Geoffrey Robertson

The Wife of Bath’s and The Pardoner’s tales are both part of the Canterbury Tales. In many ways these two stories are similar in what they talk about. In The Wife of Bath we are given a story about a knight that is attempting to save his life after he raped a woman and was sentenced to die unless he can answer one question about women. In The Pardoner’s Tale there are three guys who are all trying to steal the treasure all three found. In The Pardoner’s Tale the men do not know it but they are…

‘The Summoner’s tale’ and ‘The Pardoner’s tale’ of the Canterbury Tales: Deception in language The Summoner, Friar and Pardoner use deception in their language to deceive the pilgrims. The Oxford English Dictionary (2014a) defines deception as “deliberately causing someone to believe something that is not true, especially for personal gain.” Both ‘The Summoner’s Tale’ and ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’ of the Canterbury Tales question the truthfulness of language. This essay will argue how the language…

While both the Pardoner’s and the Wife of Bath’s prologues contain elements of hypocrisy, Chaucer's effective use of these contradictions sets the two characters apart. Using irony in the Pardoner's tale, Chaucer emphasizes the church’s deceitfulness, but oppositely, he uses irony in the Wife of Bath’s tale to celebrate her complexity and depth, showing how women are more complicated than typically portrayed. The Pardonner, a master in creating elaborate sermons that can convince people to buy…

In his famous frame narrative, The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer satirizes the thirty pilgrims on their pilgrimage using a story within a story. The thirty pilgrims consist of a cross-section of fourteenth century England, including aristocrats, clergy, middle class, trade class, and the peasants and omitting only royalty and serfs. They congregate at the Tabard Inn, Southwark, directly outside of London, and make their journey to their final destination, Saint Thomas Becket’s shrine in…

Geoffrey Chaucer uses the threefold narrative frame in The Canterbury Tales to provide his own personal reactions on each character and the stories they tell. With this narrative frame, Chaucer has both characters, the Pardoner and the Wife of Bath, represent a more general commentary on society, not only having an opinion on each pilgrim, but also having a strong critique on the society in which the pilgrims preside. Both the Pardoner’s and the Wife of Bath’s prologues is similar, containing…

Marriage: The Canterbury Tales We read and analyze The Canterbury Tales as if they are isolated individual stories. Yet the lively dialogue is what interconnects each character’s story into a whole comedic affect. It’s interesting to point out that each of the characters are tied into one common theme: marriage. Painting the words he wants to each character to speak, Chaucer displays a critical view on marriage. From each tale the common theme specifically tied to marriage, Chaucer points out…

The Canterbury Tales gives the reader a brief series of tales that were told throughout the Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer. What most appeared to stick out was how power was established through some of these tales, but most particularly in the tale of The Wife of Bath. The Wife of Bath’s tale is narrated by the Wife Of Bath herself, a headstrong bold women. She expounded about good King Arthur’s days which became her tale. Power was used against others throughout the tales in unhealthy…

In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer describing the characters in the opposite way they are in normal society. The knight, King, and women are all in roles that are opposite to what these characters are known for. Chaucer shows his support of feminist ideas by the knight taking advantage of the maiden, the king giving the right to punish the knight to the queen, and letting the old hag about her and the knights future. The main character in “The Wife of Bath” was a knight who took advantage of…

The Pardoner sells his wares by targeting the common people’s religious and social fears of being excluded or persecuted and advertising that only the goods he possesses can save them. When the Pardoner enters a village he: show[s] them [his] bulls in detail and in sum. And flaunt[s] the papal seal for their inspection As warrant for [his] bodily protection, That none may have the impudence to irk Or hinder [him] in Christ’s most holy work. Then [he] tell[s] stories, as occasion calls, Showing…

Before Cinderella and before The Beauty and the Beast, there was The Miller’s Tale. The Miller's Tale is a famous and humorous story from Chaucer's collective works of The Canterbury Tales. The tale is told by the Miller, and it is about a carpenter and his wife and a series of events that leads to the embarrassment of himself, as well as his wife being stolen from him. Although the tale is humorous in nature, this is not the only purpose that it serves in The Canterbury Tales. The Miller's…