Geoffrey Robertson

The Canterbury Tales is one of Chaucer's most famous writing. He wrote this in Middle English. The characters in the story were to tell two stories when they were heading to Thomas A Becket’s shrine and when returning home. During this period, we are faced with various characters who represent a person or degree in society during Medieval Times. The Canterbury Tales in the Age of Chivalry shows how women are in power and control of their own lives by displaying how each character in the story…

The Underlying Satirical Message of The Canterbury Tales Written between 1387 and 1400, Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales have attracted the attention of historians and English scholars from all over. This satirical piece poses many questions and gives an interesting insight in the lives of 30 characters, many of which being employed by the church. Chaucer gives an ironic twist to many, if not all the characters of The Canterbury Tales. The narrator addresses each character by their occupation,…

The Canterbury Tales are the reflections of our contemporary society and why? Answer: INTRODUCTION: “The Canterbury Tales”, renowned and legendary poem of medieval age, is the collection of stories written in Heroic Couplet in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English Poetry and the greatest writer of 14th Century, got distinction among the medieval poets due to realism and the unique art of characterization which varies from character to character. His characters are…

During the life of Geoffrey Chaucer, he combiled many tales which are located in the well known Canterbury Tales. One could consider a large majority of these tales to be highly motivated by sexual desires. The Knight’s Tale, is focused on the desire for Emilye. The Franklyn’s Tale revolves around Dorigen’s varying ability to manage Aurelius and Averagus’ desire for her. However, even in this textual grouping, Chaucer’s fabliaux stand apart. In the Reeve’s Tale Aleyn, John and Symkin…

In the Canterbury Tales, the reader is quickly introduced to the game of the host. The Host’s game takes place during the pilgrims’ journey to see the shrine of Thomas A. Becket, and involves each pilgrim telling their own tale in any manner they would like to give. The first tale presented to the host is the Knight’s tale. A noble tale about a wise king. Another tale offered to the host is the Pardoner’s tale. This tale was much more obscure and would require the listener to pay a much closer…

The Pardoner in the Pardoner’s tale represents one of the lowest members in society. He sells religious relicts and pardons wrongs committed. He represents the corruption in the church for he only focused on profiting rather than the spiritual aspect of his position. He tells the tale of three men who were spending the afternoon drinking when they hear about someone named Death who had killed thousands of people. Intoxicated and enraged by the news, the men set out to kill Death. On their quest…

Throughout the course of The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer introduces many characters with distinct traits to identify each role in this society. These characters are stereotypes of individuals who Chaucer encountered. All of these characters stand apart from one another; however, there are a few miniscule similarities between a few of the characters. Chaucer stereotypes the characters for the following reasons: to bring change to the current system, to easily visualize each character, and to…

The late 1300s were a period in the Medieval Ages where little physical advancement was achieved by European countries such as and not limited to, Britain. Nevertheless, this generation of people birthed many theological thought processes and debates. The vast majority of these religious topics consisted of a careful consideration of whether the church was necessary for a Christian pursuit of spiritual completeness and purity, which primarily resulted from the steady gaze of the common man upon…

Although the Canterbury tales is a satiric story about pilgrims, each character presents personality traits, appearances and tales that do not fit them in to absolute good or evil. However, instead of leaving the sinful characters to only be defined by their evil deeds, Chaucer manages to rationalize their deed to be a result of their nature. Giving them more of an amplified version of evil characteristics every human beings possesses. Through this rationale, Chaucer was able to show that no…

There is always a desire as a reader to be able to identify a hidden meaning in a tale or story, especially middle English literature. Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower were two famous authors of that time and conveniently wrote tales that seem to relate to each other in many ways, and are opposite in many ways as well. Both tales have knights being asked to make a choice, one that will affect their knighthood as well as their future. Both tales have an old hag challenging the morals of the…