Draft - Sin of Pride in the Canterbury Tale Back to the fourteenth century, numbers do not only contain numerical values, but also symbolic meanings. Numerological symbolism plays an important role in medieval literature. Lucas Scott points out the significance of medieval people’s belief in numbers: “[medieval reader’s] treatment of numerological prognostication would be incomplete without a discussion of the link between letters and numbers. Medieval Christians explained many of their symbols in terms of numbers” (48).
In Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tale, three is one of the most potent symbolic number used: three women narrators (the Wife of Bath, the Prioress, and the second Nun), three gods (Mars, Venus, and Diana), three dimensions (heaven, earth, and hell) and the frequently used theme triangle romantic relationship (The Knight’s Tale, the Miller’s Tale, and the Franklin’s Tale, etc.). Some tales also make references to the symbolic meaning of seven: completeness, divine …show more content…
Frederick Tupper in his “Chaucer and the Seven Deadly Sins,” written in 1914, points out that no other “theme, religious or secular, was more widely popular than [this motif]” in his introduction. The most explicit and direct example of Chaucer mentioning seven deadly sins is the “Parson’s Tale.” Chaucer presents the sins from Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, to Lechery, which is the same order as other great medieval literary works such as John Gower’s “Confessio Amantis” and Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy.” However, the correspondence between tales and sins has not reached an agreement. For example, the general may suggest there are mention of Avarice in the Melibee’s Tale and Pride in the Second Nun’s Tale, while John Lowes suggests “We have, therefore, three Pride Tales in succession: the Monk's (Pride in general), the Nun's Priest's (Pride in its phase of Flattery), the Wife of Bath's (Pride as
In Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tale, three is one of the most potent symbolic number used: three women narrators (the Wife of Bath, the Prioress, and the second Nun), three gods (Mars, Venus, and Diana), three dimensions (heaven, earth, and hell) and the frequently used theme triangle romantic relationship (The Knight’s Tale, the Miller’s Tale, and the Franklin’s Tale, etc.). Some tales also make references to the symbolic meaning of seven: completeness, divine …show more content…
Frederick Tupper in his “Chaucer and the Seven Deadly Sins,” written in 1914, points out that no other “theme, religious or secular, was more widely popular than [this motif]” in his introduction. The most explicit and direct example of Chaucer mentioning seven deadly sins is the “Parson’s Tale.” Chaucer presents the sins from Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, to Lechery, which is the same order as other great medieval literary works such as John Gower’s “Confessio Amantis” and Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy.” However, the correspondence between tales and sins has not reached an agreement. For example, the general may suggest there are mention of Avarice in the Melibee’s Tale and Pride in the Second Nun’s Tale, while John Lowes suggests “We have, therefore, three Pride Tales in succession: the Monk's (Pride in general), the Nun's Priest's (Pride in its phase of Flattery), the Wife of Bath's (Pride as