Category: Canterbury Tales

Chaucer himself says as much towards the beginning and end of the poem that he tells us that he is looking at each of the pilgrims in terms of rank, clothing, physical and moral state and the person’s actual reason for being on thepilgrimage (‘estaat’, ‘array’ and ’cause’). A Knight there was, and that a…

Satirizing Religious Figures in Canterbury Tales In the general prologue of Canterbury Tales, the narrator introduces the reader to characters from different walks of life in the course of their pilgrimage to Canterbury. The narrator addresses key themes while describing each pilgrim: their appearance, their vocation, and small details or anecdotes pertaining to their personalities.…

The middle ages or Medieval times can be best described as the [footnoteRef:1]Age of Faith through the eyes of the church. Its stature and placement at the time, provides a clear understanding to its reputation of power and influence on society as a whole. [footnoteRef:2]For example, in a period of hardship, invasions and unpredictable political…

The Canterbury Tales was written in 1387 until 1400, following the death of the author- Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales was written in Middle English, being one of the first few works to be written in English, and is considered to be a framed story and narrative poem. The story takes place during the Medieval…

Bigotry in The Prioress Tales and General Prologue The description in The Prioress Tales is full of bigotry and depicts Prioress as a woman of dual character. In the General Prologue, Chaucer describes her as a polite, aristocratic, and godly nun but realistically, she is a bigot whose stories are full of anti-Semitic attitudes. The…

One significant author who demonstrates natural and effortless use of humorous satire is Geoffrey Chaucer as evident in his Canterbury Tales. As one reads along it becomes obvious that Chaucer is a great humorist who utilizes humor to confront the vices in the society in a refined manner and the stories remain vivid in the…

Creative response: You are producing the film version of The Canterbury Tales. Choose five characters and cast them with real-life actors (living or dead). Explain why the actor fits the role. Two or three sentences should suffice. As the director of the film production of the Canterbury Tales, I would begin to carefully look through…

Introduction: Unveiling the Wife of Bath Every Abril in fourteenth century England, everyone from the aristocrats to the peasant class, excluding the royals and serfs, was required by the Church to make a pilgrimage to a holy destination. In Georffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales, rife with satire, thirty pilgrims journey together to Saint Thomas Becket’s…

In Chaucer’s time, society had certain expectations of a monk, doctor, and summoner. All of these characters are thought to be courteous, honest, and intelligent however Chaucer depicts his characters as greedy, dishonest, and inappropriate. Throughout the tales, Chaucer finds humor in the difference between the ideal and the real in the characters that populate…

While reading The Canterbury Tales, its hard to not think about what made the author, Geoffrey Chaucer, write these various numbers of comical stories. Each story has an incredibly different theme to it and Chaucer never finished writing all of the stories like he had planned. After doing research, these stories seem to be strongly…