The Canterbury Tales Essays

The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Knight’s Tale,” written apart from but included in his unfinished anthology <i>The Canterbury Tales</i>, is considered one of his greatest works. It could be at once a number of things: a dark meditation on...

The Canterbury Tales

Chaucer’s “General Prologue” to <i>The Canterbury Tales</i> explores the portraits of twenty-eight of the thirty pilgrims, all of whom are taking part in a trip to the shrine of the martyr Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury. The...

12th Grade

The Canterbury Tales

Chaucer’s Pardoner is hypocritical, selfish and unreliable despite his tacit desire to preach and encourage others to pursue a life free of blasphemy, gluttony and materialism. The Pardoner appears to be highly familiar with the Bible and the...

12th Grade

The Canterbury Tales

The character of the Pardoner in Chaucer’s ‘The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale’ is a controversial, ethically depraved character that, it could be said, represents corruption within the Catholic Church. As the narrator of the tale, however, he...

College

The Canterbury Tales

During the time Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales, men viewed women as the lesser of the two sexes. In writing about the wife of Bath, Chaucer draws upon much of the antifeminist sentiment of the time to satirize the idea that women are less than...

College

The Canterbury Tales

In the Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer presents two characters' conflicting views on marriage and whether or not marital happiness can be achieved. Both Franklin and the Wife of Bath emphasize the importance of power in a relationship, but...

The Canterbury Tales

Alison in "The Miller's Tale" is described as young and wild, like an animal: "Thereto she koude skippe and make game/ As any kyde or calf folwynge his dame", and we know that she would be willing to follow any idea as long as it is "fun". We...

The Canterbury Tales

Practice What You Preach, Pardoner

"The Pardoner's Tale," written by Geoffrey Chaucer, exhibits several qualities of life, as we know it today. In this story, Chaucer writes about a man who preaches to his audience for money. This man begins...

The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales presents the Wife of Bath as an honest woman in conflict with her society. “Honest” here takes on two meanings. It either implies that the Wife of Bath is a moral and Christian member of society or, more literally, that she in...

College

The Canterbury Tales

From corrupt politicians to Real Housewives of Orange County, symbols of hypocrisy in modern day society exude personas that are ripe for criticism. These symbols also exist in Geoffrey Chaucer’s prominent anthropological work The Canterbury...

College

The Canterbury Tales

During the Middle Ages in England, a tripartite society existed, consisting of three estates: the nobility, the clergy, and the workmen. This tripartite system is often referred to as “those who fight, those who pray, and those who work” because...

12th Grade

The Canterbury Tales

In the Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer portrays multiple unique personalities including a conniving, rebellious Monk who selfishly dismisses the church’s rule and lives greedily in his own world. Throughout the Monk’s tale, proof of his...

College

The Canterbury Tales

The character of Alison, who tells the tale of The Wife of Bath in Canterbury Tales, is one of the most complex and outspoken narrators written by Geoffrey Chaucer. Her confident and sarcastic remarks are especially controversial given the social...