Geoffrey Fieger Essays

  • Dr. Kevorkian, Mudering in the Name of Mercy

    1350 Words  | 3 Pages

    Imagine that you have been diagnosed with a terminal illness such as cancer and given six months to live. The remainder of your life will be spent in a hospital undergoing treatment and suffering from unbearable pain. Do you want to die or do you want to live the rest of your life in agony? The controversial issue of doctor assisted suicide is followed by a big question. Should states legalize doctor assisted suicide? Physician assisted suicide gives the right for physicians to administer to certain

  • Critique of Geoffrey Canada's Fist Stick Knife Gun

    1510 Words  | 4 Pages

    Critique of Geoffrey Canada's Fist Stick Knife Gun The Book “Fist Stick Knife Gun” by Geoffrey Canada is a biographical account of his childhood in the south Bronx. He and his 4 brothers were raised by only their mother. She would survive on no more than ten dollars a week. He moved several times as a child until finally landing on union avenue, the place were many of his life lessons were learned and at times applied. He learned about the ranking process of kids on union Ave. and how the only

  • Insight into Human Nature in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

    1394 Words  | 3 Pages

    Insight into Human Nature in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales 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

  • The Pardoner as Symbol in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

    2594 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Pardoner as Symbol for the Pilgrims’ Unattainable Goals in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer’s work, The Canterbury Tales, paints a portrait of medieval life through the voices and stories of a wide variety of speakers. The people on the Pilgrimage tell their stories for a wide range of reasons. Each Tale is told in order to accomplish two things. The Tales provoke their audience as much as they are a kind of self-reflection. These reactions range from humor, to extreme

  • Geoffrey Chaucer: A Near Contemporary of Malory

    1055 Words  | 3 Pages

    Geoffrey Chaucer: A near contemporary of Malory Many websites contain information on the life and works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Most of these websites provide useful information, timelines, and miscellaneous facts about Chaucer. The Geoffrey Chaucer Page is a very helpful website that contains a brief note on Chaucer and provides a timeline of the important events which occurred during Chaucer’s lifetime . A better description of Chaucer and his works is given by Anniina Jokinen’s website, Luminarium

  • The Time Period and People of Geoffrey Chaucer

    688 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Time Period and People of Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer is one of the greatest authors of his time. His distinctive use of characters in his literary works is one of a kind. Chaucer’s works were accomplished during the Middle Ages. During this time period the whole community revolved around the church, the village and the surrounding farmland. The Middle Ages were heroic, entertaining, romantic, harsh, uncertain, and often dangerous. Throughout these times, Chaucer writes about the people

  • geoffrey chaucers use of sarcasm to describe his characters

    1745 Words  | 4 Pages

    Geoffrey Chaucers use of sarcasm to describe his characters. Geoffrey Chaucer used sarcasm to describe his characters in “The Canterbury Tales.” It will point out details that are seen in the book that help explain how he used this sarcasm to prove a point and to teach life lessons sometimes. I will also point out how this sarcasm was aimed at telling the reader his point of view about how corrupt the Catholic Church was. Chaucer uses an abundance of sarcasm, as opposed to seriousness, to describe

  • The Squire in The Caterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

    586 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Squire in The Caterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer In the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, the narrator, Geoffrey Chaucer, meets twenty nine pilgrims at the Southwark at the Tabard Inn. They are all going to Canterbury Cathedral to visit the shrine of Sir Thomas Becket. Chaucer decides to tag along, taking some time to describe each pilgrim. The author uses many metaphors, personal histories, and examples of how they would act in certain situations to fully describe the characters

  • Chaucer's Canterbury Tales - The Language of Chaucer

    749 Words  | 2 Pages

    modifications interferes little or not at all with the authentic reading; this way the rich sound of the original is maintained and upheld. Bibliography Brewer, Derek. Tradition and Innovation in Chaucer. London: Macmillan, 1982. Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Pp. 3-328. In the Riverside Chaucer. Larry D. Benson, ed. Boston: Houghton, 1987. Delasanta, Rodney. "Language and The Canterbury Tales." Chaucer Review 31.3 (1997), 209-231.

  • Canterbury Tales - Criticism of the Church in the Summoner’s Tale and the Prioress’s Tale

    1509 Words  | 4 Pages

    Criticism of the Catholic Church in the Summoner’s Tale and the Prioress’s Tale Many pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales held a religious position. Some of these people’s personal ideas have caused debates and criticism over Chaucer’s opinion of the Catholic Church. Critics have discussed the ideas that were presented both subtly and openly. Two of the pilgrims and their tales will be discussed: the Prioress and the Pardoner. Both of these tales offer points of criticism in the

  • Debatable Decisions by the Wife of Bath

    1114 Words  | 3 Pages

    Questionable Decisions by the Wife of Bath In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer creates a wonderfully complex character in the Wife of Bath. She exhibits many traits easily identifiable as virtuous--honesty, cheerfulness, and the desire to follow the teachings of the Bible. At other times she reveals traits easily perceived as negative--greed, cruelty, and promiscuity. By the end of her tale to the other pilgrims, more light is shed on her character when it becomes apparent that her tale

  • Middle Vs. Modern English in the Canterbury Tales

    858 Words  | 2 Pages

    language, Old English, Middle English evolved into much more of a written language. There were many writers and educated English scholars who worked to translate Old English texts into the new Middle English language. There were also writers, such as Geoffrey Chaucer, who used the Middle English language to write new works which employed new and creative literary techniques. One such work, The Canterbury Tales, is a work that has been recognized as having an extreme significance on the development of

  • Garmentology in the Canterbury Tales

    1088 Words  | 3 Pages

    The narrator of "The Canterbury Tales", by Geoffrey Chaucer spends a good amount of the General Prologue discussing the dress of the people upon the pilgrimage to the shrine of the martyr Saint Thomas Becket. One can learn a lot about a person by what they wear. By describing and discussing the pilgrims clothing, the reader can base their portraits on objective facts as well as the narrators own opinions. The "Garmentology" of the Knight, the Squire, the Yeoman, the Prioress, the Monk, and the Wife

  • Troilus And Criseyde And The Book Of The Duchess

    1054 Words  | 3 Pages

    Geoffrey Chaucer has successfully developed several themes which are seen throughout his works. Although the literary techniques that Chaucer uses are not his own, these themes which reoccur are in the one of a kind style which defines Chaucer's works. In both Troilus and Criseyde and The Book of the Duchess, the characters of Troilus and the Black Knight go through heartache and sorrow because of a love they once had but both lost. Both characters are young and naive when it comes to matters

  • The Significance of Clothing in The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue

    944 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue, Chaucer’s use of the characters’ clothing, to symbolize what lies beneath the surface of each personality is significant. Chaucer strongly uses the Knight, the Squire and the Prioress’s clothing to symbolize how their personalities are reflected through The Canterbury Tales. The Knight’s true character is portrayed through his modest apparel. His character is displayed by the way he chooses to show himself in public, which is a noble knight, that

  • The Wife of Bath

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Wife of Bath One of the most interesting and widely interpreted characters in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is the Wife of Bath. She has had five different husbands and openly admits to marrying the majority of them for their money. The wife appears to be more outspoken and independent than most women of medieval times, and has therefore been thought to symbolize the cause of feminism; some even refer to her as the first actual feminist character in literature. Readers and scholars

  • Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

    1275 Words  | 3 Pages

    Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales The Knight, Squire, Prioress, The Monk and the Friar are defined by their settings in Geoffrey Chaucer’s "Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales. 1. Portnoy says in his article in the Chaucer Review that "The General Prologue is like a mirror reflecting the individuals appearance which then defines the character of that person."(281) 2. Scanlon backs up Portnoy in his article from Speculum by saying "…Characters descriptions somehow emerge inevitably from the original

  • Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

    3290 Words  | 7 Pages

    Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales Critics interpreting Chaucerian depictions of drunkenness have traditionally focused on the state as an unalloyed vice, citing variously as justification the poet’s Christian conservatism, his intimate association with the disreputable London vintner community, and even possible firsthand familiarity with alcoholism. While we must always remain vigilant to the evils of excessive inebriation, to portray Chaucer’s images of drink and revelry in The Canterbury Tales

  • The Summoner and His Tale in the Canerbur Tales by Goffergy Chaucer

    672 Words  | 2 Pages

    There were many different jobs during the Middle Ages. These jobs belonged to many different people with many different characteristics. In the series of tales The Canterbury Tales, author Geoffrey Chaucer writes about a group of people with different occupations during the Middle Ages. Who are going on a pilgrimage to the sacred town of Canterbury. Chaucer gives a detailed description of each character traveling to Canterbury. During this trek to Canterbury each of the passengers tells a different

  • Canterbury Tales and Nationalism

    780 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nominalism is the belief that signifiers, appearances, and perceived, sensed reality have no weight and do not show the deeper truth. In The Canterbury Tales, especially in the Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer affirms nominalism. In the Pardoner’s Prologue, the Pardoner admits that he is not who he appears to be and that his relics are fake. In his paradoxical tale, the Pardoner condemns the vice of avarice, which he is guilty of practicing. Although the tale means what it appears to