The Canterbury Tales: Pilgrims and their Tales

by | Jun 8, 2024 | literature

a) Choose three of the four pilgrims you were assigned to read for this class (DO NOT CHOOSE PILGRIMS THAT WERE NOT ASSIGNED). For your essay, look at the General Prologue description of each of your chosen pilgyims, and discuss how each tale ‘suits’ its teller, using the general prologue description of each teller as as your point of reference. Remember that the General Prologue is at the beginning of the Canterbury Tales You read it first. and it contains Chaucer’s descriptions of most of the pilgrims. Don’t confuse the General Prologue with the prologues to each tale.
Some further help in explaining the prompt:
For your essay took at the General Prologue description of each of your chosen pilgrims.
Remember that there are different prologues you are responsible for reading. The General Prologue, which you are responsible for reading before any of the tales, Is different f rom the Wife of Bath’s Prologue totter tale, which occursjust before she tells her stocyot the rapist knIght.So if you choose the Wife of Bath apart of your answer to this prompt. you would go to the General Prologue and find the description of the Wife of Bath. Then you would go to the tate/twit
Discuss how each tale ‘suits’ its teller, using the general prologue description o feach teller as as your point of reference.

How does the Wife of Bath’s Tale about the rapist knight suit the description of her in the General Prologue? For each of your paragraphs (one on each pilgrim you have chosen). refer first to the General Prologue description of their character.and what that General Prologue description seems to indicate about their personality. If you were about to discuss the Wife of Bath, you would first situate that discussion within the General Prologue description of her, whkh begins on line 445 of the General Prologue. Then you would look to her tale. Follow this with discussions of your other two pilgrim choices.
b) The Miller and the Reeve have been cal led the ‘Jekyll and Hyde of the fabliaux. By this it is meant that the Miller and his talc arc more genial.affable and attuned to beauty. and the Reeve (and his tale) are meanspirited and ugly. Support this positionwithevidence from their prologues (NOT the General Prologue!) and their talcs.

 

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

Sample Answer

Sample Answer

 

The Canterbury Tales: Pilgrims and their Tales

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales,” the General Prologue provides vivid descriptions of the pilgrims, shedding light on their personalities and characteristics. Each pilgrim’s tale is believed to be reflective of their own traits, making the storytelling a personalized and revealing experience. Let’s delve into how the tales of the Wife of Bath, the Miller, and the Reeve align with their respective characters as described in the General Prologue.

The Wife of Bath: Tale of the Rapist Knight

Described as a bold, experienced woman who has been married five times, the Wife of Bath in the General Prologue exudes confidence and a strong sense of independence. Her tale of the rapist knight who must uncover what women truly desire aligns with her own assertiveness and unapologetic nature. The tale delves into themes of power dynamics, gender roles, and relationships, reflecting the Wife of Bath’s own experiences and beliefs about love and marriage.

The Wife of Bath’s willingness to challenge societal norms and assert her own desires mirrors the boldness and resilience she displays in her tale. Her narrative serves as a platform for exploring complex issues related to gender, sexuality, and autonomy, echoing the multifaceted personality depicted in the General Prologue.

The Miller: Tale of Deception and Revenge

In contrast to the Wife of Bath’s boldness, the Miller is portrayed in the General Prologue as a boisterous and crude individual, known for his penchant for bawdy humor and disruptive behavior. His tale of deception and revenge, where a carpenter is cuckolded by a young scholar and his lover, reflects the Miller’s own coarse nature and inclination towards mischief.

The Miller’s tale is characterized by its irreverence and vulgarity, mirroring his own disruptive presence among the pilgrims. Through a narrative filled with trickery and betrayal, the Miller showcases his fondness for subverting expectations and challenging conventional morality, embodying the mischievous spirit hinted at in his General Prologue description.

The Reeve: Tale of Retribution and Humiliation

Similar to the Miller, the Reeve is depicted in the General Prologue as a stern and vengeful figure, known for his shrewdness and meticulous nature. His tale of retribution and humiliation, where two students outwit a dishonest miller, reflects the Reeve’s own cunning and desire for justice. The narrative unfolds with a sense of irony and poetic justice, highlighting the Reeve’s keen eye for deception and his desire to uphold fairness.

Through his tale of clever manipulation and comeuppance, the Reeve showcases his talent for strategy and calculation, embodying the calculating nature hinted at in his General Prologue portrayal. The themes of retribution and deceit in his narrative resonate with the Reeve’s own persona as a vigilant and exacting individual.

In conclusion, Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” masterfully intertwines the personalities of the pilgrims with their respective tales, creating a rich tapestry of human experiences and perspectives. By examining how the Wife of Bath, the Miller, and the Reeve’s tales align with their characters as described in the General Prologue, we gain deeper insights into the complexities of human nature and storytelling artistry presented in this literary masterpiece.

 

 

 

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