pardoner that perhaps immoral people cannot guide people to morality, through subtle lines such as “For though myself be a ful vicious man,/ A moral tale yit I you telle can” (GP 171-172). Through Chaucer’s portrayal of the Pardoner in this tale, the audience is able to see that the Pardoner is a self-absorbed, greedy man that mirrors what the author thinks of the Church, and that the Pardoner is the exact opposite of what he preaches, which also points towards the supposed corruption of the Church. The irony found throughout this work serves the important purpose of bringing attention to the dishonesty and fraud Chaucer believes can be found in the Roman Catholic Church at this time.
Throughout the ages, the story of the original sin is used to explain the struggles of women and why they are inferior to man. Eve “took of [the forbidden tree’s] fruit and ate” (Genesis 3:6), and as punishment, God made it so “[her husband] shall rule over her” (3:16). As an important text during the lifetime of the characters who tell the collection of stories that compose the Canterbury Tales, most of the pilgrims were familiar with this scripture and believed that the Bible’s word was law. For that reason, the popular belief of the time was that women were inferior to their male counterparts. However, a couple of characters in the tales challenge this viewpoint and show that women were also capable of making their own choices. As the pilgrims struggle with the issue of where women belong, their view of Eve in the story of original sin is altered as well. From mild indifference to intimate involvement, each pilgrim has a different attachment to the story of the Eve, and their views on women in society are reflected in their connection to the story.
The Canterbury Tales is a very popular and well known set of stories, written by Geoffrey Chaucer. This collection of stories is great entertainment and some even provide very good moral lessons; most of these stories show the contempt Chaucer had for the Church of England which had control at the time over most of England. Chaucer’s bias towards the corruption of the Church is best demonstrated in the Pardoner’s Prologue, in contradiction with the Parson’s Tale, and the level of power within the Church structure. These are two of the stories of the many that are in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer uses the Pardoner as a high level leader who is corrupt and yet enables him to convert the sinners even if he does it for personal gain. While the Parson is of lower standing in the Church, he is not corrupt, and gives the message to the pilgrims so that they might be forgiven.
In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath is a strong woman who loudly states her opinions about the antifeminist sentiments popular at the time. Chaucer, however, frequently discredits her arguments by making them unfounded and generally compromising her character. This brings into question Chaucer's political intent with the Wife of Bath. Is he supportive of her views, or is he making a mockery of woman who challenge the patriarchal society and its restriction and mistrust of women? The Wife's comedic character, frequent misquoting of authorities, marital infidelity, and her (as well as Chaucer's) own antifeminist sentiments weaken the argument that Chaucer supported of the Wife's opinions.
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.
The Canterbury Tales is a great contemplation of stories, that display humorous and ironic examples of medieval life, which imitate moral and ethical problems in history and even those presented today. Chaucer owed a great deal to the authors who produced these works before his time. Chaucer tweaked their materials, gave them new meanings and revealed unscathed truths, thus providing fresh ideas to his readers. Chaucer's main goal for these tales was to create settings in which people can relate, to portray lessons and the irony of human existence.
A prioress is the head of a group of nun’s. She is described as being very neat and polite. She sang beautifully and spoke french. The type of french she spoke was not the kind of french that was spoken in Paris. Chaucer also describes her as being clean and down to earth friendly. She is rich ,which goes against the church beliefs that it is a sin to be rich. The evidence that Chaucer is interested in The Prioress because he took the time to write a fair description of her compared to some of the others that Chaucer did not like as much. However, Chaucer observes that even though she is a well rounded individual, she does not follow the church 's orders of being poor. The people that he did not like included The Friar and The
Chaucer describes a nun Prioress called Madame Eglantine. A nun should be modest, had to have poverty, and pity. Chaucer describes the nun in the opposite way to show us, how the nun Prioress had all the characteristics that a nun should not have. She was a nun modest, well educated and with good manners. She also had tender feelings, and a strong love for God and his creations. The author connects the relationship between how she sang and with her nose. He is sarcastic when relating her physical and spiritual beauty. "She sang the divine service well, entuning it in her nose in a most seemly way." (122-123) She was a well educated person, who reflects her manners in her language and with her actions. "She spoke French well and properly" in this quote properly means with good manners, not with slang words or with the popular language used in France. "For the French of Paris was unknown to her."(124) All of these characteristics show how the nun Prioress was focused on things that should not be important for a nun.
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...
Chaucer decides to take some interesting Pilgrims on his pilgrimage to Canterbury The Canterbury Tales: The Prologue. Some of these people include the Monk, Friar, Summoner, Parson, and the Pardoner. These are just a few of the characters selected to go on the journey to Canterbury. All of the characters have different roles, physical traits, personalities, and classes. At times these different traits bring controversy and some interesting conversation. Today, some people to include in Chaucer’s pilgrimage to Canterbury would be a reality television star, an NFL player, and a high school teacher.