Money is a very important attribute to have, but worrying about it too much could maybe get you killed. In the canterbury tales there are two tales. One of them is the pardoner's tale and the other is the wife of bath's tale. I believe that the pardoner's tale is the better tale. (Geoffrey Chaucer) author of (The Canterbury Tales). In the Canterbury Tales the narrator goes on a pilgrimage and for entertainment he has the people he went on the pilgrimage with tell him tales. And he would reward whoever told him the best tale. The pardoner's tale is about three friends who let greed and money get to their heads which end up killing their friendships and themselves. The wife of bath's tale is about a knight who let's lust get to his head instead of loving someone for who they are. Although both tales are great tales and give a great moral lesson, The pardoner's tale is the better tale of the two because of its ability to teach a lesson while still creating a great story. …show more content…
This first quote that is featured from the pardoner's tales ending is, “He took a bottle full of poison up And drank; and his companion, nothing loth, Drank from it also, and they perished both.” (Chaucer 179). Another quote that features and displays this tales amazing ending, “They fell on him and slew him, two to one. The said the first of them when this was done.”(Chaucer 179). Lastly, this quote from the wife of bath's tale Chaucer writes, “Thorpes barns and stables, outhouses and dairies, and that's the reason why there are no fairies” (Chaucer 186). As you can see the pardoner's tale displays these morals of greed much better then the wife of bath. Although the wife of bath does not feature much greed, the sins that it does feature are not conveyed through the tale as well as the pardoner's tale. The ending of the pardoner's tale could not be a better ending to a
In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer demonstrates many themes such as lust, greed, and poverty. During the Canterbury tales the travelers the author himself is in the tale and he describes every character in detail. Most importantly in The Wife of Bath there is numerous examples of poverty. Thought out the tale Chaucer introduces to us a man who couldn’t control himself because of lust. As a result, he gets punished by the queen.
The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is an older book containing a entertaining storytelling contest between a group of pilgrims on a pilgrimage. The pilgrims, on their pilgrimage, venture from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas á Becket. During their pilgrimage, the Host introduces the idea of a storytelling contest. He claims the trip to the shrine of Saint Thomas á Becket will be boring to travel in silence. The Host lays out the plan of each pilgrim telling two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back from their adventure. Upon their return, the winner, decided by the Host for the most entertaining and meaningful tale, will receive a meal paid by the rest of the pilgrims. At his own cost, the Host guides the group of pilgrims, while the pilgrims pay for their adventure. To decide who starts the contest off, the members draw straws. The admired Knight is up first.
In the Fictions of Satire, Ronald Paulson talks about the four ways satire works. It implies corruption, the consequences of it, motivates the reader to make a moral decision, and operates as a corrective (Paulson). It also talks about the difference between Horatian and Juvenalian satire. These different types of satire are used to give different emotions in a story. An example of Horatian satire would be The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer and an example of Juvenalian would be “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift. No matter if a satire is Horatian or Juvenalian, the ultimate goal of a satire is to put humor in a story, while pointing out flaws in society and
Another trait that is displayed by the Pardoner and a character in his tale is hypocrisy. Although the Pardoner is extremely greedy, he continues to try and teach that "Avarice is the root of all evil" (6). The characters in his tale display great hypocrisy as well. As the tale begins, the friends all act very trustworthy and faithful towards all of their friends. They nobly make a decision to risk their lives while trying to slay their friend's murderer. As they talk about their challenge, they pledge "to live and die each of them for the other, / As if he were his own blood brother" (241-242). At the end of the tale, the "brothers" begin to reveal their true nature. They all turn on each other in an attempt to steal the treasure for themselves.
Looking back through many historical time periods, people are able to observe the fact that women were generally discriminated against and oppressed in almost any society. However, these periods also came with women that defied the stereotype of their sex. They spoke out against this discrimination with a great amount of intelligence and strength with almost no fear of the harsh consequences that could be laid out by the men of their time. During the Medieval era, religion played a major role in the shaping of this pessimistic viewpoint about women. The common belief of the patriarchal-based society was that women were direct descendants of Eve from The Bible; therefore, they were responsible for the fall of mankind. All of Eve’s characteristics from the biblical story were believed to be the same traits of medieval women. Of course, this did not come without argument. Two medieval women worked to defy the female stereotype, the first being the fictional character called The Wife of Bath from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. The second woman, named Margery Kempe, was a real human being with the first English autobiography written about her called The Book of Margery Kempe. In these two texts, The Wife of Bath and Margery Kempe choose to act uniquely compared to other Christians in the medieval time period because of the way religion is interpreted by them. As a result, the women view themselves as having power and qualities that normal women of their society did not.
In “The Pardoner’s Tale,” Geoffrey Chaucer masterfully frames an informal homily. Through the use of verbal and situational irony, Chaucer is able to accentuate the moral characteristics of the Pardoner. The essence of the story is exemplified by the blatant discrepancy between the character of the storyteller and the message of his story. By analyzing this contrast, the reader can place himself in the mind of the Pardoner in order to account for his psychology.
The Pardoner’s Prologue/Tale begins with a sort of introduction, hence the title “Prologue”. It is here that we learn of the reaction that the Host gives after hearing the Physician’s Tale previously. The Host seems to be so shocked at the death of the young Roman girl in the tale that he asks the Pardoner to tell the group a merrier, more farcical tale. After some time, the Pardoner is ready to present his tale, including both moral interjection and a merrier tone. The Pardoner begins by describing a group of young Flemish people who spend their time drinking and indulging themselves in all forms of excess. He continues to tell the tale, in which the people eventually end up drinking posioned wine and all die. As is, there are more details in the tale that we did not go over there are some key elements that help us to better understand the Pardoner upon hearing his tale. First of all, we know from The General Prologue that the Pardoner is just as bad or corrupt as others in his “profession”. However, after hearing his tale it is quite shocking about his frankness about his own hypocrisy. We know that he bluntly accuses himself of fraud, avarice, and gluttony all things that he preaches against throughout this tale. It is in lines, 432-433 that the Pardoner states, “But that is nat my principal entente;/ I preche nothyng but for coveitise.” It is here that we truly begin to learn that The Pardoner’s Tale is merely an example of a story that is often used by preachers to emphasize a moral point to their audience. That is why, this tale in particular helps to comprehend Chaucer’s own opinions, and how he used satire to display
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 full 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.
One of the people’s traits affected by human nature in many stories is greed. As shown throughout, greed is an evil sin. This is especially obvious in the Pardoner’s Tale, where the Pardoner, a church-appointed official who collects gold for absolving people their sins, tells about the evils of money. In the story, three friends, who wanted to make the world better by killing death, find gold, and unwilling to share, start planning to kill each other. Two friends sent the third to bring them food and wanted to kill him after he came back. The victim, however, also wanted the money, and poisoned their drinks. As a result, all three friends die. “Thus were these two homicides finished,/ and the false poisoner too.” (Chaucer 365). Even though Chaucer’s conclusions are not expressed and actually are very different from what the Pardoner says, Chaucer manages to convey h...
In both the Miller’s Tale and the Wife of Bath’s Tale, Chaucer uses his characters and stories in order to project various stereotypes to the reader. Although varying a tad bit throughout the book, the tone that seems to be drawn from the stories is that women are manipulating, sinful, and power hungry, while men are considered gullible and rash. Its through understand and analyzing these stereotypes that we can fully understand what Chaucer’s stories are trying to convey to us.
“The Manciple’s Prologue” and “The Manciple’s Tale” are elements from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales is a succession of stories told by pilgrims traveling to the location of Saint Thomas Becket’s assassination. The site of this assassination is located at the Cathedral in Canterbury. The Canterbury Tales were written through the hand of Geoffrey Chaucer, who is a civil servant placed within the tales. These imaginary pilgrims each tell their tales to pass the time on this never-ending journey to Canterbury.
Would “The Miller’s Tale” and “The Reeve’s Tale” hold first place over “The Man of Law’s Tale”? The author, Geoffrey Chaucer, was born circa 1340 on an exact date that is unknown. He wrote many great pieces of work prior to his passing, with the famous Canterbury Tales being written between 1387 and 1400. The Canterbury Tales were written as a frame story, including a multitude of short stories contributing to its plot. Unfortunately, Chaucer passed away in October of 1400 before he had the opportunity to finish the tales. The tales that he wrote were for a storytelling contest on the characters’ way to Canterbury. To win this contest, one’s tale had to be morally sound and entertaining. Between The Miller and The Reeve vs. The Man of Law, “The Man of Law’s Tale” would win, because his story was morally sound as well as entertaining, whereas both “The Miller’s Tale” and “The Reeve’s Tale” lacked good, pure morality, though they were comedic.
“The Canterbury Tales” authored Geoffrey Chaucer lead to the live action adaptation of “A Knight’s Tale”, which is single fable told by a character within the events of story. While both are based on the same fable, there are surprising some major differences. During the reading of “The Canterbury Tales”, “The Prologue” and “The Pardoner’s Tale” also contain many similarities and differences. When read these three parts of “The Canterbury Tales,” it is important to understand the structure and events of the story. The scene is set when several pilgrim are on a trip to Canterbury.
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 Church is the first institution that Chaucer attacks using satire in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer wants to attack the church’s hypocrisy. Chaucer decides to create the character of the pardoner to prove his point. Cawthorne conveys, “His Canterbury Tales collects together 24 narratives with a General Prologue and an epilogue or Retraction.” Chaucer describes the character before telling their tale. The Pardoner is a man who steals from the poor. Chaucer says on page 127 line 77, “For though I am a wholly vicious man don’t think I can’t tell moral tales.” The pardoner knows what he does is wrong, but he continues to do it anyway.