Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales from the view of a pilgrim journeying with many other travelers who all had tales to tell. I believe that the stories told by the characters in Chaucer's book gives us insight into the individual spinning the tale as well as Chaucer as the inventor of these characters and author of their stories. There are three main characters whose stories I will be using as examples: The Knight's Tale, The Miller's Tale, and The Wife of Bath's Tale.
The knight told a tale of love, bravery, chivalry, justice, romance, and adventure. His story included two cousins and sworn brothers, Palamon and Arcite, who were both enraptured by the love of one woman, Emily. Emily was related to king Theseus who had the two friends imprisoned in a tower. It was from this tower that the two knights spotted the female embodiment of beauty and goodness. Palamon and Arcite each decided he could not live without her love and would die to have it. After a long while, the two meet up and are about to fight to the death for the love of Emily when Theseus comes upon them. He decides that these two former friends and prisoners will have a duel wherewith it will be decided who may win Emily's hand. Arcite and Palamon each pray to a different god to grant his victory. Arcite wins, but he dies before getting to claim Emily as his wife. She is later married to Palamon.
What does this fantastic story tell us about the knight's character and beliefs? This tale gives us insight into the Knight's sense of romance, passion, courage, loyalty and justice or fortune. Firstly, it shows us his ideal of one true, romantic love. He is virtuous and passionate, especially in his love-life. There was only one woman to be ...
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...te and analyze these characters to relay stories that would reflect their personalities. He conducted the interaction and relationships of these characters like Mozart would a symphony. He gave all of the characters their solos, but all of them interacted melodically. If nothing else, he was a humanist in the sense that he had concern for the needs and interests of other people. One may even call him a sociologist, or an observer of relationships between people of different classes. He gave a voice to many different types of people and had them all exchanging ideas and interacting. I wonder only if he had any idea that his stories were a window into his own personality.
Works Cited
The Canterbury Tales: The Knight's Tale, The Miller's Tale, The Wife of Bath's Tale. Chaucer, Geoffrey. Translated by: Coghill, Neville. London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1951.
The role of storytelling is significant since it highlights the personalities and traits specific to important characters. Storytelling can also drive the plot, as seen in Homer’s The Odyssey and Virgil’s The Aeneid. These epics are based on the telling of the protagonist’s journey. However Grendel, written by John Gardner, utilizes storytelling in a different manner. The main character bases his self-understanding off of the storytelling done by the Shaper, a blind bard telling historical tales. The purpose of storytelling in Gardner’s, Homer’s and Virgil’s works is to personify the protagonist in what he does to truly define himself.
... beloved wife has made the decision for him. After going through this incredible journey of his, not only did he study women but he had to explain what women most desired to the queen. Otherwise he would have been beheaded, but was spared because of his looks. Was this justice? Indeed it would have been justice back in the 1300’s because if you were beautiful you could be spared and do a noble deed for the king/queen as they asked. If you did not complete it who knows what could have happened. But for the knight, he completed what he was told to do and in fact after he raped the woman and he was being prosecuted, the journey of his made him find the true knight inside of him. The old woman choice that was offer to the knight demonstrated that he learned his lesson through his sufficient punishment and redemption for his crime.
The Knight, an honorable, generous, courteous, and noble member of a party of twenty-nine people on a pilgrimage to the English town of Canterbury during the Middle Ages, tells his tale as part of a storytelling contest the pilgrims’ host holds. The "Knight’s Tale" takes place in Ancient Greece and relates the story of Arcite and Palamon, two cousins who risk their lives to win the love of Emily, Duke Theseus' beautiful sister-in-law. Originally, Arcite and Palamon come from Thebes, a rival of Athens, but Theseus captures and imprisons them during a war. During their incarceration, the cousins notice Emily. Her beauty causes pain in their hearts, as their detention prevents them from roaming about and getting to know fair Emily. Arcite explains, "The freshness of her beauty strikes me dead" (Coghill 49). The cousins’ obsession with Emily’s beauty, which they incorrectly describe as love, leads the two to go to battle against one another to determine which of them will gain the privilege of marrying this woman who "fairer was of mien/Than is the lily on its stalk of green" (Coghill 47). Though Arcite wins the battle, his horse gets spooked and he falls off and dies, thus transferring the right to marry Emily to Palamon, who lives happily ever...
During the Medieval time period, Geoffrey Chaucer was an English writer who was well known for his magnificent literary work. The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is a work that includes different stories about twenty-eight pilgrims who travel to Canterbury, England. With one of the twenty eight pilgrims being a Friar. Chaucer describes the Friar in the general prologue, a physical description and in his occupation. The Friar's Tale is told by the Friar himself and consists of a conversation between the summoner and a bailiff. The friar tells his tale about the corrupt summoner while the summoner tells his tale about the corrupt friar. Chaucer expresses that the Friar takes advantage of his position in the church and that he represents
Along with love come many feelings. Specifically in A Knight’s Tale, indignation is expressed. William Thatcher, the main character, cheats his way into becoming a knight. Since he is actually a peasant, technically he cannot be jousting against other knights, but they do not catch him at first. He falls in love with the maiden, Jocelyn. She says, “Your name makes no matter to me, so long as I may call you my own” (A Knight’s Tale). William replies with, “Oh, but I am your own, Jocelyn” (A Knight’s Tale). In this time period, it is forbidden for a peasant to marry a maiden. William can’t help to fall in love with her, making this situation very unfair. William feels very angry because of this unfairness. Likewise, the feeling that came along with love in the movie, based off a true story, The Vow is envy. Paige, one of the main characters, gets into a heartbreaking car accident and
Throughout the Tales of Canterbury, there are many tales, but two that truly jump out at you. The Knight's Tales and the Miller's tale grasp the audience by using humor in the case off the Millers Tale, and chivalric heroism in the tale of the Knight. Although the two stories are quite different, they have several similarities as well.
The Knight’s first story is one of valor, romance, and justice. The story was told in a narrative where the Knight talks about everyone’s feelings, while at times not conveying everything to a hidden part. This story is about Palamon and Arcite who were knights that loved each other like brothers. They are captured by King Theseus and thrown in jail for being associated with a ruthless
The knight comes across a beautiful lady one day and rapes her. The court is disgusted by this and says he should get the death penalty. King Arthur and the queen decide that he should not be killed, and they make a deal with the knight. The queen says that if he can find within a year what most women want, he can keep his life. He finally meets the Wife of Bath, and she says that most women want to be secretive. She argues with this though, because women cannot keep a secret. Later on, the knight meets and ugly old woman and she claims that she can save his life. Judgment day has come, and he tells the queen that most women desire to be in charge of their husbands and lovers. The women in the court agree, and the queen spares
The Maiden was out for her daily walk, when a handsome knight pulled her from the path of a rogue carriage, saving her life. The Maiden fell for the Knight at first sight, convinced that she had finally found a man worthy of her love. But the Knight had heard about the Maiden’s cruelty, and he had no interest in courting her.
First the queen who gets to decide the knight’s fate. “He gave the queen the case And granted her his life, and she could choose Whether to show him mercy or refuse.”(line 72-74) Then the old hag who will tell him the answer to the queen’s question if he will marry her, and who he lets make the choice in which kind of wife he would rather have. ““My lady and my love, my dearest wife, I leave the matter to your wise decision.”(line 406-407) The point of her story is the only way a man can be happy is if his wife is happy, and for her to be happy she must be in
The knight was horrified by this beautiful, forthright, and bold woman. He said to her, ‘Woman, I am a fair knight, and thou art not my type.’ A few bystanders giggled, but the knight continued, ‘You shall be punished for what thou hast done to me.’ Then, with his great strength, he took hold of the woman, placed her behind him on his noble steed, and brought her to his lord, the great King Arthur.
Meanwhile, in the Wife of Bath’s tale, the struggle is reversed in a sense. The knight in the story is nearly executed, but is saved by Queen Guinevere. Though with it, she gets the knight on a quest to find what do women really want. And this, is an uphill struggle. So much that he requested for the old lady’s help in
he writes his impressions of each based off only his memory and what he chooses to remember. Leading him to seem as a naive character at beginning of story. He then expresses his true views on society through each character he creates and shows it through the tale he has each character tell. In these tales, he incorporates values and characterizations of society to reflect
The Canterbury Tales, written in the late fourteenth century by Geoffrey Chaucer, are a group of stories about an assortment of diverse characters whose personas existed during that period in time. The stories cover a wide variety of individuals, ranging from the Wife of Bath, the Pardoner, and the Reeve. Although the majority of the stories were all clearly fictional, the problems seen in each story were true; the author mentions the real-world issues that the members of his society had to experience and endure. Most of the messages found in Chaucer’s literature from the fourteenth century are still applicable today, in the twenty-first century, like the message found in The Reeve’s Tale. One of the concepts found in The Reeve’s Tale was the
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.