Augustine of Canterbury

Critique of Chaucer’s Attack on Church Hypocrisy (An Understanding of Chaucer’s Attack on Church Hypocrisy) Within Geoffrey Chaucer’s stories of, “Canterbury Tales,” he clearly explicates the negativity brought about by the hypocrisy of the church. While he proves, distinctly, that he is not against the church itself, he does show, on many occasions, how disgusted and furious he is about the greed and selfishness of the church. Before going into details about the story of the pardoner, the…

There are countless ways to tell a single story. The Wife of Bath in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales has been heavily debated for its supposed genre: is the prologue a sermon or an autobiography, an exemplum, or perhaps something else? Analyzing the prologue leads to the most clear choice being a confession. Though it certainly borrows from other styles of writing, the Wife of Bath’s prologue is primarily a confession from the Wife. “People who study medieval stuff generally recognize the…

(introductory paragraph) No one quite knows what month, day, or even the exact year Chaucer was born, though it is quite probable he was born somewhere around 1340, likely in the early 1400’s. It is not a for sure thing, but evidence leads people to believe he was born in his parents house on Thames Street in London, England. He had no brothers or sisters; he was an only child. He was born into a bourgeois family. A bourgeois family is called middle class here and Victorian in England.…

In Chaucer’s “The Miller’s Tale”, besides love being of the most central idea of the story there are many forms shown in the plot. Some of the types of love in the story are romantic love, sensual love (stemmed from lust), religious love, and a form of love that falls more into the lines of admiration. Some of the representations of romantic love are first introduced when it is revealed Nicholas has “fallen in love” with Alison, and John’s feelings of romantic love for Alison, though it is…

A Knight’s Tale is about three friends who pursued the challenge of jousting after their master, Sir Ector, died. William Thatcher took his dead master’s armor and went on to win his first tournament. As William, Roland, and Wat went on to compete in many more tournaments, William meets Jocelyn and instantaneously falls in love with her. William Thatcher was born in the Cheapside borough of London in the early 1350’s. Even though he was not very wealthy, he had always dreamed of being a knight.…

The pardoner is a man with great knowledge of the church and a love for god. However how people looked at him it does not change the fact that the pardoner is an outcast. In brief the pardoner sells relics that are fake so that people touch to get rid of sins. The tale that the pardoner tells is about three men first walking past by their dead good friend that got killed but death. Thereafter the three men go on a quest to find death. In the Pardoner’s Tale, Chaucer uses personification by…

The stories “Federigo’s Falcon” by Giovanni Boccaccio in addition to “The Pardoner’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer are both frame stories written in the same era. Both authors’ place several themes in each work which are prevalent plus can be seen in today’s world in many aspects of life. But the theme that unites both authors along with their stories together would be that of the importance of a union. In “Federigo’s Falcon” and “The Pardoner’s Tale” both authors employ the element of irony to…

The major relationship between The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and the actual tale is that in both stories the women have dominance over their husbands, and whether coincidentally or not, the fifth husband and the knight have similar personalities. The fifth husband was abusive and had sexist and violent tendencies, much like the knight. Both characters had no respect for women in the beginning of their tales. But both men also realized that the only way they could be truly satisfied with their…

In “The Prologue” the knight is described as experienced, wise, noble, and courteous. Chaucher explicitly describes the knight as such in his description. The knight is mentioned as having taken his vows to follow all of the virtues of a knight, and it is never said that he breaks these vows. The knight is said to have fought in many battles for his sovereign state and his faith, and he is said to be high ranking. He is described at the end of the description as being a perfect, gentle knight.…

The Friar is a perfect example of a religious figure who fails to conduct their job and follow their vows in the correct manner. The Friar said that “he was qualified to hear confessions” (1.222), and that “he had special license from the Pope” (1.224). When the people confess to the Friar an easy penance is given, but only when “he could hope to make a decent living” (1.228). This means that in order to receive forgiveness by the Friar the confessor will have to give the Friar a nice gift, or a…