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The Canterbury Tales By Geoffrey Chaucer By Hang Chun Ke |Summary|Quotes|Character Analysis|Theme Analysis|Creative Writing|Letter to Author|Literary Connections| Illustration|Bibliography|Quiz|
The Knight's Tale The tale happened in Athens . It was the first tale of the pilgrimage that began with the of lord of the Athens named Theseus who married the queen of Scythia, Hippolyta before returning her back to Athens to her sister Emily. As he returned home, many women in black begged him for pity because all of the women lost their husbands at Thebes . The lord of Thebes , Creon , refused to bury the dead bodies. Theseus then declared vengeance upon Creon and ordered troops to go the Thebes to fight. While, they were fighting, Theseus imprisoned two royal cousins named Palamon and Arcite for life. While in prison, both fell in love with Emily. They argued and quarreled over who wanted Emily more. After they were freed from prison, they battled to determine whom will gain Emily's hand and marriage. Arcite's aid took down Palamon and pierced him with a sword. Palamon was almost saved by his aid, when they are both wounded. They declared Arcite the winner. As Arcite was declared athe winner, a large earthquake trembled the grounds, frigging the horse Aecite was upon, and throwing him off. Arcite was killed fall. Before he died, he told Emily that her future husband Palamon was the most worth man she could marry. The Tale of Melibeus The Tale of Melibeus was so popular in the middle Ages. This is not so much a tale, they called it a “treatise” that is written in prose and not completed. This relates to great philosophical minds of the past and is a detailed of the moralistic story of Melibeus . A rich young man called Melibeus married the dutiful Prudence and had a daughter Sophie. While Melibeus was away from home three of his enemies broke into his house and beat up his wife and daughter, leaving the latter for dead. His daughter Sophie was murdered. Melibeus cried for his daughter and declared his revenge on her attackers. He did not trust his wife Prudence's advices. Eventually, he listened and agreed to Prudence's moralistic actions. Prudence arranged a peace treatise between Melibeu and his enemies. Melibeu didn't quite grasp the meaning behind Prudence's philosophical words. In the end Melibeus forgave them completely. The Franklin 's Tale The tale opens with a wonderful and cheerful weeding. Unfortunately, the happiness was dismissed soon after their marriage. Ariviragus , Dorigen's husband was sent away to work for two years. Ariviragus continued to send letter to her. Dorigen kept looking at the ocean hoped that one of the ships would bring back her beloved husband. However, she became worried that rocks on the shore would destroy her husband's ship upon return. Dorigen and her friends had garden parties, in which they invited singers and squires, including the young, Aurelius, who had been loved with Dorgen since her arrival in Brittany . Aurelius decalred his love for Dorigen and she agreed to become his lover if he could rescue rocks near the shore that could endanger the incoming ships that contain Arvirigus . Finally, Aurelius was succeeding by law student assistance. When he came back Dorigen who told the events that occurred during his absence: that she must marry Aurelius because of her promise to him to save Arviragus from the near the shore. She must do in order to fulfill her promise. Aurelius is so beguiled by Arviragus's honor and lets Dorigen go free without fulfilling the promise. The law student did not force him to pay debt because ofhis great respect and honor for his deed. The Wife of Bath 's Tale The Wife of Bath returns to the Arthurian times of fairy queens and tell her story. On one day, one of King Arthur's knights found a maiden walking alone, and raped her. In that time, the crime of rape usually was penalized to death. However, the queen begged the king to save his life if he could answer her question. The question was “What do women desire? The queen gave him one year to find the answer before he lost his life. The knight began his journey to discover what women desire, but could find no satisfactory answers was told wealth, status, sexual performance, happiness and other answers. Before he gave up, he met an old woman who agreed to tell him the answer if he would marry her. Then, he returned to the queen gave that answer, which turned out to be the correct response. Now, the he is forced to marry to this ugly old lady. However, the old lady gave him a choice he can marry her, ugly old woman who is kind and devoted, or young, beautiful maiden with independence. He chose to free the woman and proceeded to kiss her old body. When they kiss the old lady turned into a beautiful young lady. Aftermath, they lived happily and devoted to one another. The Clerk's Tale The Clerk's tale opens with an extensive description of the Italian in a mountain called Saluzzo . There lived a marquis named Walther was refused to marry until his townspeople convinced him to do so condition. He wanted to choose his own wife and everyone must treat her as high esteem as an emperor's daughter, despite her class wealth. One day while hunting, Walter met Griselde , the daughter of Janicula , and realized that he had found his wife. After they are married and Griselde's virtue spread throughout Saluzzo , as she gave birth to a girl. Soon after the child's birth Walter started planning to test his wife's loyalty to him. Walter sent the child away. She would agree to its death only if it would please him and gave up all rights to her motherhood. He continued to test his wife's loyalty. He declared that he is going to take a new wife. Griselde , once again, accepted her fate and protested her love for marquis, solely question her dignity up exodus from the palace. Walter returned her home with her father, naked and embarrassed. At the end, his new wife was more fair and virtuous than every Walther then revealed the truth. Finally, Griselde returned to the palace as Walter's wife and the two children returned to their original parents, where the family now treated each other with respect and kindness. The Nun's Priest's Tale The tale is about an old woman who kept a small farm with many animals, including rooster named Chanticleer. One day, during Chanticleer sleep he groaned and dreamed that a large yellow dog chased him. Chanticleer told the dream to Pertelote , he said chanticleer's cowardly behavior and said that dreams are nothing but meaningless visions brought upon by ill and bad health. However, Chanticleer believed dreams and her death comes through a companion's dream of a murder where the vision body was taken away. One day, unfortunately she went out to search for herbs, where a fox grabs her and Pertelote squawked loudly. He hoped that the old woman who can save Chanticleer. At the end of the tale everyone is alive. The Pardoner's Tale In Flanders , a group of three men did noting but engage in riotous irresponsible behavior. One night is a tavern they saw a young man in front of his friend's grave and said that his friend was slain by a thief named Death. Death has killed thousands and these three men vow to slay Death. As they began their journey to slay Death, come across an old man who claimed that they will find Death himself in a nearby tree. However, they found a bushel of gold under the tree instead of Death and agreed to divide it equally amongst themselves. They planned to stay in the forest and not being robbers again. As the third man went into the town to procure food and drink for the three. The two remained men decided to kill the third upon his return so that they could split money in to, instead of three. While the third man was in town, he bought poison for the wine bottle, which he planned to give to the others so that he could keep the money for himself. When he came back, two men stabbed him and drinking the wine killed two men. All three men died. The Summoner's Tale In Holderness, a marshy part of Yorkshire , a friar begged for donations to the church and later from the local resident charity. The friar went to Thomas, a local resident's house, who told him that their child was died two weeks ago. The friar told them that he had a vision that their child had died and gone to heaven, as did his fellow friars. These men have special powers that allow them to live richly spiritually on earth. Thomas's illness Persists, he says, because he dose not give enough money to the Church. The friar told the king that he had sentenced three men wrong. However, the king sentenced all three to death. The friar was doing things in purpose of collecting donation. At the end of the tale Thomas farted on the friar's hand and the servants chase him away. Furious, the friar found that of the manor upon exit and complained that Thomas's gift was supported to be divided equally. The lord responded that he frat would be equally split among all deserving monks. The Canon Yeoman's Tale The tale begins with a priest in London who visited by a false clerk requesting a loan. The loan was repaid within two days and the clerk desires to illustrate his method of repayment. The priest could not believe the avarice involved in such an action. He told his servant to gather three ounces of quicksilver coal. The priest then exchanges the fake silver for real gold and he promised to never reveal the unlawful method.
The Knight's Tale Both royal cousins Arcite and Palamon are good men, which cannot be found in modern society. Love the most efficient medicine to provide human beings energy. Arcite was a brave, wisdom, and generous man. He had the coverage and persistence to purse his love without dismay until last minute. Their battles of gaining the happiness were fair and friendly. Arcite wanted to show his love to Emily is greater his cousin Palamon . He was merciful enough by saving Palamon during his battle. When he was almost died, he told Emily that her future husband Palamon , was the most worthy man she could marry. This reveals that Arcite was a generous man. The Tale of Melibeus Melibeus is a man who did not really trust woman's advices because he said he it is the danger of following female advice. Also, it would seem that he had yielded his authority to women. Actually, he is sane man because he knew how to accept other people's authority by his own critical thinking. Also, he is a broadminded man because he solved the problem with his enemies who murdered his daughter. Eventually, he forgave them completely. The Franklin 's Tale In this tale I like all the characters because they display a scene of how to be an honorable and desirous person. However, to me her husband's honor is the most admirable. His love to his wife is so deep. He sends her wife instead to escape his wife's promise with Aurelius of saving him from the shore. The Wife of Bath 's Tale I like the character, old lady in this tale the most. She was a vitreous, generous, and charitable lady. She knew how to find her true love, which is forever. When she met the knight she was an old and ugly old woman. She forced the knight to marry her by telling him the answer what do women desire. However, she did not force him. She gave him the choice he can marry her, an ugly old woman who is kind and devoted, or young, beautiful maiden with independence. Eventually, he chose to stay and marry with marry. I like her way of finding her true man and love. She was the one who really knows what love exactly is and how to preserve marriage. The Clerk's Tale Walter was a loyal man. His tests to his wife revealed that he wanted the same loyalty from his wife. However, I think Walter was too cruel to test his wife. It seemed that he was extremely concerned about loyalty. This kind of extreme is not necessary. Extreme harms people. The Nun's Priest's Tale A pretty rooster named Chanticleer's dream is the only issue in the tale. In my own opinion I don't believe dreams. However, she believed in her dreams. She was afraid that a vision body that has appeared would kill her in her dreams. Base on her belief in dream I think she was not a sane rooster. The Pardoner's Tale These three men are all evil and greedy. They are not the people who only live with money for the purpose of life. They can kill their friends for money without considering their friendship. We cannot learn this bad behavior from them. Actually, money is not the most important thing in life. The Summoner's Tale The friar is s liar. He said that all friars have special powers to allow people to live richly spiritually on the earth. I don't like this friar's speech because it is unbelievable. He only wants to collect donation. He is also a greedy man. The Canon Yeoman's Tale In this tale the character priest gave me a deep impression of the religion. His behavior of using unlawful method to make gold to in order to repay the loan awaked me to stop believing in those priests without doubts. I am wondering how a priest can make mistakes. However, he is also a good priest because he has regretted of his behavior. To admit one's fault is courageous.
The Knight's Tale The theme of the tale tells us that love solves all conflicts and hate. It is the most powerful energy on the earth. The term of love is difficult to define and understand. Also, Arcite's generosity toward his cousin, Palamon is admirable. Actually love is giving and possessing. We need love to continue our life. I think people who are selfish they have lost a lot of happiness when they are lived on the earth. On the other hand, people who are generous and charitable are more likely to receive the wonderful things on the earth. In other word, it means that these are their reward. In the modem society it is hard to find these kinds of people. Tale of Melibeus The tale tells us that all the problems exist around us can be solved throughout our sane management and decisions. When problem starts we need to find out the way of solving problem instead of blaming others. People who like to blame others and push responsibility to others are the losers of the society because they are lack of ability to handle their responsibilities as others do. The Franklin 's Tale This is a wonderful and terrific tale, which tells us how to be an honorable and generous people and the exact definition of honor. Actually, we should treat others as the ways that we wanted to be treated. Also, our behaviors affect other's treatment toward us. In our daily life, we can discover that each person has its own life style and personality trait. It is hard to control the weakness of human beings. A lot of people they are not honorable. They are the black horse of the society. They treat others badly without considering others feeling. However, those people are honorable and just don't have the power to make theses people gone. The Wife of Bath 's Tale The Wife of Bath's Tale comes out with a moral that allows Christ to grant all women submission husbands who will always satisfy them sexually in bed. However, I think marriage is not only focus on sexuality, but also, in psycho logicality and mental. Marriage forms when love is crystallized we symbolize marriage as diamond, which it preserves forever and never decay. In my opinion, I think love is unconstitutional. The Clerk's Tale The Clerk tells us that the moral to his tale lies in the fact that he would be all women should be as steadfast and loyal as Griselde . However, to be Griselde is not easy. They have to suffer necessarily to the extent the Griselde did over with Walter. It makes me think that living on the earth is not easy and to be a loyal person is even harder. I don't understand what is the purpose of life and how can people leave alone sadness. Why can we have a peaceful and happy life? Also, who can answer this question? The Nun's Priest's Tale This tale is focus on dreams. I think dreams happened due to people's ill and bad health. They are just visual not related to out daily life. However, in this tale the event in the rooster, Chanticleer's dreams do happen to her. This happens is by chance. There is no clue to find out weather dream is true of not. The Pardoner's Tale Avarice makes people lose their justice, integrity, and honest. Money is a bad thing to chastise people to do irresponsible behavior. The pardoner interjects into his tale at this point preaching against avarice. He them plans to sell his fake relics to the rest to the pilgrims illustrating avarice at its best. The Summoner's Tale This tale tells us that not all friars are believable. Even though they are the servers of the god they are human beings. If they are human beings they have the negative and ugly side of human behavior. This is an ugly behavior to use the god's name to lie believers' money. The Canon Yeoman's Tale The theme of this tale makes me understood that none of human beings is perfect and pure even they are served for god. However, this priest has regretted of doing that. The weakness of human beings is extremely difficult to overcome.
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is illustrating the different aspects of moral throughout its tales. Those morals are Christianity, loyalty, sexuality, avarice, and violence. The one of the most interested tale is The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale. This tale is about a woman who expresses her own feeling as a woman who has been married with five men. The following is the short play to describe how modern people would react in her marriage. Person A: What are love and marriage? Person B: Oh, god! Why you are asking such stupid question? It is as simple as one two three. You love one person and then marry with her of him. Person A: Ok, good, so do you know how many men or women can we with marry with in our whole life which is allowed by god and accepted by people? Ha, ha, now your pure and stupid not the question itself. (Wife of Bath is walking approach to these two people) Wife of Bath : I can answer this question. People can have wives and husbands as many as they needed. Jesus never explicitly stated any laws about virginity, and that people have body parts for sex and should use them accordingly. (Person A and Person B's eyes are frozen and looking at the Wife of Bath's face. Then Person talks to Person B) Person A: Oh! What kind of person is she? I am wondering what makes her to say that. Person B: Yes, I think we should be loyal and devoted only to one lover in our life even the person died. Person A: God, I am not sure. (The Wife of Bath tells these two people proudly and openly about her multiple experiences with marriage.) Wife of Bath : This is normal, I have been married with five men and now I will welcome a sixth husband. The people died all of things are gone. However, people who still alive on the earth need to be continued. Person A: Well, your right I agree with your point of marriage and life. However, not everyone can accept your point. Person B: Yeah. Do you think you are violating the basic moral? Wife of Bath : I am using the supposed lines from Bible to support my actions, proving them are lawful.
Dear Geoffrey Chaucer: Your work of the Canterbury Tales is impressed to me. As a modern reader I am curious of knowing the morale of the past. Are they similar or differ from the modern society. Actually, as I read alone the tales I discovered those morals are even come with more deep meaning than the modern's. My favorite one moral is from the Franklin 's Tale. It tells us how to treat others as the ways that we want to be treated. Be honorable to your family members, friends, and the people who you are contacting with. I hope everyone in the society can learn the virtue of this moral. If all people do so, therefore, the number of evils in the society has been reduced. Furthermore, a woman in the Wife of Bath's Tale tells her multiple experiences of marriage proudly and openly. Her expressions of her feeling of marriage make me to be optimistic. She said when people are died are things are being gone automatically. People who are still live need to be rekindle and strong to continue live in order to have courage to face future challenges of life. After I read your whole book tales I being notice that suffer of life is endless. It begins since a person is born until she or he is died. From the past to present, all the people on the earth are keeping trying to learn morals to teach themselves and influence others through their positive behavior. The nature of human beings is unchangeable. I am glad that I have finished reading these valuable tales. The book guided me to have a precious experience of real life. Sincerely yours, Hang Chun Ke
In what ways dose the literary work you read extol the morale of the society? Describe the morale of the society and select examples form the book to illustrate such moral. God created a wonderful world for people to live in happiness and peace. However, god also created a wake nature of human beings. Wonderful things are destroyed by the negative side and ugly behavior of the nature of human beings. Actually, who knows what cause the suffering of life. Life includes four major branches kindness, evil, death, and life. These four branches of life produce a complexity of society. The Canterbury Tales illustrate different aspects of moral which exist in society The Franklin 's Tale tells us how to be an honorable and generous people and the exact definition of honor. Actually, we should treat others as the ways that we want to be treated. Also, our behaviors affect other's treatment toward us. In our daily life, we can discover that each person has its own life style and personality trait. It is hard to control the weakness of human beings. A lot of people they are not honorable. They are the black horse of the society. They treat others badly without considering others feeling. However, those people are honorable and just don't have the power to make theses people gone. In our modern society, true friendship makes people to be faithful to one another. We assist and comfort our friends who are depressed and in trouble. This is the way that the moral of the tale tells us to behave. It is beneficial to everyone in society. People who are selfish are automatically losing this kind of love. They lose its valuable love without forcing by others, but are by their selfish behavior.
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