Analysis Of The Nun Priest's Tale

The Nun’s Priest’s tale is about a proud rooster and his hen wives living on a poor widow’s farm. The roosters name is Chanticleer and he is both a talented and proud rooster with an excellent crowing ability. He has seven wives, but his dearest is Perelote. One night, Chanticleer awakens from a terrible dream of being attacked by a red, hound-like creature. When he voices his concerns to Pertelote, she chastises him for being so fearful, and says that she should not place such truth in dreams. He disagrees and cites several historical tales of those who have met with misfortune on account of disregarding their prophetic dreams. Still, Pertelote convinces him to move on, and he does. The following month, Chanticleer is walking in the yard admiring …show more content…
It is simply a confession. He says that he once had good clothes and a good living, and that he and the Canon are alchemists. He says that he is in debt because their attempts at alchemy always fail. He explains their job, their failed attempts, and their search for the Philosopher’s stone. The Yeoman tells of the four spirits (substances which are easily evaporated by heat) and the seven metals, which in medieval alchemy, were an almost ancestor to the periodic table. He says that anybody who ever studies alchemy will never gain anything from it no matter how much they study the terms. He turns to God and says that even though He had given him hope, they were not successful. He reminds the listeners that alchemists are liars. He tells some of the reactions that the metals produce, and says that when a pot shatters, even if some of the metal has survived, his master starts over, despite the money that the money that the people spent to buy the goods. Finally, the narrator claims that nothing is what it seems. Some examples are: apples which look nice are not good, men that seem the wisest are the most foolish, and the man who seems most trustworthy is a thief. The resolution is when the less valuable objects "magically" turn into the more valuable objects and the priest is pleased. Yeoman’s tale tells of a Canon whose never-ending lies and sneakiness cannot be written. He makes anyone he communicates with behave foolishly, and yet people ride for miles to meet him, not knowing or suspecting that he is a fraud. The narrator then makes a small interruption to apologize to canons in general, claiming that his tale is about just one bad canon, but is not about all canons, just as Judas was the one traitor among the apostles. The story begins in London, with a priest who sung masses for the dead. One day he was visited by the fraud Canon, who begged him to lend him a certain amount of gold. The priest agreed,